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Mince Meat

A boiled stew of minced meat with raisins, currants, apples, molasses, sugar, cider, tea, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the chopped meat, raisins, currants, chopped apples, spices, salt, molasses, sugar, cider, tea, and meat stock in a large pot.

  2. Boil the mixture together for 1 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 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. Currant + cidertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together500 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Currant + appletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Meat
Provides the savoury base and body of the stew as it simmers.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that soften and break down into the stew.
Molasses
Adds deep sweetness, dark colour and a rich, slightly bitter flavour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the tartness of the apples and cider.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture as they plump in the liquid.
Cider
Contributes acidity and fruity moisture that carries the other flavours.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture together for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. A steady simmer lets the chopped meat and apples soften and the liquid reduce into a thick stew. Stirring prevents the sugars and molasses from scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, raisin, apple, molasses, sugar, cider, tea. 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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