# What's the deal with mincemeat? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 25, 2003, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-mincemeat/190895 "2003-07-25T15:48:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bare](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bare/32/471_2.png) [@bare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bare)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-mincemeat/190895/21 "2003-07-26T00:56:01Z")
montana cricket’s got it right. Originally mincemeat was just another way of preserving meat without refrigeration. Maybe it’s just because I’m from Montana too that I make real mincemeat. Every year around thanksgiving I make a big batch, usually from the necks of deer, elk or even bear and can what we can’t use immediately. Thanksgiving neatly coincides with the end of deer season around here. Not many will turn down one of my mincemeat pies, the recipe, compliments of my grandmother and probably her grandmother before her. Mincemeat is also the main ingredient, other than rum, for all the fruitcakes that take up an entire extra refrigerator in the shed, prepared a year in advance for the Christmas season. Since I acquired a few vegitarians by marriage, I was forced to find and develop a vegitarian mincemeat recipe. Ain’t nearly as good. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-mincemeat/190895/22 "2003-07-26T01:08:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dogface \* > \*\*Modern mincemeat contains no meat, although it is still not uncommon for it to contain chopped suet. It will have raisins, apples, currants, pears, and/or other such fruits. It will also have cinnamon and other spices. > > Old-style mincemeat (as in more than 100 years ago) might or might not have meat in it in addition to the fruit. \*\* Oh does that sound GOOD! Is it hard to make? BTW, what is “suet” exactly? Is it lard? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-mincemeat/190895/23 "2003-07-26T01:24:49Z")
Oh wait, someone answered that already. Just call me Emily Litella. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![bare](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bare/32/471_2.png) [@bare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bare)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-mincemeat/190895/24 "2003-07-26T04:25:11Z")
Vegie mincemeat 6 pounds baking apples (such as Jonathan or McIntosh), peeled, cored, chopped 2 cups dried cranberries 2 cups golden raisins 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts 1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar 1/2 cup brandy 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces 1/2 cup apple cider or apple juice 1/2 cup unsulfured (light) molasses 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 4 teaspoons grated lemon peel 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves Pinch of salt Cook it all up in a heavy pot, I use a dutch oven, stirring frequently until it starts to thicken up. Takes about an hour, stick it in jars and refrigerate, can it or freeze it. I think it tastes best if it ages a few days ---
**Author:** ![I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_can_t_believe_that_s_butter)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-mincemeat/190895/25 "2003-07-26T06:16:41Z")
> [@](#): > > **Modern supermarket varieties may no longer contain it, but what we buy from the bitcher still does.** Yeah, I read _A Tree Grows In Brooklyn_ as well. Good book. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_can_t_believe_that_s_butter)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-mincemeat/190895/26 "2003-07-26T06:22:40Z")
> [@](#): > > **Modern supermarket varieties may no longer contain it, but what we buy from the bitcher still does.** Yeah, I read _A Tree Grows In Brooklyn_ as well. Good book. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-mincemeat/190895/27 "2003-07-26T21:03:02Z")
Just chiming in to say that in my family, we make mincemeat with ground beef, apples, oranges, lemons, apple juice, suet, raisins, and currents. That’s the way it’s always been, so far as my parents tell me. Then we top it off with hard sauce. just 6 months to Christmas! ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-mincemeat/190895/28 "2003-07-26T21:18:38Z")
plus molasses and vinegar! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-mincemeat/190895/29 "2003-07-26T21:53:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Guinastasia \* > \*\*BTW, what is “suet” exactly? Is it lard? \*\* Suet is one of God’s gifts to those who have eyes to see. It is not lard. In a sense, it is the anti-lard. Lard is a rendered, usually soft, pork fat product. Suet is the un-rendered hard white fat from around the kidneys of cattle. It simply cannot be adequately replaced in certain dishes, and I absolutely refuse to even try to make a Christmas pudding without it. It has a very high melting temperature and an extremely clean non-flavor that make it very nice in dishes like the traditional pudding. A pudding of that sort (at least as I make it) has no “leavening” at all. Instead, I freeze and finely chop suet, which I mix into the batter just before beginning to steam. During steaming, the batter will start to set up (cook) before the suet melts. Then the suet will melt and leave spaces, thus preventing the pudding from being a brick. It is a monument to anti-diet cooking that won’t spoil a diet–it really is so rich that only a true glutton (or one of my ceiling-bouncing children) can eat more than a tiny amount at a time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-mincemeat/190895.md?page=1)