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Dessert

Brooklyn Mince Meat

A sweet and spiced meat mixture made with beef, raisins, apples, cider, brandy, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Brooklyn Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat and apples

  1. Boil the beef until tender, then remove gristle and fat, and chop finely.

  2. Chop the apples and measure 1/3 more than the amount of meat.

Make the mincemeat

  1. In a large pot, combine the boiled cider and sugar, then add the brandy and currant wine.

  2. Stir in the cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, citron, and melted butter.

  3. Add the quart of water used to boil the meat, and pour this mixture over the chopped meat and apples.

  4. Place the pot over a kettle of boiling water and cook until slightly thickened.

  5. Allow to cool, then mix in the remaining ingredients.

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. Cider + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Brandy + curranttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Brandy + winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

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

  5. Cider + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together500 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

Beef
Provides the bulk and savory body that the fruit and sweeteners are balanced against.
Apples
Add moisture and tart fruitiness that keeps the filling from tasting flat or cloying.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps preserve it by binding water.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor and helps preserve the mixture.
Butter
Contributes richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the filling.
Cinnamon
Provides warm, aromatic spice that defines the flavor of the mincemeat.

The step that matters

Cooking until slightly thickened over boiling water. Gentle, indirect heat lets moisture evaporate slowly without scorching the sugar-rich mixture on the bottom of the pot. Stopping at slightly thickened keeps the filling spreadable once cooled, since it firms further as it cools.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, cider, sugar, brandy, currant, wine):

  1. Plumfits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Grapefits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, cider, sugar, brandy, currant, wine. 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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