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Mince Meat
Ingredients.
One pound and a half of Beef Suet chopped fine.
One pound and a half of Raisins Two pounds of Currants. دو دو Two pounds of Apples, chopped very fine.
Quarter of an ounce of mixed Mace and Cinnamon powdered.
Four Cloves powdered.
One pound and a half of Castor Sugar.
A saltspoonful of Salt.
The juice of three Lemons and the rinds grated.
Half a pound of mixed Peel chopped fine.
One gill of Brandy.
One gill of Port.
Mix all these ingredients well together, and tie down in a jar until required for use.
A late-Victorian mincemeat of the type made in quantity before Christmas and drawn on for weeks. The proportions are British imperial and the method is simply mixing, so the only real decisions are about suet, storage and maturing time.
- A gillIn a British book of this period a gill is a quarter of an imperial pint, 5 fl oz or about 142 ml. So 5 fl oz brandy and 5 fl oz port in a batch of roughly 9 lb. An American gill is 4 fl oz, which is not what is meant here.
- SuetBeef kidney suet, chopped fine, is what the recipe assumes. Packet shredded suet is the direct substitute, weight for weight, and vegetarian suet works if the mincemeat is for people who avoid beef fat. Fresh suet from a butcher must be stripped of membrane before chopping, and it chops far more easily straight from the fridge.
- Currants and peelCurrants here are dried Zante currants, not fresh redcurrants or blackcurrants. Mixed peel is candied orange and lemon peel; buying whole candied peel and chopping it yourself gives a much better result than the ready-diced tubs.
- Castor sugarCaster or superfine sugar. Granulated will do since the mixture sits for weeks and the sugar dissolves in the fruit juices, but caster dissolves faster and gives a less gritty mix in the first days.
- The spicesA quarter ounce of mixed mace and cinnamon is about 7 g, roughly two to three level teaspoons in total. Four cloves ground amounts to no more than a pinch; cloves dominate quickly, so resist rounding up.
- ApplesUse a tart cooking apple such as Bramley. Chopped very fine means about 5 mm dice or a coarse grating, not a purée, or the finished mincemeat will be sloppy.
- No meatDespite the name there is no lean meat in this version, only suet. By the later nineteenth century many published mincemeats had dropped the beef or tongue that earlier recipes included.
- Storing it"Tie down in a jar" meant a cool larder and a paper or bladder cover. The fresh apple and low proportion of spirit make this a fridge preserve by modern standards: pack into clean jars, seal, and refrigerate, using it within a couple of months. It is not a shelf-stable canned product and should not be treated as one.
- Maturing and yieldGive it at least two weeks before use so the fruit swells and the spirit spreads through; stir once or twice in that time. The batch comes to roughly 9 lb, enough for many dozen small mince pies depending on how generously they are filled.
Mincemeat began as a genuine meat preparation: medieval and early modern versions combined chopped beef, mutton or tongue with dried fruit, spices and suet. Across the nineteenth century the meat quietly disappeared from most household recipes, leaving suet as the last trace of the original, which is exactly the stage this recipe records. The mace, cinnamon and cloves, the citrus peel and the brandy and port all point to a dish whose luxury lay in imported goods, which is why it belonged to Christmas rather than to ordinary weeks.