Mincemeat Pie Recipe, Whats Cooking America (2024)

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What are the ingredients in mincemeat pie? ›

Mincemeat

Mince pie / Main ingredient

Mincemeat is a mixture of chopped dried fruit, distilled spirits and spices, and often beef suet, usually used as a pie or pastry filling. Mincemeat formerly contained meat, notably beef or venison. Many modern recipes replace the suet with vegetable shortening.

Wikipedia

The reason mincemeat is called meat is because that's exactly what it used to be: most often mutton, but also beef, rabbit, pork or game. Mince pies were first served in the early middle ages, and the pies were quite sizeable, filled with a mixture of finely minced meat, chopped up fruit and a preserving liquid.

A mince pie (also mincemeat pie in North America, and fruit mince pie in Australia and New Zealand) is a sweet pie of English origin filled with mincemeat, being a mixture of fruit, spices and suet. The pies are traditionally served during the Christmas season in much of the English-speaking world.

Mincemeat is a mixture of chopped dried fruit, distilled spirits and spices, and often beef suet, usually used as a pie or pastry filling. Mincemeat formerly contained meat, notably beef or venison. Many modern recipes replace the suet with vegetable shortening.

Mincemeat isn't difficult to make, but it has a lot of ingredients, which can make it expensive to produce in small batches, and it requires at least a day's advance planning to let the ingredients sit.

Nowadays, it's easy to find mincemeat pies still made with beef suet and a small amount of minced meats (usually beef). All-vegetarian mincemeat pies are readily available as well, especially if you purchase a premade jar of mincemeat filling.

So why has mince meat pie all but vanished in America? Well, the pie strayed from its roots, and it has a rather strange ingredient called suet.

By the 18th century it was more likely to be tongue or even tripe, and in the 19th century it was minced beef. It was not until the late Victorian period and early 20th Century that mince pies dropped the meat and had all fruit fillings (albeit with suet). Even today there are traditions associated with mince pies.

King Henry V had mince pies made as early as in 1413 for his coronation celebration on April 9. During this period it would have been made with various meats, game birds, boiled eggs and spices, which were very rare and extravagant ingredients of the time as this was a pie for celebration.

English tradition demands that the mince meat mixture should only be stirred in a clockwise direction. To stir it anticlockwise is to bring bad luck for the coming year. Another English custom is for all the family to take a turn in stirring the mincemeat mixture whilst making a wish.

What is suet in mincemeat pie? ›

Suet is saturated fat that is used in many traditional British recipes, such as steamed puddings, pastry, and sweet mincemeat. Meat suet adds a dark and rich flavoring to dishes like meat pies, while vegetarian suet is used for lighter foods.

Mincemeat is a combination of chopped dried fruits, spices, sugar, nuts, distilled spirits, a fat of some type and sometimes meat. The name is a carryover from 15th century England when mincemeat did indeed have meat in the mix; in fact, the whole point of mincemeat was to preserve meat with sugar and alcohol.

Mincemeat is a combination of dried chopped fruits, warm spices (like cinnamon and nutmeg), sugar, nuts, distilled spirits — and traditionally, meat. So yes, mutton or beef is an integral element of the most traditional iterations of this English dish.

Some Americans enjoy 'mincemeat', which is a type of sweet fruit pie, which does not actually include any meat at all. There are 'traditional' recipes, and 'English' recipes, that include beef, but few Americans make 'mincemeat pie' with meat.

You can also find candied orange peel online. This simple mixture which mimics mincemeat very closely, and is even vegetarian, so everyone can indulge in dessert. The amount is perfect for adding to a bowl of sliced apples or pear destined for a pie or crisp.

Ingredients: Water, Corn Syrup, Raisins, Dried Apples, Molasses, Corn Starch Modified, Distilled Vinegar, Dried Orange And Lemon Peel, Salt, Spices, Beef, Fruit Pectin, Natural Flavor.

Mince pies are high in calories, saturated fat and sugar because of the pastry case, as well as the suet and sugar in the mincemeat filling. If you're baking your own, only use pastry for the base and leave the top open, just add a small star of pastry or use a lower-fat pastry, such as filo.

Markham's recipe called for an entire leg of mutton and three pounds of suet which were mixed with salt, cloves, mace, currants, raisins, prunes, dates, and orange peel, a list of ingredients that, save for the meat, which is remarkably like that used today.

Meat: The "meat" in this meat pie is a combination of ground beef and ground pork. Vegetables: You'll need a potato and an onion. Spices and seasonings: This hearty meat pie is flavored with garlic, mustard powder, dried thyme, dried sage, ground cloves, salt, and pepper.