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Dessert

Green Tomato Mince Meat

A preserve made from green tomatoes, apples, molasses, sugars, lemon, cider, suet, raisins, currants, citron, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Green Tomato Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the green tomatoes, place them in a bag with a sprinkle of coarse sea salt, and drain overnight, then measure 6 cups after draining.

  2. Grind the raisins, citron, suet, and whole lemon, removing seeds first.

Cook and can

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large pot and cook until perfectly tender.

  2. Can the mixture into fruit jars.

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

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

  2. Sorghum + raisintop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together28 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

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

  4. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sorghum + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together18 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provides the bulk of the preserve and a tart, acidic backbone that balances the sweetness.
Apples
Contribute pectin, which helps the cooked mixture thicken and set.
Suet
Adds fat that enriches the texture and keeps the preserve moist and tender.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture as they soften during cooking.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a mild molasses flavor that deepens the preserve.
Sorghum molasses
Contributes sweetness, dark color, and a rich, earthy flavor.

The step that matters

Cook until perfectly tender. The fruit must soften fully so its pectin is released and the sugars concentrate as water evaporates, giving the preserve its thick, spreadable body.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sorghum, molasses, sugar, lemon, cider, raisin):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sorghum, molasses, sugar, lemon, cider, raisin. 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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