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Mince Meat

A minced beef mixture with apples, currants, raisins, sugar, spices, wine, and cider, stored for later use.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grind the beef and suet together.

  2. Chop the apples and mix with currants and raisins.

Combine and store

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.

  2. Add sugar, spices, wine, and cider to taste.

  3. Mix thoroughly and store in a cool place.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Currant + cidertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together500 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Apple + winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,207 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Wine + cidertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together439 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the meaty body and rich savoury base of the mince.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the mixture moist and gives a rich mouthfeel.
Apples
Contribute moisture, tartness and bulk to the mixture.
Currants
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture from dried fruit.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture from dried fruit.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps preserve it.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, currant, sugar, wine, cider):

  1. Plumfits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Grapefits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, currant, sugar, wine, cider. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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