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Inexpensive Mince Meat

A spiced beef mince with apples, raisins, currants, molasses, suet, sugar, spices, cider, and citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Inexpensive Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil and chop the beef as in the preceding recipe.

  2. Mix all ingredients except the cider using your hands until well combined.

  3. Add the cider and let the mixture stand overnight.

Cook and store

  1. In the morning, place the mixture in a porcelain kettle and heat slowly to boiling.

  2. Simmer for 1 hour, then transfer to a stone jar and store in a cool, dry place.

  3. If desired, stir in wine or brandy now, or add when making pies.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the meaty bulk and body that makes up most of the mincemeat.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness of the sugar and molasses.
Suet
Adds fat that gives a rich, smooth mouthfeel as the mixture cooks.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps preserve it along with the molasses.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and depth of flavor to the mixture.

The step that matters

Simmering the mixture. Heating slowly to a boil and then simmering for an hour cooks the mixture through and helps it keep. Heating too fast can scorch the sugars and molasses on the bottom of the kettle, so stir and watch the heat.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, raisin, molasses, sugar, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, molasses, sugar, cinnamon, clove. 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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