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Mincemeat Fritters

Fried patties made from mincemeat, breadcrumbs, eggs, lemon juice, and fried in lard or butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Mincemeat Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the mincemeat, bread crumbs (or flour), beaten eggs, and lemon juice until well combined.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into hot lard or butter.

  2. Fry for 7 to 8 minutes until golden brown.

  3. Drain on a napkin or white blotting paper and serve hot.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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

Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help the fritters set as they fry.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the mixture body so it holds its shape in the fat.
Mincemeat
Provides the main filling flavour and sweetness, and its moisture helps form the fritters.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet mincemeat.

The step that matters

Fry for 7 to 8 minutes until golden brown. The fat must be hot enough to brown the outside quickly. If it is too cool, the fritters soak up grease and turn heavy, while too hot a pan can scorch the outside before the centre sets.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, egg, butter):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Datesfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, egg, butter. 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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