Mincemeat...

[Anna Morris]

Mincemeat is one of my favorite things. I make it from scratch and use meat in it. I don't have a regular recipe and since I got the internet I look at a bunch of different recipes and pick and choose and make it different every year.

[Chris G.]

Mincemeat is one of my favorite things. I make it from scratch and use meat in it. I don't have a regular recipe and since I got the internet I look at a bunch of different recipes and pick and choose and make it different every year.

In Britain, they don't use meat as such but they do use "suet" which is a by-product of the slaughter of cattle and other animals.*

Here is a recipe for UK-style mince pies --

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/fi-bird/coastal-mincemeat_b_13546166.html

* Suet = the hard white fat on the kidneys and loins of cattle, sheep, and other animals, used to make foods including puddings, pastry, and mincemeat.

[Sam Flynn]

In Britain, they don't use meat

We used to, at one time ; a mixture of meat and fruit.

[Chris G.]

Interesting information. Thanks, Sam.

[Anna Morris]

Thanks everyone....I actually had something to say in Post #1 but I got interrupted and accidentally posted before I finished and then couldn't delete.

I was looking through a bunch of old time recipes online, deciding how to make it this year. One blog spot said there was an old law in England that is still on the books but not enforced, that mincemeat with meat in it cannot be eaten on Christmas Day and that is why mincemeat started to be made with fruits and no meat.

Since I think of mincemeat as a very English thing I was interested in what everyone here had to say. Some of the very old recipes used dried figs and cherries. Personally I wouldn't do that.

[Sam Flynn]

Meat and fruit usually go well together - duck with orange, cherry or plum sauce; pork with apple; goose (or herring) with gooseberries; turkey and cranberries; ham (or pork) with pineapple.

So, minced meat with figs and cherries? Why not

[Chris G.]

goose ... with gooseberries

But of course. Obvious.

[Anna Morris]

Thanks for the recipe, Chris! I have never seen a recipe like that and think it would be interesting to try. I can't get pickled seaweed but have some pickled cactus leaves which should be somewhat the same, I think. The orange zest pastry sounds interesting. I'll give that a try.

Suet is hard to get here. Someone gave me an elk liver and it had a lot of fat that I trimmed but I am not sure that is the same as the suet from the kidneys. I can look online but have some concerns that fat near the liver could taste like liver.

For now I have pressure cooked some beef that was in the freezer for awhile. Sometimes there is a terrific sale on beef steaks and they aren't that good and we say they must be from dairy cows. That's what happens to all those "Happy California Cows" for anyone who has access to commercials from that ad campaign from the dairy industry.

(Side note: I suppose it is our pioneer heritage but sometimes mincemeat here is a time to use bits of leftover jellies and fruits, etc. I throw in orange marmalade and black current jellies.)

One blog quoting from Mrs. Beeton about 1860 said mincemeat was a method of preservation and it was made six months in advance. Interesting.

Gooseberries with goose? Really? It is hard to get gooseberries here and if I get any I make a pie.

Keep commenting, everyone. I do enjoy discussing food and recipes!

[Anna Morris]

Make sure Caz gets that mince pie recipe. If she gets busy making mince pies she might be able to avoid fixing sprouts at holiday time.

[Sam Flynn]

I can look online but have some concerns that fat near the liver could taste like liver.

Don't worry, Anna, it doesn't.

[Phillip Walton]

If you can't get suet you can use lard.

[Anna Morris]

Don't worry, Anna, it doesn't.

Oh good! Then maybe I have some actual suet. Our elk--kind of like English red deer--are a lot like beef as far as the meat, etc. I wasn't on the hunt so couldn't do any JtR type rummaging for other bits and pieces.

The only way our stores have "suet" is in bird feed stuff. You can get questionable looking, greasy cubes with seeds and fruits and stuff and hang it on a tree. And the birds won't touch it! Sometimes an enterprising squirrel will nibble a bit but for the most part, bugs eventually dispose of it.

I mentioned our pioneer connexion to mincemeat and that scraps and leftovers end up in our kind of mincemeat. My mom always used elk neck for mincemeat and then canned the large batch. That is quite a bit different than the English mincemeat. Anyway, I loved it. I got an elk neck a few years back and it became mincemeat.

I have some basic mincemeat started with the last of the apples on my trees.

[Anna Morris]

If you can't get suet you can use lard.

Thanks for that, Phillip. Recipes I have always said butter was the substitute but lard should work great.

[Caroline Brown]

Make sure Caz gets that mince pie recipe. If she gets busy making mince pies she might be able to avoid fixing sprouts at holiday time.

Hi Anna,

Now I no longer have a mother-in-law I don't have to cook sprouts.

No way could I be called a fussy eater, and I can eat mince pies - I love the ones made with puff pastry - but I wouldn't be able to make my own mincemeat using suet because I can't handle or smell it without gagging. I can only eat it in heavily fruited and spiced mince pies and Christmas pudding when I can't actually taste it. I can't get too near a steak and kidney pudding, jam roly-poly or any kind of dumpling, whether made with suet or not [we say "the 's' word" at home because even saying it can make me gag], without being physically ill.

I think it stems from my earliest schooldays when my elderly head mistress sat over me one lunch time, trying to make me eat a suet dumpling. I just couldn't physically do it and had to resist the strong urge to vomit, so she whacked me with a slipper. What that had to do with education I'll never know, but it taught me that some adults are sadists and should never be allowed near kids.

Love,

Caz
X

[Robert Linford]

Logically you should have a fear of slippers rather than suet.