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Mince Meat

A mixture of boiled beef heart, suet, apples, raisins, currants, citron, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, and sweet cider.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Boil the beef heart until tender.

  2. Chop the beef suet finely.

Mix and cook

  1. In a large bowl, mix the boiled heart, suet, apples, raisins, currants, citron, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon.

  2. Add the gravy from boiling the heart and sweet cider to taste.

  3. Boil the mixture well together.

Store

  1. Seal the mixture in glass quart jars for storage.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef heart
Provides the meaty base that gives the mincemeat its body and savoury depth.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it cooks.
Apples
Contribute moisture, tartness and bulk to the filling.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.
Currants
Add small bursts of sweetness and tartness throughout the filling.
Cloves
Provide warm, aromatic spice flavour.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture well together. Thorough boiling cooks the meat and fruit together and blends the spices and juices. Under-cooking leaves the filling raw-tasting and less stable for storage.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, raisin, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, cider):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, cider. 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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