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Dessert

Mincemeat, Plain

A preserved mixture of currants, raisins, apples, suet, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon 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, Plain

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the apples first.

Mix and rest

  1. Gradually add the currants, raisins, brown sugar, orange marmalade, chopped suet, candied peel, spice, lemon rind, and juice.

  2. Mix well and let it stand for a day or two.

  3. Taste and add more sugar if needed, depending on the sweetness of the apples.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

  3. Apple + winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,207 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Currants
Provide chewy body and concentrated fruit sweetness.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated natural sweetness.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps preserve the mixture.
Apples
Provide moisture and tart fruit body to the mincemeat.
Chopped suet
Adds richness and fat, giving a moist, tender texture.

The step that matters

Adjusting the sugar. Apples vary in sweetness and tartness, so tasting after resting lets the cook balance the mixture before it is used. Sugar also helps preserve the fruit, so the final sweetness matters for both flavour and keeping quality.

Swap the currant

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

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

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

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