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To Make Mince Meat

A preserved meat mixture of suet, beef, raisins, currants, sugar, candied peel, lemon, apples, spices, brandy, and port.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

To Make Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the suet until it resembles oatmeal.

  2. Combine the chopped suet with the minced beef, raisins, currants, sugar, candied peel, lemon, apples, and mixed spice.

  3. Stir in the brandy and port until well mixed.

Store

  1. Store in a stone jar with a brandied paper on top.

  2. Stir every three days and keep 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. 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. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Provides fat that stays solid in the mix and melts to moisten the filling when cooked.
Muscatel raisins
Add sweetness, chewy body and moisture to the filling.
Currants
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the mincemeat.
Moist sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps preserve it by drawing out moisture.
Apples
Add moisture, tartness and body that balances the sweetness.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps preserve the mixture during storage.

The step that matters

Stir every three days during storage. Regular stirring redistributes the liquid from the brandy, port and fruit so the mixture stays evenly moist and the flavours blend while it matures.

Swap the currant

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

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

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

More mince meat recipes

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

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