Name: Mince Meat
Ingredients: 4 pounds beef suet, chopped fine; 5 pounds apples, peeled, cored, and chopped fine; 4 pounds mixed lemon, orange, and citron peel, cut small; 2 pounds sugar; 3 nutmegs, grated; ½ pint brandy; spices to taste

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 ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

4 pounds beef suet, chopped fine
5 pounds apples, peeled, cored, and chopped fine
4 pounds mixed lemon, orange, and citron peel, cut small
2 pounds sugar
3 nutmegs, grated
½ pint brandy
spices to taste

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the chopped beef suet, chopped apples, mixed citrus peel, and sugar.
Add the grated nutmeg and spices to taste.
Pour in the brandy and mix everything together thoroughly.
Transfer the mixture to a jar and store for later use.

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 + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,230 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,746 recipes

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

Beef suet: Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel as it melts into the filling.
Apples: Provide moisture and bulk, softening into the filling as it keeps.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture.
Brandy: Adds aroma and acts as a preservative, helping the mixture keep.

Swap the apple

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

Figfits better
Limefits better
Vanillafits better
Applethe original

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