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Mince Meat

A sweetened beef mince with spices, dried fruit, apples, and a sauce of cider, molasses, and jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 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. Chop the beef, suet, citron, and apples finely.

  2. Wash and dry the currants.

  3. Mix all chopped ingredients thoroughly in a large pan.

Make the liquid and cook

  1. In a porcelain kettle, combine boiled cider, sweet pickle syrup, sweet cider, butter, molasses, and wild grape jelly.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil and pour it over the ingredients in the pan.

  3. Stir well and cook on the stove for five 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. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  5. Cinnamon + appletop 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

Boiled beef
Provides the meaty body and bulk that gives the mincemeat its texture.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich in mouthfeel.
Apples
Contribute moisture, tartness, and body to the filling.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture as they soften in the liquid.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and depth of flavor to the filling.
Boiled cider
Concentrated apple liquid that adds sweetness, acidity, and fruity depth.

The step that matters

Stir well and cook on the stove for five minutes. The hot liquid must be fully distributed through the chopped ingredients so the mixture heats evenly and the flavors blend. Uneven heating can leave pockets of cold, unmixed filling and uneven texture.

Swap the currant

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

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

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