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Dessert

Superlative Mincemeat

A preserved fruit mixture with lemons, raisins, currants, candied fruit, suet, sugar, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Superlative Mincemeat

Oven, in the book's wordsA fierce oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a fierce oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the mincemeat

  1. Boil the lemons until tender, then chop them small, removing all the seeds.

  2. Combine the chopped lemons with the other prepared ingredients in a large bowl.

  3. Mix in 3 to 4 cups of brandy and adjust salt and spices to taste.

Make the pies

  1. For mincemeat pies, butter some tin pattypans and line them with thin puff pastry.

  2. Fill the pastry with the mincemeat and cover with another layer of pastry, trimming excess.

  3. Make a small slit in the center of the crust with a fork.

  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes, covering with paper if they brown too quickly.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

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

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

  5. Raisin + orangetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,684 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

Suet
Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a moist, rounded texture.
Brandy
Preserves the filling and adds a warm, aromatic flavor.
Golden pippins
Provides moisture and tartness that balances the sugar.
Pounded sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps preserve the fruit.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy body to the filling.
Currants
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy body to the filling.

The step that matters

Covering with paper if the pies brown too quickly. Sugar in the pastry and filling browns and can scorch before the crust is fully baked, so loosely covering the pies with paper slows browning while the interior finishes cooking.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, raisin, orange, sugar, brandy):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, raisin, orange, 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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