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Minced Meat

A sweet mixture of roasted meat, suet, currants, apples, bread, spices, citrus, sugar, brandy, wine, citron, and candied peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Minced Meat

Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Minced Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the roasted meat, shredded suet, currants, chopped apples, and grated bread in a large bowl.

  2. Add nutmeg, cloves, pepper, salt, sugar, grated lemon peel, grated orange peel, and lemon juice.

  3. Pour in the brandy and white wine, then mix all ingredients well.

Rest

  1. Let the mixture sit for a day or two before using.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Currant + appletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds fat and richness, keeping the mixture moist and tender as it sits.
Currants
Provide sweetness and chewy texture through the mixture.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that balances the sugar and richness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps preserve the mixture.
Roasted meat
Gives savoury body and depth of flavour to the filling.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, apple, bread, nutmeg, clove, pepper, sugar):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Plumfits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, apple, bread, nutmeg, clove, pepper, sugar. 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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