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Minced Meat

A sweet mixture of suet, sugar, apples, raisins, currants, spices, lemon, wine, cider, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Minced Meat

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 ↓

Minced Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the suet in salted water until tender, then cool completely before chopping.

  2. Prepare the currants, spices, and seed the raisins.

  3. Chop the apples finely and the meat very finely.

Combine

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chopped meat, apples, raisins, currants, sugar, spices, lemon juice, grated lemon rind, wine, and brandy. Mix everything thoroughly.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 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 + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds richness and moisture, giving the mince a soft, rich texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness, balancing the sweetness.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and natural sweetness.
Currants
Add chewy texture and concentrated fruit flavour.

The step that matters

Chopping the meat very finely. Fine chopping spreads the suet and meat evenly through the mixture, so each spoonful has an even texture rather than greasy or stringy pockets.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, apple, raisin, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, mace):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, apple, raisin, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, mace. 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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