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Mince Meat

A preserved meat mixture of beef or tongue, raisins, currants, suet, apples, sugar, citron, nutmeg, lemons, Madeira wine, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the beef or tongue finely.

  2. Mix in the raisins, currants, suet, and chopped apples.

Combine and store

  1. Add the brown sugar, citron, grated nutmeg, and juice of the lemons.

  2. Stir in the Madeira wine and brandy until well combined.

  3. Store in a cool place until ready to use.

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. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  2. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

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

  4. Currant + appletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef or tongue
Provides the meaty body that gives the mincemeat its substance.
Suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the mixture moist and tender.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses-like depth of flavour.
Apples
Add moisture, tartness and body to the filling.
Madeira wine or sherry
Adds depth and aroma while helping preserve the mixture.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps preserve the mixture.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, raisin, apple, sugar, nutmeg, lemon, madeira wine. 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 →

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