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Mincemeat Sandwiches

A sandwich made from minced steak, butter, anchovy sauce, and spices, cooked by pressure‑cooking and grinding.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Mincemeat Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Cook

  1. Place the steak, butter, pepper, and salt in a tightly covered can.

  2. Submerge the can in boiling water, ensuring no water enters the can.

  3. Simmer for 4 to 5 hours.

Shape and serve

  1. Pass the meat through a meat grinder.

  2. Mix in the gravy and seasonings.

  3. Press the mixture firmly into a basin.

  4. Spread between slices of bread to serve.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Steak
Provides the main meat that is cooked long and slowly, then ground into the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the meat moist during the long simmer.
Anchovy sauce
Adds a salty, savoury depth to the seasoning of the meat.

The step that matters

Keep water out of the can while simmering. If water enters the sealed can, it dilutes the meat juices and butter and alters the seasoning. A tight seal keeps the steak cooking in its own fat and juices over the long simmer.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, anchovy, sauce, pepper, nutmeg):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, anchovy, sauce, pepper, 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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