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Dessert

Mincemeat

A preserved mixture of apples, raisins, currants, suet, beef, sugar, candied peel, spices, brandy, and port wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Mincemeat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Peel the apples and carefully remove the cores.

  2. Bake the apple pieces until soft.

  3. Squeeze the lemons.

Combine and rest

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.

  2. Mix well and let sit to allow flavors to meld.

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. Orange + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

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

  5. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide moisture and body, and their softened pulp helps bind the mixture together.
Lemons
Add acidity and brightness that balance the sweetness of the dried fruit and sugar.
Raisins
Contribute chewy texture and concentrated sweetness as they soften in the mixture.
Suet
Adds fat for richness and a moist, tender texture.
Moist sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps preserve the mixture.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps preserve the mixture.

The step that matters

Mix well and let sit. Resting lets the spices, citrus and alcohol spread evenly through the fruit and suet, and the dried fruit soaks up liquid, so the flavors blend and the texture becomes more cohesive.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, lemon, raisin, beef, sugar, orange, 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 mincemeat recipes

Mock Pie 26Pie 21Lemon 15Fritters 14Green Tomato 13Pies 13 See all 120 →

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