Mincemeat!

[psfred]

I have a recipe for mincemeat I should try sometime, includes beef and beef suet. I love mincemeat, the family is so-so on it, and I have a friend who will not touch it (and doesn't even want to smell it) -- got sick at Thanksgiving once when he was a kid right after eating some, seems to be wired into his head now that it's gonna make him sick.

I may try the recipe someday, probably not this year but who knows.

 

[The Count of Merkur Cristo]

My dad was German/Irish and he sometimes had a thick slice of cheddar on his apple pie! I have had it this way a time or two. [...].

Dave:

...where I was born...we do this too!

BTW...being a original Northern boy & born in East Lansing, Michigan...;

"Pie without cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze". Park Benjamin, Sr.

 

[FarmerTan]

Mom's apple pies were lard crust (as was every pie she made) and the apples were dredged in cinnamon, sugar and a little flour before being put in the shell and the lid crimped on. She also liked to have a slice or two of sharp cheddar with it. I had a friend who would take a turkey baster and pump some heavy cream in under the top crust just before taking it out of the oven. It'd make a creamy filling once it cooled. He liked it; I wasn't quite so sure. But, hey...pie.

If I have lots of time, I like to macerate the apples in sugar and cinnamon for an hour or so. Then drain the released juice off into a saucepan and reduce it on the stove to about a soft ball stage before putting on top of the apples in the crust. I also like to use grapefruit juice and zest instead of orange; it was originally a Mrs. Hippie response to "we're outta oranges" and we just kept doing it.

And just to be clear, there ain't but four pieces to a pie. Four friends show up for pie, you'd better have two pies.

O.H.

If I ever make it past the Mounties my friend I will call ahead and order a pie!

 

[galopede]

We can't move for mince pies at this time of the year in the UK! Every supermarket does their own brand as well as the branded ones. Basic ones, fancy luxury ones, you name it they have them.

Gareth

 

[Ankerwycke]

My mum used to make the mincemeat in October along with the Christmas cake and Pud, and in December she’d make mince pies by the bucket load.
This year we bought our mince pies from a local farm shop; they’re delicious and better than any from a supermarket.

 

[Ankerwycke]

This near 200 year old mincemeat recipe calls for 1lb of ox tongue, half pint of brandy, and half pint of sherry, among other things!

 

[Lightcs1776]

Interesting thread. I happen to like mincemeat quite a bit, but haven’t had it in a few years as I needed to reduce my sugar consumption. I was telling my wife about a week ago that I need to look for a recipe for it so I can make my own. I would swap out the sugar for alulous (spelling may be off) or some other calorie free sweetener.

 

[JimmyCB]

When I was younger in the 1950s and 1960s, supermarkets in suburban Washington, DC always stocked mincemeat pies around Christmas. I haven't seen mincemeat pies for sale in decades. I always enjoyed them, but they seem to have largely disappeared around here.

 

[Old Hippie]

Interesting thread. I happen to like mincemeat quite a bit, but haven’t had it in a few years as I needed to reduce my sugar consumption. I was telling my wife about a week ago that I need to look for a recipe for it so I can make my own.

At various times I've used different sweeteners according to either whim or necessity. I can speak to a few:

Xylitol: Measures just like sugar. Xylitol has 40 per cent of the calories of sugar, and as an added benefit may also have some qualities that help to protect your teeth. (Which is one reason why it's often used to sweeten mouthwash.) Xylitol has one downside, however. If you have dogs, don't use xylitol. It's poisonous to dogs. I like it because it acts more like sugar in most things, but I haven't used it for a while since we've had Princess Flapdoodle the Operatic Dachshund.

Erythritol: Measures just like sugar. I'm told there is nothing in erythritol that humans can assimilate, so it's sweet and then it goes away through your kidneys. Zero calorie because of that. It's OK but I find that in baked goods like cookies it tends to make them harder than if made using sugar. Also erythritol has a cooling effect, which you will notice eating a cookie, as it suddenly feels cold in your mouth. On something, like fruit, it's pretty much like sugar. Unlike sugar, erythritol does not stay dissolved in liquids (or jams or jellies) and will crystallize out in fairly short order. It goes back into solution if the product is warmed, but comes right out again when it cools.

Stevia: Super sweet; there are formulations that measure like sugar. I don't like stevia. It seems to me that things sweetened with stevia turn out strange. It's like the sweetness is there but it's not part of the food somehow. Which makes the food taste bland to me with this weird supersweet top note that doesn't connect to the food. Unpleasant. Mrs. Hippie likes it, so obviously it's subjective.

We've also experimented with Monk Fruit. Another zero calorie product. There's a formulation blended with erythritol that we've found. It seems at first glance like it solves some of my complaints with erythritol but more research is indicated.

I haven't used Splenda for a long time. I don't remember that it was all that great.

If you don't have dogs in your life I'd say explore xylitol. If you do, look for some erythritol. It seems there is magic in some blends, like the Monk Fruit/erythritol blend I mentioned. Feels (instead of just tastes) like sugar when you eat it in something.

O.H.

 

[Old Hippie]

I don't often see mincemeat pies shown with sauce. While I suppose a pitcher of custard would be just as good, that wasn't the foodway in which I grew up. We had rum sauce made to a simple recipe:

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a small saucepan. Stir together 1/2 cup sugar and 4 teaspoons cornstarch. Remove pan from heat and mix in the sugar blend, then add (all at once) 1 cup water and 1 tablespoon of rum. You're not going to break the sauce using more rum, so feel free to use two tablespoons. Live dangerously. (This is to say I usually just put in "enough.")

Heat and stir until it boils and thickens. You may dribble it demurely over your pie or if you wish you may attempt to float your pie in a lake of sauce in a soup plate. It's all good; we don't judge.

O.H.

 

[Lightcs1776]

At various times I've used different sweeteners according to either whim or necessity. I can speak to a few:

Xylitol: Measures just like sugar. Xylitol has 40 per cent of the calories of sugar, and as an added benefit may also have some qualities that help to protect your teeth. (Which is one reason why it's often used to sweeten mouthwash.) Xylitol has one downside, however. If you have dogs, don't use xylitol. It's poisonous to dogs. I like it because it acts more like sugar in most things, but I haven't used it for a while since we've had Princess Flapdoodle the Operatic Dachshund.

Erythritol: Measures just like sugar. I'm told there is nothing in erythritol that humans can assimilate, so it's sweet and then it goes away through your kidneys. Zero calorie because of that. It's OK but I find that in baked goods like cookies it tends to make them harder than if made using sugar. Also erythritol has a cooling effect, which you will notice eating a cookie, as it suddenly feels cold in your mouth. On something, like fruit, it's pretty much like sugar. Unlike sugar, erythritol does not stay dissolved in liquids (or jams or jellies) and will crystallize out in fairly short order. It goes back into solution if the product is warmed, but comes right out again when it cools.

Stevia: Super sweet; there are formulations that measure like sugar. I don't like stevia. It seems to me that things sweetened with stevia turn out strange. It's like the sweetness is there but it's not part of the food somehow. Which makes the food taste bland to me with this weird supersweet top note that doesn't connect to the food. Unpleasant. Mrs. Hippie likes it, so obviously it's subjective.

We've also experimented with Monk Fruit. Another zero calorie product. There's a formulation blended with erythritol that we've found. It seems at first glance like it solves some of my complaints with erythritol but more research is indicated.

I haven't used Splenda for a long time. I don't remember that it was all that great.

If you don't have dogs in your life I'd say explore xylitol. If you do, look for some erythritol. It seems there is magic in some blends, like the Monk Fruit/erythritol blend I mentioned. Feels (instead of just tastes) like sugar when you eat it in something.

O.H.

Excellent overview of sweeteners. We have pups, so no xylitol. The alulous, and again I may be killing the spelling, doesn’t crystallize like erythritol. We always have monk fruit and stevia, but no longer use it for baked goods.

 

[Ankerwycke]

This should be worth trying. It’s the late Queen Elizabeth II pastry chef’s recipe.

 

[psfred]

Here is the recipe I have, from Ann Seranne's 1950 "complete book of home baking". Excellent book, I have a nearly disintegrated copy in paperback from the early 80's.

For 5 pies:

1/2 pound lean beef, boiled and chopped
1/2 pound beef kidney suet, chopped
3 3/4 pounds raw apples, peeled and chopped
1/2 pound currants
1 pound seedless raisins, chopped
1 tablespoon salt
3 ounces each, candied orange rind, candied lemon rind, and candied citron, chopped
Grated rind of 2 lemons
5 cups brown sugar
3 tablespoon cinammon
2 teaspoons nutmeg
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
5 cups cider


Combine all ingredients in a large kettle and cook gently for 2 hours. Cool and place in clean quart jars and seal tightly, will keep for 6 months.

I would reduce the salt some, and put into sterile jars while boiling, same as I do tomato sauce.

I suspect this is, like most of the recipes in the book, very old. I may try this while I'm off this week, I love mincemeat pies.

 

[Old Hippie]

Combine all ingredients in a large kettle and cook gently for 2 hours. Cool and place in clean quart jars and seal tightly, will keep for 6 months.

I would reduce the salt some, and put into sterile jars while boiling, same as I do tomato sauce.

It looks like a good recipe! However, I strongly urge you not to use a boiling water bath to can it. Modern canning advice for non-acid foods and meat products is to pressure can it. The Ball Blue Book of Preserving recommends 10 psi, 90 minutes for both pints and quarts (after you have purged the air from the canner with live steam). Make sure you check your altitude against time/temperature. We always have to pressure can at 15 psi, or extend water bath times by five minutes, to account for our elevation.

O.H.

 

[Old Hippie]

Mincemeat, like fruitcake, is complex. It's a relic of the days when people demonstrated their affluence by using lots of "exotic" spices. I usually make green-tomato mincemeat, which helps with the garden cleanup at the end of the summer. For years I've used the recipe in the Ball Blue Book of Preserving. I have a couple of recent editions that I keep around for the recipes that aren't continued in the updated editions. My copy of this recipe isn't antique but it's not new.

I'll say I'm not a huge fan of what they've done with the most recent Blue Book. They're more about what you can make with the preserved food than they are about actually preserving it in the first place. Seems odd to me. Maybe I just haven't spent enough time with it to get a feel for their presentation. OK Boomer, let's move on...

Green Tomato Mincemeat (Ball Blue Book of Preserving, 2008 Edition, p. 62)

2 quarts chopped and cored green tomatoes
1 Tbsp. salt
2 1/2 quarts peeled, cored, chopped apples
3 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 cups chopped suet
1 pound raisins
2/3 cup chopped orange pulp
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 cup vinegar

Put tomatoes in a large bowl. Sprinkle with salt. Let stand 1 hour. Rinse and drain.

Cover tomatoes with boiling water. Let stand 5 minutes. Drain.

Combine all ingredients in a large pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat. Simmer 15 minutes.

Ladle hot mincemeat into hot jars, leaving 1 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles, adjust caps.

Process both pints and quarts for 1 hour 30 minutes at 10 pounds per square inch in a steam pressure canner. Makes about five quarts.

Some personal notes: I use a meat grinder with a 1/4-inch plate to chop the tomatoes after they've been drained following the boiling water soak. This means I cut them up in smallish chunks before the soak which seems to make the salt step go better as well.

Once I've run the tomatoes through I put in the apples. I also usually just quarter an orange, check for seeds, and then run the whole thing through the grinder. Love that orange peel taste!

I have used suet as well as alternative fats. Suet's traditional. If you're cooking for vegetarians you may want to find an alternative. I've used plant-based fats and find that harder fats give better texture. You can use liquid vegetable oils if that's what you have. I've used non-hydrogenated shortening as well as essentially the same formula with a butter flavour. I like both the traditional and the plant-based versions.

Likewise I have experimented with alternative sweeteners. As mentioned above, I like xylitol but can't use it because of the dog. As most alternative sweetners mimic white sugar, adding a quarter cup of blackstrap molasses alongside them helps to give that brown-sugar depth.

Finally, since I like pie cherries in my mincemeat I will occasionally mix them into the batch. I usually add them when building the pie; a quart/litre of mincemeat and a couple of cups of thawed frozen pie cherries will nicely fill a 10-inch deep pie (you may need a little cornstarch to gel the additional liquid from the cherries).

And yeah; it's a pie so it only has four pieces. Truth to be told I tend not to eat a full-sized piece of pie these days. Smaller pieces for children and the elderly. I guess I'm one or the other; sometimes both if you can believe that.

O.H.