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Hince Meat

A sweetened beef stew with apples, raisins, currants, spices, cider, brandy, molasses, and brown sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 ↓

Hince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Broil the beef and suet until tender.

  2. Chop the meat and suet finely.

Combine and sweeten

  1. In a large pot, combine the chopped meat and suet with apples, raisins, currants, spices, salt, lemon juice, boiled cider, and the liquor from boiling the meat.

  2. Add chopped citron, brandy, and molasses.

  3. Sweeten with brown sugar to taste.

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. Cider + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the savory, meaty base that gives the mince its body.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the mixture moist and rich as it cooks and sits.
Boiled cider
Contributes concentrated sweetness and fruity acidity to the filling.
Molasses
Adds deep sweetness and a dark color with a slightly bitter edge.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and natural sweetness throughout the filling.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps preserve the mixture.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, raisin, currant, cider, meat, brandy):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Plumfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, currant, cider, meat, brandy. 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.

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