Skip to main content
Main

To Make Mince Meat

A preserved meat mixture of beef, suet, dried fruit, sugar, spices, and alcohol.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

To Make Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the suet until it resembles oatmeal.

  2. Combine the chopped suet with the minced beef, raisins, currants, sugar, candied peel, lemon, apples, and mixed spice in a large bowl.

Mix and store

  1. Add the brandy and port last, mixing well.

  2. Store in a stone jar with a paper covering, stirring every three days and keeping in a cool place.

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. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds fat that stays solid when cold and melts during cooking, giving a moist, rich texture.
Muscatel raisins
Provide concentrated sweetness and chewy body to the mixture.
Moist sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps preserve the mixture.
Brandy
Acts as a preservative and adds aroma to the mixture.
Apples
Add moisture and a slight tartness that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Store in a cool place with regular stirring. Stirring every three days redistributes the liquid from the brandy and port and keeps the suet from settling. A cool place slows spoilage while the alcohol and sugar work to preserve the mixture.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, raisin, sugar, lemon, apple, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, raisin, sugar, lemon, apple, 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.

More mince meat recipes

Pie Filling 11Pie 10with Apples 9Preserved 8Apple 7Mock 7 See all 183 →

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipes