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Dessert

Mock Mince Meat

A sweet mixture of raisins, green tomatoes, spices, sugar, and vinegar cooked until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mock Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the green tomatoes finely.

  2. Remove the seeds from the raisins.

Combine and cook

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large pot.

  2. Add the juice and grated rind of the lemons.

  3. Cook the mixture over medium heat until tender.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 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. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the mince, softening into a tender, spreadable texture as they cook.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the mixture thicken as it cooks down.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy pieces that soften during cooking.
Lemons
Add acidity and bright flavor from the juice, plus aromatic oils from the grated rind.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sugar and helps keep the mixture tangy.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, sweet aroma that defines the mincemeat flavor.

The step that matters

Cook over medium heat until tender. Green tomatoes are firm and must soften fully before the dish is done. The mixture is rich in sugar, so heat that is too high can scorch it on the bottom of the pot before the tomatoes are tender.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, clove, raisin, nutmeg, lemon, cinnamon, vinegar):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, clove, raisin, nutmeg, lemon, cinnamon, vinegar. 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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