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Dessert

Granville Mince-meat

A savory mincemeat made with hogs' feet, raisins, currants, apples, butter or suet, spices, and French brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Granville Mince-meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the hogs' feet until very tender, then chop them.

  2. Chop the raisins, currants, and apples.

  3. In a large bowl, combine the chopped hogs' feet, raisins, currants, apples, butter or suet, salt, mace, cloves, and cinnamon.

  4. Mix in the French brandy and add more apples if desired.

Bake

  1. Bake the mixture in rich puff pastry.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Hogs' feet
Adds richness and body to the filling as they tenderize and release gelatin.
Raisins
Provide sweetness and chewy texture, and moisture from their plump fruit.
Currants
Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy, juicy texture throughout the filling.
Apples
Contribute moisture, tartness, and bulk that keeps the filling from drying out.
Butter or suet
Adds fat for richness and a silky, tender mouthfeel in the filling.
French brandy
Adds aroma and helps preserve the filling.

The step that matters

Boil the hogs' feet until very tender. Long, gentle simmering breaks down the connective tissue and collagen in the feet. If they are undercooked, they stay tough and do not release the gelatin that gives the filling body.

Swap the apple

The recipe marks apple as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, currant, butter, mace, clove, cinnamon, brandy):

  1. Figfits about as well
  2. Applethe original
  3. Vanillafits less well
  4. Plumfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, currant, butter, mace, clove, cinnamon, brandy. 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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