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Mince Meat

A spiced minced meat mixture with fruit, sugar, cider, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Meat and raisin work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 483 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large pot.

  2. Cook over low heat for one hour, stirring occasionally.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Meat + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together483 recipes

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

  2. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,632 recipes

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

  3. Fig + appletop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together237 recipes

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

  4. Fig + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together407 recipes

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

  5. Apple + orangetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,229 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Meat
Forms the savory base and bulk of the filling.
Suet
Adds richness and a moist, tender texture as it melts into the mixture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture.
Apples
Contribute moisture, body and tartness to the filling.
Cider
Adds liquid and fruity acidity that helps the mixture soften as it cooks.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat for one hour, stirring occasionally. A large pot of dense, sugary fruit and meat can scorch on the bottom if the heat is too high. Low heat and regular stirring let the mixture cook evenly and the flavors blend.

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, raisin, currant, fig, apple, orange, sugar):

  1. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  2. Plumbetter flavor fit
  3. Apricotbetter flavor fit
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, raisin, currant, fig, apple, orange, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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