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Mince Meat

A spiced meat and fruit mixture used as pie filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix all ingredients together thoroughly.

  2. Seal the mixture in a container.

  3. Before baking into pies, add a little warm water, sugar, and whisky.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the filling moist and tender.
Boiled beef
Provides savoury body and bulk to the filling.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness to balance the sweetness.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and natural sweetness.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the filling.
Whisky
Adds aroma and helps preserve the mixture.

The step that matters

Sealing the mixture before baking. Resting the mixed filling in a sealed container lets the spices, fruit, sugar and spirit blend and mellow, and the alcohol helps keep it from spoiling. Sealing limits evaporation and contamination, so the filling stays moist and flavourful until baking.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, raisin, sugar, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, sugar, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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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