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Minced Meat

A minced meat mixture of beef or tongue with suet, apples, currants, raisins, sugar, spices, and fruit syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Minced Meat

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 ↓

Minced Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Boil the meat in salted water until tender.

  2. Once cold, chop the meat and suet finely.

  3. Mix the chopped meat and suet with enough salt to remove the fresh taste.

Mix and store

  1. Add the chopped apples, currants, raisins, sugar, spices, and other ingredients.

  2. Mix everything well and cover tightly.

  3. If the mixture is too dry before using, add a little water.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Orange + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef or tongue
Provides the bulk and savory body of the mincemeat.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich in texture.
Chopped apples
Contribute moisture, tartness and bulk to the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture.
Currants
Add concentrated fruit sweetness and chewy texture.
Raisins
Add sweetness, chew and moisture to the filling.

The step that matters

Mix and cover tightly. Sugar, spices and vinegar work together to preserve the mixture, but only if it is combined well and sealed from air. Uneven mixing leaves pockets that can spoil, and an open container lets the surface dry and mould.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, sugar, orange, 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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