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Dessert

Mince-meat

A sweet meat pie with raisins, currants, spices, and citrus, baked in a rich pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Mince-meat

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

Mince-meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat and suet

  1. Boil the meat until very tender.

  2. Remove all fat and gristle from the meat.

  3. Chop the suet finely, removing all strings and threads.

  4. Mix the chopped suet with the meat.

  5. Season the mixture with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

Add the fruit and spices

  1. Wash the currants several times and let them dry.

  2. Add the dried currants to the mixture.

  3. Seed the raisins without chopping them finely.

  4. Add the syrup, spices, and thinly sliced citron to the mixture.

  5. Add the chopped apples just before baking.

  6. Moisten the mixture with sweet cider until juicy.

  7. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

Assemble and bake

  1. When ready to bake, heat the desired amount of mince-meat in a crock or jar.

  2. Make a rich pastry.

  3. Fill the pie with mince-meat.

  4. Add small bits of butter, whole raisins, and slices of citron.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  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

Meat
Provides the bulk and savoury body of the filling after boiling until tender.
Suet
Adds richness and moisture, and its fat keeps the filling juicy and smooth.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and natural sweetness to the filling.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a deep molasses flavour that balances the meat and spices.
Cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg
Provide warm aromatic flavour that defines the character of mincemeat.
Lemons
Their rind and juice add bright acidity and aroma that cut through the richness.

The step that matters

Moisten the mixture with sweet cider until juicy. Mincemeat is dense and dry without enough liquid, so the filling needs moisture to stay tender and juicy when baked. Add the cider gradually so the mixture is moist but not soupy.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, raisin, sugar, syrup, lemon, cinnamon, clove):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, raisin, sugar, syrup, lemon, cinnamon, clove. 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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