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Dessert

Mince Meat for Pies

A spiced mincemeat of neat's tongue or bullock's heart with suet, dried fruit, almonds, sugar and wine, used as a pie filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Coriander and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,498 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mince Meat for Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Salt and spice the neat's tongue or bullock's heart and let it sit for three days.

  2. Remove all blood from the heart.

  3. Sprinkle the heart with salt, black pepper, allspice, and coriander seeds.

  4. Par-boil the heart. Remove the skin.

  5. Chop the meat finely.

Make the mincemeat

  1. Combine the chopped meat with beef suet or currants and apples, raisins, candied peels, blanched almonds, grated lemon rind, loaf sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves.

  2. Add the juice of the lemons.

  3. Add the wine and brandy (or verjuice).

  4. If the mixture becomes dry, moisten with a little brandy or wine before making pies.

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. Coriander + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,498 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Allspice + coriandertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together393 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Neat's tongue or bullock's heart
Forms the savoury, meaty base that gives the mincemeat its body.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it stands.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture to the filling.
Blanched almonds
Add richness and a soft, crunchy texture to the filling.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps preserve it.
Madeira or sherry wine
Adds acidity and aroma and moistens the filling.

The step that matters

Salting and spicing the meat for three days. Salt draws moisture out of the meat and then the seasoned brine is absorbed back in, firming the flesh and seasoning it evenly throughout. Too little time leaves the meat bland and less firm for chopping.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, allspice, coriander, beef, lemon, orange, almond):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, allspice, coriander, beef, lemon, orange, almond. 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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