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Mince Meat

A mixture of boiled lean beef, beef suet, apples, raisins, currants, citron, candied peel, spices, sugar, and various alcoholic beverages.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the lean beef until tender, then let it cool and chop it finely.

  2. Mince the beef suet until it is a fine powder.

  3. Chop the apples finely and seed the raisins.

Combine and keep

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large stone jar. Mix well and keep the jar covered.

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. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

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

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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 body and bulk of the mincemeat filling.
Beef suet
Adds fat that gives a rich, moist texture to the filling.
Apples
Contribute moisture, tartness, and body to the filling.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the filling.
Brandy
Acts as a preservative and adds aroma to the mixture.

The step that matters

Keep the jar covered while the mixture rests. Covering the jar limits exposure to air and contamination, and the alcohol and sugar then help preserve the filling over time.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, lemon, orange, allspice, cinnamon. 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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