Mincemeat Pie -- How to make the filling?!????

All you need is a good can opener.

Just reporting back. The mincemeat pie was a complete success. We ground up the meat and suet ourselves using the new meat grinding attachment we got to use with our KitchenAid Mixer. Worked like a charm.

We dumped all of the ingredients together eventually and started adding the booze. Crikey it took a lot over the course of the week following when we put it together before the next weekend when we baked it into the pie for our Xmas gathering with Mrs. TJ's family. But her mother approved and thus it was a complete success.

I swear, we dumped a bottle and a half of Port into it, then maybe a quarter bottle of cognac, a quarter bottle of Sherry, a small amount of Calvados and I still think I am forgetting something. It does have an alcoholic tinge to it, but in a completely savory way once it has been baked into a pie crust.

Dee-lish.

www.vinocellar.com -- Mm-Mm-good

Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, my grandmother would make the best mincemeat pies I've ever tasted. The only problem was she considered it a secret recipe and would never share it with anyone. We tried for decades to pry it out of her, but she was too stubborn. All I know is the meat used was from the neck of an elk, (not too difficult to find in this area) mixed with beef suet.
A few months ago, at the age of 89, she had a stroke, and is now unable to relinquish it even if she wanted to.
So the moral of the story, I guess, is if you find a recipe you like, PLEASE share it with your friends and loved ones.

"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women!" --Homer Simpson

"I'll make mincemeat out of the mouse!!!"

Cartoon Trivia? _________________

I got curious when I read this thread, as I thought mince pies actually were meatless! I found a small article about it´s history:

"Mince pies can be traced back to the spiced meat pies containing fruit that were very much to medieval Britain´s taste. Later, 17-th century mince pies were hand-raised creations with a sturdy crust of pastry that incorporated lard and hot water to make it pliable enough to mold into shape.
The mincemeat filling was made in heroic quantities and stored in stoneware jars, sometimes for a year or more. A recipe of the time by Lady Portland included four punds of meat to eight puonds of suet, along with apples, candied peel, dates, lemons and spices, scented with rosewater and containing enough sugar to act as a preservative as well as a sweetener.
Some cooks prised open the pastry lid of their pie during cooking to sprinkle more sugar over the filling. Others frosted the crust halfway through baking with a frothy royal icing mix of egg white and sugar to add sparkle.
Meat content varied from region to region. Cumberland mince pies contained about one-third lean mutton to two-thirds fruit, whileCornish cooks made their pies with mutton, pigeons, apples and onions, moistened with a sweetened brown stock. Over the border in Devon, mutton pies with prunes, cinnamon and brown sugar were eaten with clotted cream.
Renowned cook and writer Eliza Acton had a 19th century recipe that contained boiled and chopped ox tongue plus beef kidney suet. The other great victorian cook, Isabella Beeton, made her mincemeat with suet but no meat - one senses here a tradition that was already in decline. It was in sheep-farming districts that cooks held on longest to the meat in their mince pies, some into the 20th century. However,the majority of our 21st century mince pies will be meatless, with even the suet usually being of politically correct vegetarian origin."

This was from the christmas issue of the British food magazine Good Food.

Mince pies ARE meatless. Hence, minceMEAT pies are meat-full.

Thanks for the info, though. James Beard wrote that he's kept some mince 'alive' for over 5 years. Our mincemeat is only about 5 or 6 weeks old now.

www.vinocellar.com -- Mm-Mm-good

Kicker - well done. I was going to point out that original mince pies had real meat and it's really only since Victoria's time that we've even had meatless (though lard and suet filled) mince pies.

I have a copy of Mrs Beeton's cookbook! Its a modern copy but you wouldn't believe it by the recipes. Astonishingly it is edited by Bridget Jones I kid you not!

Lady K has started the website: www.KillerB.biz

quote:

Originally posted by mneeley490:
Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, my grandmother would make the best mincemeat pies I've ever tasted. The only problem was she considered it a secret recipe and would never share it with anyone. We tried for decades to pry it out of her, but she was too stubborn. All I know is the meat used was from the neck of an elk, (not too difficult to find in this area) mixed with beef suet.
A few months ago, at the age of 89, she had a stroke, and is now unable to relinquish it even if she wanted to.
So the moral of the story, I guess, is if you find a recipe you like, PLEASE share it with your friends and loved ones.

"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women!" --Homer Simpson

Ah, 12 years later, and my grandmother passed on a few years ago. However, my mother was belatedly going through some of her things (the have a freakin' storage trailer parked in back of their home full of stuff!), and found the recipe in my grandmother's handwriting! It's dated 1988, and I remember having these pies in the 60's & 70's, so hopefully it isn't too different.
I'm cooking up a half batch right now. (Original recipe makes 10 quarts!) It's going to be a 2 day affair, I think. Hers doesn't call for much alcohol, she was NOT a drinker, but she does finish it off with a couple tablespoons of red wine before baking. I may have to add something a little more potent...

I made a half batch (supplemented with a little cognac), and so far have baked 4 pies and brought them to parties. What I've learned, is that many people can't seem to get past the "meat" part. Those who liked it tended to be my age (55) or older.
My next door neighbor came home with an elk last week, so I traded him some homemade bacon and brats for some neck meat and shoulder roasts.

I never knew mincemeat pies had meat in them. I thought they were just gloppy sweet sweet stuff.

quote:

Originally posted by Board-O:
I never knew mincemeat pies had meat in them. I thought they were just gloppy sweet sweet stuff.

That's just the new stuff.

Us old folks should remember the meat in the pies. You got amnesia?

I guess I just never had one with meat in it. After a couple of tastes of the sweet stuff, I've avoided it.

The gloppy sweet stuff is overloaded with sugar and raisins. But the good stuff is savory/sweet. Plum pudding doesn't have plums in it but it's another of those old time savory puddings that were usually baked or steamed. I guess they once used plums but others have said that raisins were sometimes called plums in England. I have no idea but do like the stuff. I guess the point was that the fruit itself contained sufficient sweetness. Today they add fresh apples and sugar and it's pretty bad.

But the old ones could be kept for a year or at least several months for the flavors to develop. Many years ago I used to make them. Lots of work and nobody appreciated them as much as I do so I stopped.

quote:

Originally posted by GregT:
Many years ago I used to make them. Lots of work and nobody appreciated them as much as I do so I stopped.

I'm beginning to see why. My grandmother always said that she made them for me. I didn't realize that she meant that literally.

quote:

Originally posted by GregT:
The gloppy sweet stuff is overloaded with sugar and raisins. But the good stuff is savory/sweet. Plum pudding doesn't have plums in it but it's another of those old time savory puddings that were usually baked or steamed. I guess they once used plums but others have said that raisins were sometimes called plums in England. I have no idea but do like the stuff. I guess the point was that the fruit itself contained sufficient sweetness. Today they add fresh apples and sugar and it's pretty bad.

But the old ones could be kept for a year or at least several months for the flavors to develop. Many years ago I used to make them. Lots of work and nobody appreciated them as much as I do so I stopped.

The christmas pudding we had this year was three years old. Made in england and soaked in booze (how it keeps) it was maybe the best one I've ever had.

quote:

Originally posted by Rob_Sutherland:

quote:

Originally posted by GregT:
The gloppy sweet stuff is overloaded with sugar and raisins. But the good stuff is savory/sweet. Plum pudding doesn't have plums in it but it's another of those old time savory puddings that were usually baked or steamed. I guess they once used plums but others have said that raisins were sometimes called plums in England. I have no idea but do like the stuff. I guess the point was that the fruit itself contained sufficient sweetness. Today they add fresh apples and sugar and it's pretty bad.

But the old ones could be kept for a year or at least several months for the flavors to develop. Many years ago I used to make them. Lots of work and nobody appreciated them as much as I do so I stopped.

The christmas pudding we had this year was three years old. Made in england and soaked in booze (how it keeps) it was maybe the best one I've ever had.

Booze makes a lot of stuff better

Open the jar, add brandy.

quote:

Originally posted by Rob_Sutherland:
The christmas pudding we had this year was three years old. Made in england and soaked in booze (how it keeps) it was maybe the best one I've ever had.

How is this "pudding" made? I've never had one. I hope it's not like haggis. Sorry haggis!!

PH

I had haggis about a half dozen times in Scotland and loved it, however no two were even remotely similar.