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Dessert

Mince Meat, No. 1.

A pie made with chopped meat, apples, suet, cider, brown sugar, molasses, spices, raisins, and a small piece of butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Mince Meat, No. 1.

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

  1. Boil all ingredients except apples and raisins for 2 hours.

  2. Shortly before finishing, add the apples and raisins.

  3. When making the pie, add a small piece of butter.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  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

Chopped meat
Provides the savoury body and bulk of the filling.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling rich and moist.
Apples
Soften into the filling, adding moisture and a tart edge.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a deeper, caramel-like flavour.
Molasses
Adds dark colour, sweetness and a rich, treacly flavour.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.

The step that matters

Adding the apples and raisins shortly before finishing. Apples break down into mush if simmered too long, so adding them near the end keeps some texture. Raisins added late stay plump and chewy rather than dry and tough.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, cider, sugar, molasses, allspice, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Applethe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Orangefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, cider, sugar, molasses, allspice, cinnamon, clove. 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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