Name: Mince Meat
Ingredients: 4 pounds raisins; 2 pounds currants; ½ pound citron; 4 pounds apples; 2 pounds beef; 2 quarts cider (or equal parts vinegar and water with molasses to taste); 1 pound suet (or butter in proportion); Sugar to taste; Spices to taste (such as cloves, cinnamon, allspice)

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

4 pounds raisins
2 pounds currants
½ pound citron
4 pounds apples
2 pounds beef
2 quarts cider (or equal parts vinegar and water with molasses to taste)
1 pound suet (or butter in proportion)
Sugar to taste
Spices to taste (such as cloves, cinnamon, allspice)

Directions

Chop the beef and suet finely.
Mix the chopped beef and suet with the raisins, currants, citron, and apples.
Add the cider and stir well.
Season with sugar and spices to taste.
If using vinegar and water, add molasses to achieve sweetness similar to 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.

Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,238 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,774 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,070 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Currant + cidertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together500 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Raisins: Provide sweetness, chewy body and moisture to the filling.
Apples: Add moisture, tartness and body to the mixture.
Beef: Adds savory richness and a meaty texture to the mincemeat.
Suet: Adds fat that gives richness and a moist, tender mouthfeel.
Cider: Supplies liquid and acidity that moistens and flavors the mixture.

Swap the currant

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

Figfits better
Pearfits better
Plumfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, apple, beef, cider, butter, sugar, clove. 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.