Trying to translate a cooking recipe into Latin, I stumbled upon the ingredient “ground meat” and wondered how to best render this in Latin. Since ground meat is not actually, well, ground (molita, contrita, these seem inappropriate) but minced (hence also “minced meat” or simply “mince”), we could maybe say: caro concisa vel consecata.
For “hash,” Smith & Hall also offer: minutal, which they also give for “mince.” But that does not have to be meat. Forcellini just defines minutal as: genus edulii ex oleribus, aliisve cibis minutatim concisis, varieque conditis. That does not really sound like ground meat to me. Maybe one could say minutal carnis?
Smith & Hall also have an entry for “mince-meat,” but in the figurative sense: “Phr.: to make m. of one’s enemies, fartum facere ex hostibus, Pl. Mil. 1, 1, 8 (= ita minutatim concidere, ut solent coqui carnes dissecare farciminibus faciendis, Forcell.).” The problem with fartum (well, apart from the obvious, if you're writing for an English-speaking audience; in that case you could follow Forcellini and say farcimen) is that it really means “filling” or “stuffing.” (Plautus again: non vestem amatores mulieris amant, sed vestis fartum, Most. 1, 3, 13; papae hanc imaginem mentis!)
So what word do I use for ground or minced meat?