English Mince Meat

This is a bulk preserve, not a single pie filling: the quantities come to roughly thirty pounds of mincemeat, the amount a household would put up in autumn to draw on until spring. Scaling to a fifth or a tenth works cleanly.

• Cook it low and stir itThere is no added liquid. The apples and raisins must release their juice before the sugar has a chance to catch, so start over very low heat in a heavy pot and stir often for the first fifteen minutes. Once it is wet it will look after itself for the remaining hour and a quarter.
• SuetBeef suet is the hard kidney fat, sold by butchers on request and sometimes shredded and packaged in the baking aisle in Britain. Buy it in the piece, chill it hard and grate or chop it fine; food processors turn it to paste if the fat is warm. Vegetable suet substitutes fine, and butter does not — it will not set the mixture the same way.
• Currants are not currantsThese are dried Zante currants, small black raisins, not fresh red or black currants from a bush. If your store sells only the fresh berries, substitute more raisins rather than the fruit.
• CitronCandied citron peel, once widely sold in slabs, is now a specialty item found around the winter holidays. Four pounds is a great deal of it; candied orange and lemon peel can carry part of the load if citron is scarce or expensive.
• ApplesFirm tart cooking apples, peeled and cored, chopped rather than grated. Five pounds is roughly twelve to fifteen medium apples.
• The brandy goes in off the heatThe brandy goes in after cooking -- The recipe adds it at the end, with the almonds and spices, rather than during the simmer, so less of the alcohol boils off; the brandy, along with the sugar and fat, helps the mincemeat keep. Do not simmer it further once the brandy is in.
• Spicing is light by modern tasteHalf a teaspoon each of mace and cinnamon across thirty pounds is barely detectable. Modern recipes typically call for considerably more mixed spice, often with cloves and nutmeg, and there is no harm in tasting and adjusting at the brandy stage.
• StorageHistorically this went into stoneware crocks in a cold larder. Pack it into clean jars, press down to exclude air, top with a spoonful of brandy and refrigerate, or freeze in pie-sized portions. It improves for the first month.
• YieldAround thirty pounds, enough for fifteen to twenty nine-inch pies. Figure two to two and a half cups of mincemeat per pie.