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Mince Meat

A savory mixture of beef, apples, raisins, suet, sugar, molasses, spices, pickle juice, and lemon, boiled briefly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the chopped beef, chopped apples, seeded raisins, chopped suet, brown sugar, molasses, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, grated nutmeg, sweet pickle juice, lemon juice, and grated lemon rind.

  2. Add salt and vinegar if needed.

  3. Moisten the mixture with the liquor from the meat and boil for about 5 minutes.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Chopped beef
Provides the meaty body and bulk that gives the mincemeat its texture.
Chopped apples
Add moisture and tartness, balancing the sweetness of the sugar and molasses.
Seeded raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.
Chopped suet
Adds richness and fat, giving a smooth mouthfeel to the filling.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a deep caramel flavour.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and depth of flavour, and helps keep the mixture moist.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, raisin, sugar, molasses, cinnamon, clove, allspice. 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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