Some people hate it, and some people love it, but I don’t know anybody who is indifferent to it. I love mincemeat. And I am not talking about that sissy British vegetarian stuff, either. Good old American mincemeat made with the actual flesh of a dead animal. I use it not only in pies (with a lard crust, of course), but I sometimes eat it plain, or use it as a filling in bar cookies, or as a topping for vanilla ice cream, or as a substitute for applesauce in an applesauce cake recipe.
In my family I’ve been in charge of making the mincemeat for the last five or ten years. Well, I caught hell at Thanksgiving for not making any this year, so I did it tonight.
People do seem to get a little overwrought on the subject. “Grind the raisins!” “No, leave them whole!” “Grind the raisin, I say!” “You’re not putting that in are you?” “Oh, put a little more of that in, Dear.” Clever me, I did it when I was home alone. Tough luck for the whole-raisin-lovers and that-haters; I ground the raisins this year and put in an extra splash of that. That, by the way, is French brandy, an abomindation to some, indispensible to others. I guarantee enough brandy will compensate for any mistake in the ingredients.
I use my grandmother’s recipe (sort of). I’ve got the whole evolution of the thing in black and white. She started with a cookbook recipe and added some changes in the margins. Then my mother made some more changes, and then I made yet more. It’s practically unrecognizable as the same recipe by now. It’s similar to this recipe, if you double all the ingredients and add some oranges and citron.
Sound off Dopers! What do you have to say about mincemeat?
That make’s me wonder what my Grandma’s recipe for Minecmeat is… for some reason I got the idea there wasn’t actually meat in it but then I’ve never actually watched anyone make it… I should ask my Mom (who knows my Grandma’s recipe) One of the best recipes for it though are Cape Breton Pork Pies they are little sweet pastries with icing on top and are soo yummy I could eat a whole batch to myself (and a whole batch consist of a few dozen… maybe 3 or 4 dozen)
I’ve only had mincemeat pie once, and my mother assured me there was no meat in it. :o
Now, you come along and destoy my faith in all things good and pure! Egads, what next? No Santa Claus?
Now I really don’t want to try it again…
NOW I want to try it!! Damn… and I just KNOW you probably can’t just go buy a pie from a store… and even if you could it probably wouldnt be a good one.
you have to “know” people to eat stuff like that don’t you?
There’re two kinds of mincemeat pies: The “real” kind with cinnamon, currants, raisins, and chopped up bits of meat (pork or beef, usually) and the other kind, which is more like a raisin pie.
Your mom might have been telling the truth after all.
I’d like to make some but my husband gets this look on his face like I’d suggested eating something from the litter box so I’ve kind of put it on the back burner for now.
Yum…mincemeat.
I’m with you: none of that wimpy, vegetarian stuff. Give me a bold mincemeat, one that puts hair on the chest…er, well, you know what I mean!
TopazAntares, I read somewhere that Alberta is one of the few places in the Commonwealth that makes mincemeat with animal flesh. The vegetarian version is found mostly in the Commonwealth countries (including most of Canada, I think). It is similar to what we in the USA call mock mincemeat, except that mock mincemeat contains green tomatoes.
I haven’t been able to find out which came first, the vegetarian or carnivorous version. “Meat” in this context may have its older meaning “food” and not “animal flesh”. I wonder if people heard it called mincemeat and assumed it ought to contain animal flesh. Or maybe it was originally made with animal flesh and the meat was omitted in a time of scarcity.
The meat is usually beef and/or beef tongue, but I have seen recipes calling for venison, moose meat, or caribou/reindeer meat. How’s that for a Christmas Eve pie: reindeer mincemeat. It’s almost as appetizing as fried rabbit for Easter.
[Horshack voice on] ooo, ooo, oooo, oooo[Horshack voice off]
I love mincemeat. Problem is, I’m about the only one who does in my immediate circle, and frankly, I can’t manage to eat an entire pie before it’s um, yucky.
Haven’t had any in ever so long. Last time I was supposed to, was 2 years ago Christmas. There it was, sitting on the stove after Christmas supper. Because I’d done this big production of making ice cream bowls that poked fun at my SO, my mincemeat experience was put off for the next am. I came upstairs the next day, no pies.
Damn dogs (2 Belgian sheepdogs) had helped themselves. one of them had the ** nerve** to come begging for attention later on, not today, sorry, mincemeat breath.
bibliophage I guess I’m going to have to check BOTH my Grandma’s minecmeat recipes then. My Nanna in Nova Scotia’s recipe and my Grandma from here in Alberta’s recipe. We’ll see if either of them have meat in them. Until I saw this thread I had always thought that it was just a name and there wasn’t actually meat in it. But then I haven’t been around when they make mincemeat nor been inclined to ask till now.
Oh and I just thought I’d make it clear I’m fully in the liking mincemeat camp… I just realized that I never actually said whether I liked it or not though considering how I’m talking about it you could infer that I like it…
I’ve had the meatless and the meat kind, by accident of course since I’m from Virginia and it isn’t part of my familie’s tradition. My bro-in-law if from New England and his mom brought some of the real stuff down for Christmas one year. It was OK. He also loves pumpkin which is OK too. But in my family it wouldn’t be the holidays without sweet potato, lemon chess or pecan pie.
Oh yeah, and really good, old fashioned pie crust is always made with lard, no matter what you fill it with.
It’s the opposite story in my house. I hate mincemeat but my hubby loves it. I found that if you make the filling up like for a pie but cook just a little longer until there isn’t as much liquid, they make really nice turnovers. They freeze really well. To be honest they only stay in the freezor for about a week before he gets hungry for the rest of them, but they keep beautifully. You should try this.
My family is firmly in the real mincemeat category (and we’re not from Alberta). My mother has tried various recipes, but settled on the mincemeat recipe in the Anglican Churchladies Cookbook: “Best Recipes This Side of Heaven.” It came from a congregation in Nova Scotia, so I don’t think there’s a neat geographical division here.
I checked one of my British recipe books, which gives a non-meat version, noting “it no longer contains meat as it did in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.” (Garmey, “Great British Cooking: A Well-Kept Secret.”)
Perhaps this is an example of a recipe coming across the Atlantic and staying in its original form, while changing in the Old Country?
(And I’m noticing a pattern in the responses here - I love it, the Beloved won’t touch it - is this one of those things you only find out after you’re married?)
Now you’ve reminded me, I’d better get moving on the ingredients for the weekend.
(And don’t forget the hard sauce for it!!)
By the way, Whammo, I’ve heard mincemeat described as “candied haggis,” if that helps pin down the taste for you.
Well it seems my Grandma from Alberta’s recipe is meatless… she told me she does use suette (is that spelled right?) when she can get some but she rarely can so she uses margerine in it… I’ll check with my Mom (who knows my Nanna’s recipe) if there is meat in Nanna’s but somehow I don’t think there is…
