Name: Mince Meat
Ingredients: 1 lb apples, peeled, cored, and sliced; ½ lb grapes, pitted; ¾ lb raisins, pitted; ½ lb currants, washed and dried; 1 lb brown sugar, or to taste; 5 lb mixed peel, finely chopped; Grated lemon or orange rind and juice, to taste; 5 teaspoons cinnamon, or to taste; A pinch of salt

Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

1 lb apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
½ lb grapes, pitted
¾ lb raisins, pitted
½ lb currants, washed and dried
1 lb brown sugar, or to taste
5 lb mixed peel, finely chopped
Grated lemon or orange rind and juice, to taste
5 teaspoons cinnamon, or to taste
A pinch of salt

Directions

Prepare the fruit

Chop the apples, raisins, currants, and mixed peel together until very fine, adding sugar to make chopping easier.
Skin and stone the grapes, then press the pulp in a basin with a wooden spoon.

Combine and store

Combine all ingredients in the basin and mix thoroughly.
Transfer the mixture into a jar and seal it tightly.

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.

Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Apple + grapetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,659 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,950 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Grape + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,164 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples: Adds moisture and body to the mince.
Raisins: Adds chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
Currants: Adds chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture.
Mixed peel: Adds bitter citrus aroma and chewy texture.
Cinnamon: Adds warm aroma.

The step that matters

Seal the jar tightly. A tight seal limits air and contamination, which helps the mince keep without spoiling.

Swap the currant

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

Figfits better
Orangefits better
Pearfits better
Currantthe original

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