Mincemeat recipes, Thanksgiving recipes, Pie recipes

Mincemeat recipes just might be some of the oldest recipes that we still enjoy today. I think they are losing their popularity even since I was young and certainly they have changed much over the years. Many foods that we eat today can be traced to our military serving in other countries and bringing these recipes home with them. I am sure this may be how mincemeat became so popular which is traced back to the thirteenth century in Britain. The Middle Eastern cooks are known to have mixed meat with fruits and spices in many of their dishes such as mincemeat. The crusaders are attributed to bringing this dish back and developing a sweet pie made from the mincemeat.

Whatever the origination, mincemeat recipes have been around a long time. My dad told of having the traditional homemade mincemeat as a child. He was not happy with what we bought from the grocery store without the meat. The following mincemeat recipes are for the traditional one with meat and the newer version without meat.

TRADITIONAL MINCEMEAT

• 1 ½ Pounds lean beef cubed, rump, neck, chuck


• ½ Pound suet, finely chopped


• 4 Pounds tart apples, peeled cored, chopped


• 1 Packages (15 ounces) dark raisins


• 1 Package (10 ounces) currants


• 2/3 Cup diced citron


• 2/3 Cup diced candied fruit


• 2 Cups sugar


• ½ Cup molasses


• 4 Teaspoons ground cinnamon


• 1 ½ Teaspoons ground nutmeg


• 1 ½ Teaspoons ground mace


• 2 Teaspoons salt


• ¼ Teaspoon black pepper


• 3 Cups apple cider


• 2 Cups sherry


• 1 Cup brandy

Place beef in a medium saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook for 1 ½ hours or until tender. Remove meat from liquid and cool. Put meat in blender or processor and chop until fine. Place meat in a large kettle and add the suet, apples, dried and candied fruits, sugar, molasses, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, salt, pepper and cider. Bring to a boil stirring occasionally. Add the sherry and brandy; simmer and stir for 30 minutes.

To preserve:

Pack into hot clean pint jars leaving ½ inch at the top. Adjust lids. Process in a pressure cooker at 10 pounds pressure for 20 minutes.

Can be frozen in 1 or 2 cups freezer size containers.

FRUIT MINCEMEAT

• 1 ½ Pounds firm pears, peel core, chop


• ½ Pound tart apples, peel, cored and chopped


• 1 ½ Cups raisins


• ¾ Cups dried figs, chopped


• ¾ Cup dried apricots, chopped


• 1 Tablespoon chopped candied ginger


• ½ Cup toasted slivered almonds


• ¾ Cup brown sugar


• ½ Teaspoon ground cinnamon


• ¼ Teaspoon ground mace


• ¼ Teaspoon ground nutmeg


• 1 Tablespoon ground lemon peel


• 1/3 Cup lemon juice


• ¼ Cup brandy

Mix all ingredients together and heat to boiling, stirring constantly for 10 minutes.

Pack into hot sterile ½ pint jars leaving ½ inch on top. Process in boiling water bath 10 minutes. Begin timing when water returns to boiling.

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