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Minced Meat

A spiced minced meat mixture with apples, currants, sugar, citrus, spices, Madeira wine, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 until tender and chop it finely.

  2. Mix the chopped meat with the suet, adding enough salt to remove the fresh taste.

Make the mincemeat

  1. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.

  2. Cover the mixture tightly.

Use

  1. When ready to use, moisten with sweet cider if it is too dry.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

Tongue or tender beef
Provides the cooked meat base that gives the mixture its body.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the mixture moist and rich in texture.
Apples
Contribute moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture.
Currants
Add chewy texture and concentrated fruit sweetness.
Madeira wine
Adds aromatic depth and acts as a preservative.

The step that matters

Cover the mixture tightly. Sealing the mixture limits contact with air, slowing drying and spoilage while the flavours blend and mellow.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, sugar, orange, cinnamon, clove, mace. 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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