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Mince Meat

A preserved meat mixture of chopped meat, suet, fruit, spices, and liquids, cooked slowly and then stored in a jar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix all ingredients in the order given.

Cook

  1. Cook slowly in a pot for 1 hour, stirring often.

  2. Add the brandy and rose water after removing from heat.

Store and age

  1. Pack the mince meat in an earthen jar and let it sit for several days before using.

  2. For a variation, use cold tea instead of cider and brandy.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

  3. Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Chopped meat
Forms the bulk of the filling and gives it a savoury body.
Chopped suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it cooks.
Sour apples
Supply acidity and moisture that balance the sweetness of the sugar and molasses.
Brown sugar
Provides sweetness and helps preserve the mixture while it ages.
Molasses
Adds dark color, deep flavor, and extra sweetness.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps preserve the mince meat during storage.

The step that matters

Add the brandy and rose water after removing from heat. Alcohol and rose water are volatile aromatics that evaporate during long cooking, so adding them off the heat keeps their aroma noticeable in the finished mixture.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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