Traditional Mincemeat

[David Ross]

Just because the Holidays are over doesn’t mean that I put away my Holiday Recipe Box. The 2011 Holidays will creep up on us sooner than we realize, so it’s never too late, (or too early), to begin preparing a few things now.

Mincemeat and Fruitcake are two Holiday sweets that can, (and really should), be prepared at least a year in advance. Time is in your favor when it comes to mincemeat and fruitcake because it allows the fruits to steep in brandy or other liquors while at the same time mingling the flavors in the mixture.

Unfortunately, “traditional” mincemeat is a rare-find on market shelves these days. While many of the commercial mincemeats are quite good, (boozy, fruity and spicy), they fail to include the single most important ingredient to the traditional dish-meat.

Forsaking a store-bought jar of mincemeat for our Holiday Pies in 2011, this month I made a batch of traditional mincemeat using venison that I sourced from D’Artagnan. My Grandmother Ross always used venison when she canned mincemeat, yet other wild game like elk or wild boar would also be good in a traditional mincemeat.

Many local markets still have candied fruits on the shelves in the baking aisle in January to sell off any stock left over from the Holidays. And I’m lucky that one of the local supermarkets always has frozen beef suet available. Suet lends flavor and moisture to the mincemeat and without it, it just doesn’t taste as good.

Traditional Mincemeat-

4cups ground venison

6 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and diced

1 cup ground beef suet

1 cup dark raisins

½ cup currants

4 cups sugar

1 cup dark molasses

½ cup apple cider vinegar

¼lb. citron, chopped

¼lb. candied pineapple, chopped

1 lemon, juice and zest

1 orange, juice and zest

1 tsp. crush juniper berries

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. ground cloves

1 tsp. ground ginger

1 tsp. ground allspice

1 tsp. salt

1 cup brandy

Saute the venison in a skillet until browned, then drain off liquid.

Place the venison, apples, suet, raisins and currants in a food processor and pulse until the mixture is combined.

Spoon the mixture in a large bowl and add all the remaining ingredients and mix to combine.

At this point, I put the prepared mincemeat in a Tupperware container and place it in the freezer. Yet I couldn’t resist temptation and had to use some of the mincemeat to make a “Post-Holiday” pie.

What meat(s) do you put in your traditional mincemeat?

[vice]

That looks awesome. Must go get suet tomorrow.

[Edward J]

Wish I could be so brave....

I DO make my ow mince meat--and sell it in my store, but it's meatless. Lots of stuff in there, and I candy my own ornjage peel, lemon peel, and cherries.

[chromedome]

I generally use meat in mine, though it was meatless this year except for the suet.

Either pork or beef is fine, though I'll use game for preference if I've got it. Around here (New Brunswick, Canada) the traditional choice is the neck meat of a deer or moose, though beef neck is considered an adequate replacement if you haven't been hunting.

[Kay]

Your pie looks utterly gorgeous. I am really wanting to try this but I would have to compromise on several of the ingredients. I may give it a go just the same.

My dad was raised an Iowa farmboy, born 1920. His grandmother made her mincemeat with the so tender meat from a hogs head that had been boiled in a great, black kettle, over an open fire, outside of the house in the farm yard.

If I cannot find suet or even decent lard, what would be the next best fat to use, possibly unsalted butter, oil, other?

[janeer]

I use venison shoulder/neck when I can get it, beef chuck roast when I can't. I simmer the meat, whole, then chop it and add some of the broth to the mincemeat. One ingredient that I can no longer find anywhere is seeded muscats; I used these in both my mincemeat and my plum puddings. I have looked everywhere, so if anyone has a source, please let me know.

[andiesenji]

You might want to check out this topic Pork Cake

I posted the recipe for pork mincemeat and a fruit cake made with same.

The recipe notes "cooked" lean pork because I usually use meat left over from a pork roast but it works just as well with lean raw pork and this was used by Viva who posted some excellent photos of her procedure and the results.

This mincemeat can be canned but it is easier to vacuum pack and freeze it if you need to store it for a long time or just in a freezer container if you are going to use it within three months or so.

The pork mincemeat is extremely versatile. Besides pies, cakes, empanadas or pocket pies, it also works in stuffing for all kinds of meat and poultry.

I used it in "stuffing" for a crown roast of pork, with the addition of cubed raw apples, diced celery and onions, about 1/2 the total, mixed into the mincemeat.

Edited January 16, 2011 by andiesenji (log)

[jackal10]

I gave a recipe although the pictures have been lost in Autumn and Festive Preserves in eGCI

Mincemeat

Ahh mince pies!

I don’t know why more people don’t make their own mincemeat, as it is so easy and so much better than shop-bought. Making mince pies with home made micemeat to the sound of the carol service broadcast from King’s College marks the start of the festivities for me

Mincemeat originally was a way of preserving meat for the winter, with lots of spices, dried fruit, alcohol and sugar. The meat was used as a pie filling, or part of a porridge or stuffed into a sausage skin for a pudding After a while people noticed it tasted even better if they left out the meat, except for some fat to melt and give richness and unctuousness. A few people still include neck meat or kidney, but mostly out of tradition rather than taste

On the other hand if you can get real kidney suet from your butcher and shred your own, your mince meat will be all the better and more authentic Otherwise you will have to make do with the packet stuff. If you don’t eat meat then butter is better than the dubious (and often stale) hydrogenated fats that pass for some vegetable suets.

1lb/500g each of

cooking apples, weighed after peeling, coring and chopping Use a firm apple like Granny Smith.

currants

seedless raisins

sultanas

brown sugar

finely chopped suet

1/2lb/250g chopped mixed candied peel, glace cherries etc

grated rind and juice of 2 lemons

2 oz chopped almonds (optional)

½ tsp ground sweet mixed spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves – as for pumpkin pie)

1/2pt+ 1 glass rum or brandy. (Not optional!)

Mix it all together.

Pack into jars. Seal. Drink the spare glass of rum or brandy.

Leave for a month before using as a pie or tart filling.

One jar nicely fills an 8 inch pie dish.

Also great as a filling for baked apples.

Will keep a year, but may dry out a little. Revive by stirring in another glass of spirits,

[nakji]

I made mince pies for Christmas this year, as many of my co-workers are from the UK and enjoy the taste of home. When I was younger, my mother made mincemeat with deer my father had got, but these were made with jarred M&S product - meatless.

[mkayahara]

I recently made my first homemade mincemeat, using Fergus Henderson's recipe in Beyond Nose to Tail. It calls for suet but no meat. It also calls for poached quinces, which I thought was pretty cool. (I'm a sucker for quinces.) So far I haven't used it in anything (I'm planning a pie for Christmas Eve), but the samples I've snuck have tasted great!

[mkayahara]

I need some help! When I made up my first half-batch of mincemeat, I poached a full recipe's worth of quinces. They sat in the fridge for a little while, until I realized I wasn't likely to use them for anything else right now, so I made another half-batch of mincemeat, and canned it in Mason jars using a boiling-water bath. (That is, not a pressure canner.) The recipe in Beyond Nose to Tail sanctions this, but after I pulled them out of the water, I started to have doubts. Most of the ingredients are acidic (raisins, apples, lemon and orange juice) and there's no meat (which I would never can except in a pressure canner)... but there's the question of the suet. Does the acid from the lemon juice sufficiently combine with fat to prevent the growth of botulism? Is a recipe like this safe to store at room temperature?

[MelissaH]

My gut instinct is, no. I think I'd re-process in a pressure canner, to be safe, unless you have space in your fridge or freezer. Then again, when I process my MIL's apple pie filling (apples, sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, salt, water, lemon juice), I always use the pressure canner even for that.

MelissaH