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Photo Credit
Warren Price Photography/Shutterstock
Yield
Makes 10 to 12 double-crust 9-inch pies.
Category
Meat
Pies and Pastries
Course
Desserts
Other
Preparation Method
Bake
Simmer
Sources
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Have you ever had a real homemade mince pie?We mean the authentic mincemeat pie made with meat (beef, lamb, or wild game) and suet simmering in spices, nuts, andfruit.
During wartime, meat was rationed and started being left out of the holiday recipe. Mince pies became sticky, sweet affairs. These sweet pies can still be delicious if made correctly, but they don’t have the deep, complex savory/sweet flavors of the original mincemeatpie.
If you don’t like mince pie, you actually haven’t had the authentic thing! Give this atry!
The recipe for this tasty mincemeat mixture makes enough filling for close to a dozen pies (or many more small pies), but you can make one or more as you want and refrigerate the unused filling untilneeded.
Ingredients
4 pounds ground beef, gently precooked
8 pounds apples, washed, cored, quartered, and run through coarse grinder blade
3 cups seedless raisins
1 1/2 cups currants
1 pint brown cider vinegar
1 quart orange juice
2 pounds ground suet
2 cups molasses
2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons ground cinnamon, or more to taste
2 tablespoons ground nutmeg, or more to taste
1 tablespoon ground cloves, or more to taste
1 cup brandy (optional)
Pastry for 9-inch double-crust pies
Instructions
- Simmer all ingredients, except pastry, very slowly until cooked (about 2 hours), stirring frequently to preventsticking.
- Line the pie plate with crust. Add filling (between 2 and 2-1/2 cups per pie). Cover with topcrust.
- Bake at 450 degrees F for 15 minutes, then at 350 degrees F for 30minutes.
About The Author
The Almanac Chefs
We love introducing fun new recipes as well as time-tested recipes, straight from the archives!
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Comments
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I remember in the late 30s and early 40s my mom would cook this on the wood stove and then she would can it. We had jars and jars of it, and it was usually made with venison. I loved the mince filled cookies that she made. I've not found any commercial brand that tastes anywhere near it.
- Reply
I prefer to use Godey's Lady's Book's 1864 recipe for Mincemeat without Meat, which can be found in Lily May Spaulding and John Spaulding's "Civil War Recipes: Receipts from the Pages of Godey's Lady's Book". I did have to make some changes, but it is a good recipe and it makes enough for two to four 9" pies. With the brandy and sherry it keeps well. However, it's not for vegans as it calls for half a pound beef suet. I'll put suggestions and/or my changes in brackets.
1 lb hard apples, cut small [I suggest picking a good baking apple for this, peel and core it]
1 lb currants [or same quantity dried cranberries or half dried cranberries and half currants]
1/2 pound beef suet
1/2 pound shred raisin [I still haven't found out what shred rasin is, I just use regular rasins and run them through
the food processor]
1/4 lb (1/2 cup) moist sugar [had to look this up, brown sugar with added molasses seems to come close to what
they were using; either go with 1/2 cup dark brown sugar with 1 tbsp molasses or 1/2
cup light brown sugar with 2 tbsp molasses]
1 oz (2 tbsp) lemon peel, candied
1 oz (2 tbsp) citron peel, candied
1/4 oz (1 1/2 to 2 tsp) cinnamon
1 drachm (3/4 tsp) mace
1 lemon rind, grated [use a zester if you prefer]
1 glass (1/4 cup) brandy [first time I made this I didn't realize the Spauldings had explained in the front of the book
the glasses they were using in the reciepe was closser to a quarter of a cup and I had to
guess on the size glass they meant, ended up more with a 6 to 8 oz glass so that first batch
was extremely boozy]
2 glasses (1/2 cup) sherry
[Run every thing through the raisins through a food processor one at a time and add to a large mixing bowl or salad bowl. Then slowly add in the rest of the ingredients one at a time and mix well. Store in quart containers, tightly closed, for at least two weeks before using to let the flavor develop]
- Reply
What is brown cider?
- Reply
I meant brown cider vinegar.
- Reply
Hello, Ahryun. Thanks for your comment. This recipe is taken from our archives and “back in the day” apple cider vinegar would have been referred to as brown cider vinegar. So in this recipe you would be using apple cidervinegar.
- Reply
Can you substitute lard for suet? I haven't seen suet available.
I do save the fat from beef roasts. Can I substitute that?
- Reply
No, do not substitute the suet. You will likely have no problem getting it. You need to ask at the meat department of your grocery (talk to top person, it's not asked for often enough for part-time butchers to know about). It's not horribly expensive.
- Reply
No way!!! The orange and cinnamon combo always makes me throw up.
- Reply
Could you please scale down the quantities of ingredients for just 1 pie? I might like to try it, but I'm 65 years old and live alone, so I don't need 10 pies! Thanks.
- Reply
Recipe is for a dozen pies so take all ingredients reduce to the lowest common denominator and divide by 12. Tablespoons into teaspoons 1 tbsp = 3 teaspoons therefore 3 tbsps would = 9 teaspoons. Divide by 12 = would be .75 or 3/4 teaspoon. Etc for each ingredients. Good luck
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