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Mincemeat Fritters

Mincemeat fritters are fried patties made from mincemeat, sugar, lemon juice, and fried in butter or lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Mincemeat Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, mix the mincemeat, sugar, and lemon juice until well combined.

  2. Heat butter or lard in a pan over medium heat.

  3. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot fat.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry for 7 to 8 minutes until golden brown.

  2. Drain on paper towels and serve hot.

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 + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Mincemeat
Supplies the main filling, providing sweet, spiced flavor and moisture to the fritters.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the exterior brown during frying.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet, rich mincemeat.
Butter or lard
Conducts heat for frying and gives the outside a golden, crisp browned crust.

The step that matters

Drop the mixture into hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the fritters absorb more oil and turn greasy. Hot fat sears the surface quickly, forming a crust that holds the batter together and keeps the inside moist.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter. 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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