Name: Mincemeat
Ingredients: 3 lbs apples; 1½ lbs raisins (Valencia); 2 lbs sugar; 1½ lbs suet; ½ lb currants; ¼ lb candied peel; Juice and rind of 1 lemon; A little grated nutmeg; ⅓ cup brandy

Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mincemeat

Ingredients

Directions

Peel, core, and finely chop the apples.
Add the stoned and chopped raisins, chopped candied peel, and finely chopped suet.
Mix in the remaining ingredients, including the brandy, then combine everything well and store in airtight pots.

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.

Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,291 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

Apples: Provide bulk and moisture, and a tart flavour that balances the sweetness.
Raisins: Add concentrated sweetness, chewy texture and body to the filling.
Sugar: Sweetens the mixture and helps preserve it.
Suet: Adds richness and fat, giving a moist, tender texture.
Brandy: Adds aroma and flavour, and helps preserve the mixture.

Swap the lemon

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

Figfits better
Vanillafits better
Apricotfits better
Lemonthe original

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