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Cooked Meat for Mince Pies

A spiced beef mixture with apples, suet, raisins, currants, and molasses, cooked until dry and cooled for mince pies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Cooked Meat for Mince Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the beef

  1. Wash the beef and place it in a kettle with enough water to cover it.

  2. Bring the beef to a boil, skimming off any scum.

  3. Add hot water as needed until the beef is tender.

  4. Season with salt and pepper, then boil uncovered until almost dry, allowing juices to return to the meat.

  5. When the mixture begins to fry in its own juices, remove from heat and let it cool, preferably overnight.

Prepare and combine

  1. The next day, remove bones, gristle, and stringy bits before chopping the meat finely.

  2. In a large pot, mix the chopped beef, apples, suet, raisins, currants, citron, brown sugar, molasses, sweet cider, boiled cider, and all spices thoroughly.

  3. Warm the mixture on the stove until heated through.

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. Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Currant + cidertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together500 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

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

  5. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides the meaty bulk and body of the filling as it cooks down.
Suet
Adds rich fat that keeps the filling moist and gives a silky mouthfeel.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture to the filling.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and depth, helping the filling taste rich and caramelized.
Molasses
Contributes dark color, deep flavor, and extra sweetness.
Green tart apples
Add acidity and moisture that balance the sweetness of the sugars and molasses.

The step that matters

Boiling the beef until almost dry. If the beef is boiled too long or too hot, it can toughen and the juices may scorch on the bottom of the pot. Stopping when nearly dry and letting juices return to the meat keeps it tender and flavorful.

Flavor stand-ins for the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, raisin, sugar, molasses, cider, pepper):

  1. Figbetter flavor fit
  2. Plumbetter flavor fit
  3. Grapebetter flavor fit
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, sugar, molasses, cider, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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