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Mince Meat

A mixture of lean beef, suet, apples, raisins, currants, citron, spices, and boiled cider, refrigerated until use.

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

Prepare

  1. Finely chop the lean beef and suet.

Combine

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chopped beef, suet, apples, raisins, Sultana raisins, currants, and citron.

  2. Add the cinnamon, cloves, allspice, salt, brown sugar, nutmeg, and boiled cider to the mixture.

  3. Mix thoroughly until all ingredients are well combined.

Store

  1. Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator until ready to use.

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

Lean beef
Provides the meaty body and savoury bulk of the mincemeat.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it chills.
Apples
Add moisture, tartness and body to the filling.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture through the mixture.
Boiled cider
Adds concentrated apple sweetness and acidity, deepening the fruit flavour.
Currants
Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy, tart fruit note.

Swap the currant

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

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

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