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Mince Meat

A savory dish of minced meat, suet, apples, raisins, and spices simmered and served with brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat and suet

  1. In a pot, cover the meat and suet with boiling water and cook the suet for about 30 minutes.

  2. Chop the meat and suet finely.

Combine and simmer

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chopped meat, suet, apples, raisins, other fruit, sugar, molasses, cider, and spices.

  2. Simmer the mixture for 2 hours.

Finish

  1. Once cool, stir in the brandy.

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. Cider + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Raisin + curranttop 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

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the mincemeat moist and rich in texture.
Apples
Provide bulk, moisture and tartness that balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture.
Raisins
Contribute chewy texture and concentrated fruit sweetness.
Molasses
Adds dark color and deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor, and helps preserve the finished mixture.

The step that matters

Stir in the brandy only once the mixture has cooled. Alcohol is volatile, so much of its aroma is lost when added to a very hot mixture. Waiting for it to cool helps the brandy's flavor remain noticeable in the finished mincemeat.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, apple, sugar, raisin, molasses, cider, brandy):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Pearfits about as well
  3. Vanillafits about as well
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, apple, sugar, raisin, molasses, cider, brandy. 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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