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Dessert

Mince Meat

A preserved fruit and suet mixture flavored with brandy, sherry, spices, and citrus, packed in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pass the apples and raisins through a meat grinder.

Mix and pack

  1. Mix the ground apples and raisins with all other ingredients thoroughly.

  2. Pack the mixture into jars.

Cover and seal

  1. Cover the mixture with a piece of paper dipped in brandy.

  2. Seal the jars.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  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. Brandy + sherrytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide bulk and moisture, and a tart fruity base for the preserve.
Suet
Adds richness and fat, giving the mixture a moist, mellow texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps preserve it by binding water.
Brandy
Adds alcohol that helps preserve the mixture and contributes aroma.
Sherry
Adds moisture and a warm, sweet aroma to the mixture.
Mixed candied peel
Adds concentrated sweetness and citrus aroma throughout the mixture.

The step that matters

Covering the mixture with brandy-soaked paper. The alcohol-soaked paper sits directly on the surface, where air and mould can reach the preserve first. Keeping that surface well covered and alcohol-rich helps protect the mixture during storage.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, raisin, sugar, brandy, sherry, nutmeg, cinnamon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, raisin, sugar, brandy, sherry, nutmeg, cinnamon. 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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