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Brooklyn Mince Meat

A savory dish of finely chopped beef, raisins, apples, cider, sugar, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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

  1. Remove the stones from the raisins.

  2. Boil the beef until tender, then chop it finely, removing all gristle and fat.

  3. Chop the apples and measure 1⅓ times the amount of meat.

Combine

  1. Combine the chopped beef, apples, raisins, boiled cider, sugar, and brandy in a large bowl. Mix thoroughly until well combined.

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. Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Raisin + appletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef from the round
Provides the meaty body and bulk of the mincemeat once chopped fine.
Raisins
Add sweetness, chewy texture and moisture to the mixture.
Apples
Add tartness and moisture, balancing the sweetness of the sugar and cider.
Boiled cider
Adds concentrated sweetness and a deep fruity acidity to the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps preserve it by binding water.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps preserve the mixture.

The step that matters

Chopping the beef finely and removing all gristle and fat. Beef left in large pieces or containing gristle becomes tough and uneven in texture, while fat left in can spoil sooner. Fine, lean pieces blend evenly with the fruit and sugar.

Swap the raisin

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

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

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