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Mince Meat

A preserved meat mixture of cooked beef, suet, raisins, currants, apples, spices, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit and meat

  1. Finely chop the cooked beef and suet.

  2. Mix in the raisins, citron, currants, and granulated sugar.

  3. Core and chop the apples, then add to the mixture.

Season and combine

  1. Stir in the candied lemon peel, spices, and salt.

  2. Add the lemon and orange juice and rind.

  3. Incorporate the jelly, sherry, and brandy thoroughly.

Store

  1. Store in a sealed container in a cool place.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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 savoury bulk that the mincemeat is built around.
Suet
Adds richness and a moist, silky texture as it melts into the filling.
Raisins
Contribute concentrated sweetness and chewy moisture to the filling.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps preserve it by binding up moisture.
Apples
Add tartness, moisture, and body that balances the sweetness.
Sherry
Adds depth and aroma while contributing to the preserving liquid.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, raisin, sugar, apple, lemon, clove, nutmeg. 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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