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Cooked Meat of Mince Pies

A spiced beef mixture with apples, suet, raisins, currants, and cider, cooked and seasoned for use in mince pies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Cooked Meat of Mince Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the meat

  1. Wash 4 pounds of lean beef and place it in a kettle with enough water to cover it.

  2. Bring to a boil, skimming off any scum, and add hot water as needed until tender.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, then boil uncovered until the liquid reduces and the meat begins to fry in its own juices.

  4. Remove from heat and let cool, ideally overnight.

Mix the filling

  1. The next day, pick out bones, gristle, and stringy bits before chopping the meat finely.

  2. In a large bowl, mix the chopped beef with apples, suet, raisins, currants, citron, brown sugar, molasses, sweet cider, boiled cider, and all spices.

  3. Heat the mixture through, then remove from heat and stir in brandy and Madeira wine.

  4. Transfer to a crock, cover tightly, and store in a cool place.

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. Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Currant + cidertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together500 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  5. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides the meaty base; slow simmering until tender breaks down connective tissue for a moist filling.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it cools and matures.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and depth of flavor, and helps keep the mixture moist.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, with a caramel note that deepens the filling.
Green tart apples
Add acidity and moisture, balancing the sweetness of the dried fruit and sugars.
Brandy
Adds aroma and acts as a preservative, helping the filling keep in storage.

The step that matters

Simmering the beef until tender. Adding water as needed and boiling gently keeps the meat from drying out or scorching while connective tissue breaks down. Cooking until the liquid reduces and the meat starts to fry in its own fat concentrates flavor, but the meat must be fully tender before chopping.

Flavor stand-ins for the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, raisin, sugar, molasses, cider, pepper):

  1. Figbetter flavor fit
  2. Plumbetter flavor fit
  3. Grapebetter flavor fit
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, sugar, molasses, cider, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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