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Brandy Mince for Pies
Take one pound each of fresh beef suet, sugar, currants, and apples; wash, pick, and dry the currants, and mince the suet and apples with a quarter of a pound of citron, and the same of orange-peel, the juice of one lemon and the grated peel of two. When all these ingredients are well mixed, throw over them, by degrees, a glass of brandy.
A plain Victorian mincemeat, unusual only in that it carries no spice and no raisins — the brandy and the candied peel do all the work. Nothing here is cooked, so the mixing and the keeping matter more than any technique.
- Weigh, don't measure"One pound each" means by weight: 1 lb suet, 1 lb sugar, 1 lb currants, 1 lb apples. The receipt does not say whether the apples are weighed whole or after paring and coring.
- A glass of brandy"A glass" here most likely means a wine glass, usually reckoned at about 2 fl oz (roughly 1/4 cup), though the receipt does not specify. Adding it "by degrees" spreads it through the mixture rather than letting it pool at the bottom of the bowl.
- SuetBeef suet is the hard kidney fat, and fresh means unrendered. Butchers will still supply it on request; packaged shredded suet (beef or vegetarian) works and saves the mincing. Do not substitute rendered tallow or lard, which will not hold the mixture in the same crumbly suspension.
- Citron and orange-peelBoth mean candied peel, sold in blocks or whole candied halves and cut down by the cook. Citron is the thick-rinded citrus of that name, not lemon; candied lemon peel is the nearest common substitute. Mince it fine — large shards stay hard in a baked pie.
- CurrantsDried Zante currants, not fresh redcurrants or blackcurrants. "Wash, pick, and dry" reflects fruit that arrived gritty and stalky; modern packaged currants need only a rinse, and must be dried well or they will slacken the mix.
- ApplesA firm tart cooking apple — Bramley, Granny Smith — holds its texture. Sweet dessert apples collapse and make the filling wet.
- Keeping itThere is no cooking step, and a 2 fl oz glass of brandy across four and a half pounds of fruit is far less alcohol than the heavily spirited mincemeats sold for long storage. Pack it into a covered jar and keep it refrigerated, using it within a couple of weeks rather than laying it down for the season.
- Yield and useAbout 4 1/2 lb of mincemeat: enough for three or four double-crust pies, or roughly three dozen small tarts. The receipt gives no baking direction; as a modern default, bake in shortcrust or puff pastry at around 400F until the pastry is set and coloured.
- Spice, if you want itThe receipt gives none. A teaspoon each of ground cinnamon and mixed spice and a grating of nutmeg brings it into line with what many now expect from mincemeat.
Mincemeat began as its name suggests — minced meat, usually beef or mutton, preserved with sugar, dried fruit, spirit and spice — and the meat gradually receded from English recipes across the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, leaving the suet behind as the last trace of it. Books of this period often printed several mincemeats side by side, some still containing beef or tongue, others, like this one, with no meat at all. The candied citron and orange-peel point to the grocer's shop rather than the still-room. The whole class of dish is generally traced to the medieval habit of preserving flesh with sugar and dried fruit, though the mince pie's association with Christmas is a later and largely English development.