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The Christmas Dinner

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

The Christmas Dinner

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Remove stems from large raisins, cut each in half, and take out the seeds.

  2. Cook the beef as you prepare the raisins, currants, and citron a day before mixing.

  3. Chop the cooked meat and clear the suet of strings and membranes.

  4. Pare, slice, and mince the apples when everything else is ready.

  5. In a large bowl, mix the meat, suet, apples, small fruits, citron, sugar, and spices without bruising.

  6. Finally, add wine and brandy to preserve the mixture.

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. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

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

  3. Apple + winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,207 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

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

  5. Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

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

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

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, beef, apple, sugar, wine, brandy):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, beef, apple, sugar, wine, brandy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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