Skip to main content
Dessert

Mincemeat

A preserved fruit and spice mixture used as a pie filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Mincemeat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mincemeat

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly.

  2. Pack the mixture tightly into jars.

Seal and store

  1. Cover with rounds of paper dipped in brandy.

  2. Securely tie down with stout paper.

  3. Store in a cool, dry cupboard.

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. Orange + gingertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,833 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

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

  4. Brandy + sherrytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Add moisture and bulk, softening into the filling as it matures.
Raw sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture by drawing out moisture.
Brandy
Acts as a preservative alcohol and adds aroma to the filling.
Candied orange peels
Provide concentrated citrus sweetness and a chewy, aromatic texture.
Currants
Contribute chewy texture and concentrated fruity sweetness.
Ground ginger
Adds warm, pungent aroma and spice flavour.

The step that matters

Pack the mixture tightly into jars. Tight packing removes air pockets, which limits spoilage by oxygen-loving microbes and helps the mincemeat keep well during storage.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, lemon, orange, sugar, ginger, brandy, sherry. 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.

More mincemeat recipes

Mock Pie 26Pie 21Lemon 15Fritters 14Green Tomato 13Pies 13 See all 120 →

You might also like

Orange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesApple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesLemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesGinger CookiesGinger Cookies213 recipes