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Dessert

Very Superior Mincemeat

A preserved fruit and meat mixture flavored with spices and fortified with brandy and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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 ↓

Very Superior Mincemeat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mince each ingredient separately.

Mix and store

  1. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl.

  2. Pour in the brandy and Sherry or Madeira, stirring well.

  3. Press the mixture into a jar, cover, and store until needed.

  4. Allow to sit for several months for best flavor.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  4. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the mincemeat moist and rich in texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps preserve it during long storage.
Brandy
Acts as a preservative and adds warmth and aroma to the mincemeat.
Raisins
Provide concentrated sweetness and a chewy, moist texture.
Currants
Add small pockets of sweetness and chewy body throughout the mixture.
Apples
Contribute moisture and tartness that balances the sugar.

The step that matters

Allow to sit for several months. Resting lets the alcohol, sugar and spices mellow and blend, so flavors become rounder and more cohesive over time.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, currant, apple, sugar, lemon, orange, nutmeg. 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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