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Mince Meat

A mixture of suet, raisins, currants, citron, tongue, apples, and spices, sweetened with brown sugar, molasses, and cider.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the suet finely.

  2. Combine suet, raisins, currants, citron, and chopped tongue in a large bowl.

Season and sweeten

  1. Add the juice of the lemons and any canned fruit juices you have.

  2. Season with spices to your liking.

  3. Weigh the mixture and add an equal amount of chopped apples.

  4. Sweeten with brown sugar and molasses to taste.

  5. Finally, stir in the cider.

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 + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Currant + cidertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together500 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Currant + appletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds richness and a moist, tender texture as it melts during cooking.
Raisins
Provide sweetness and chewy body throughout the mixture.
Currants
Add concentrated fruit flavour and a chewy texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and balances the rich fats.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness, giving the mixture a fresh, juicy body.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, currant, apple, sugar, molasses, cider):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Plumfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, currant, apple, sugar, molasses, cider. 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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