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Mince Meat

A savory and sweet mixture of beef, apples, suet, raisins, currants, citron, sugar, and fruit juices simmered and sealed in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and grape match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,659 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mincemeat

  1. In a large pot, combine the beef, apples, suet, raisins, currants, citron, brown sugar, peach syrup, grape juice, boiled cider, lemon zest, and lemon juice.

  2. Add the nutmeg, cinnamon, mace, and salt. Mix thoroughly.

  3. Let the mixture simmer for 15 minutes.

Preserve

  1. Seal the mixture in fruit jars while hot.

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 + grapetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,659 recipes

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

  2. Apple + peachtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together303 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Peach + grapetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together218 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  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

Cold boiled beef
Provides the meaty body that gives traditional mincemeat its substance.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness of the dried fruit.
Suet
Adds fat that enriches texture and carries flavour through the mixture.
Raisins
Provide concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.
Light brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture.
Lemons
Their zest and juice add aroma and acidity that brighten the dense fruit.

The step that matters

Seal the mixture in fruit jars while hot. Filling the jars while the mixture is hot drives out air and helps create a vacuum seal, which limits spoilage during storage.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, raisin, sugar, syrup, peach, grape):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, sugar, syrup, peach, grape. 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.

More mince meat recipes

Pie Filling 11Pie 10with Apples 9Preserved 8Apple 7Mock 7 See all 183 →

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