Skip to main content
Main

Mince Meat

A minced meat mixture of beef, raisins, currants, apples, nuts, spices, and cider, cooked and cooled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Brazil nut and walnut share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 66 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Cook the meat in enough water to cover it until tender.

  2. Let the meat cool in the water.

  3. Chop the meat finely.

Mix the filling

  1. Mix all the dry ingredients together.

  2. Add all the liquid ingredients to the dry mixture.

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. Brazil nut + walnuttop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together66 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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

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

  4. Raisin + brazil nuttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together22 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Walnut + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,149 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Meat
Provides the bulk and chewy, savoury body of the mincemeat filling.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and gives it a rich mouthfeel.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture while plumping with the liquids.
Apples
Contribute moisture and body, helping the filling hold together.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve moisture in the filling.
Boiled cider
Concentrated cider adds deep fruity flavour and acidity to the filling.

The step that matters

Cool the meat in its cooking water. Letting the meat cool in its cooking liquid keeps it moist and makes it firm enough to chop finely. Chopping warm, dry meat gives a crumbly texture.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, raisin, apple, brazil nut, walnut, lemon, orange):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Cranberryfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, raisin, apple, brazil nut, walnut, lemon, orange. 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.

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesMeat CroquettesMeat Croquettes52 recipesMeatballsMeatballs37 recipesMince MeatMince Meat37 recipes