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Dessert

Superlative Mincemeat

A sweet mixture of fruit, suet, sugar, and brandy used as filling for pies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Superlative Mincemeat

Oven, in the book's wordsA fierce oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a fierce oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the lemons until tender.

  2. Chop the boiled lemons small, removing all the seeds.

  3. Combine the chopped lemons with the other prepared ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well.

  4. Add 3 to 4 cups of brandy.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter some tin pattypans.

  2. Line the pattypans with thin puff pastry.

  3. Fill the pastry with the mincemeat.

  4. Moisten the edges of the covers. Close the pies carefully.

  5. Trim off any excess pastry.

  6. Make a small hole in the center of the crust with a fork or knife.

  7. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes, covering with paper if they brown too quickly.

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

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

  2. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

  4. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

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

  5. Raisin + orangetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,684 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Golden pippins
Apples add bulk and tartness that balance the sweetness of the sugar and dried fruit.
Suet
Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a moist, tender texture.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps preserve the mixture.
Brandy
Adds aroma and acts as a preservative for the filling.
Raisins
Provide chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
Lemons
Add acidity and aromatic citrus flavor that brightens the rich filling.

The step that matters

Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes, covering with paper if they brown too quickly.. The pastry browns faster than the filling heats through, so the paper shield stops the crust scorching before the pies are cooked. Making a steam vent in the crust lets moisture escape so the pastry stays crisp.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, raisin, orange, sugar, brandy):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, raisin, orange, sugar, brandy. 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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