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Mince Meat

A preserved meat mixture of beef, beef tongue, fruit, spices, and brandy, stored in a jar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the cooked beef and beef tongue as finely as possible.

  2. Chop the apples, raisins, citron, oranges, and lemons finely.

  3. In a large bowl, combine the chopped meat and fruit.

Mix and store

  1. Add the brandy, brown sugar, spices, and rose water to the mixture and mix thoroughly.

  2. Stir in the cider.

  3. Transfer the mixture into a stone jar and tightly cover it with paper.

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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

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

  5. Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,746 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the meaty body and richness of the filling once finely chopped.
Apples
Add moisture, tartness and body that balance the sweetness of the fruit and sugar.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the mixture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture while it stands.
Brandy
Acts as a preservative and adds warm, aromatic depth to the mixture.

The step that matters

Mix thoroughly. Thorough mixing spreads the brandy, sugar and spices evenly through the chopped meat and fruit, so every portion keeps well and tastes balanced rather than patchy.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, raisin, orange, lemon, brandy, nutmeg, rose):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Vanillafits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, raisin, orange, lemon, brandy, nutmeg, rose. 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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Pie Filling 11Pie 10with Apples 9Preserved 8Apple 7Mock 7 See all 183 →

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