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Mince-Meat No. 1
1 pound of raisins 1 pound of currants 1 1/4 pounds of apples 1/4 pound each of candied citron, orange and lemon 1 pound of sugar 1 teaspoon of cinnamon 1/2 grated nutmeg 1/2 saltspoon of powdered cloves 2 sherry glasses of brandy Pick and wash the currants, stone the raisins. Peel and slice the apples; they must be weighed after they are prepared. Shred very finely the citron, orange and lemon. Put them all into a large bowl, and mix well, then chop them either on a chopping-board or in a chopping bowl. When the fruit has been sufficiently chopped, return it to the large bowl, and mix in the sugar and spices. Put the mince-meat in a jar and pour the brandy over it. When it is used it should be well mixed, and until it is required must be kept carefully covered. A dessertspoon of mince-meat should be put into a three-inch pie; and as there is no suet in the mince-meat, a piece of butter, the size of a hazel nut, must be placed in the middle of the mince-meat in each pie.
A raw, uncooked mincemeat that relies on sugar and brandy rather than suet or beef. It is straightforward to make; the details that trip people up are the old measures and the storage.
- Currants means driedThese are dried Zante currants, the small black raisin, not fresh red or black currants. Picking and washing refers to removing stems and grit from unwashed dried fruit; modern packaged currants need only a quick sort.
- Saltspoon and sherry glassA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon. A sherry glass of the period held roughly 2 fluid ounces, so two glasses is about 1/2 cup of brandy. Half a grated nutmeg is close to a rounded teaspoon.
- Weigh the apples after peelingThe recipe is explicit, and it matters: 1 1/4 pounds of prepared slices is roughly 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 pounds of whole apples. A firm tart variety holds its texture in the jar better than a soft one.
- ChoppingThe chopping bowl and half-moon knife can be replaced with a food processor, but pulse in batches and stop while the fruit is still coarse and distinct. Run it continuously and you get fruit paste, which bakes into a sticky, uniform filling.
- Candied peelCandied citron is the least available of the three; supermarket mixed peel is mostly orange and lemon. Good candied peel bought whole and shredded yourself is much better than the diced tubs sold at Christmas, which tend to be dry and heavily sugared.
- StorageWith fresh apple in the mix and no cooking, this is not a shelf-stable preserve by current standards. Keep it covered in the refrigerator and use it within a few weeks; stir before each use so the brandy and juices redistribute.
- The butter is not optionalSuet supplies fat and richness in a traditional mincemeat. Without it the filling bakes dry, which is why each little pie gets a hazelnut-sized knob of butter, about a teaspoon. Skip it and the tarts taste thin.
- Yield and pie sizeThe listed weights come to about 5 pounds of fruit and sugar before the brandy. A three-inch pie is a tartlet in a patty tin, and a dessertspoon is about two teaspoons, so this quantity fills a great many of them. Halve or quarter the recipe unless you are baking for a crowd.
Mincemeat began as an actual meat preparation: medieval and early modern versions combined chopped beef or tongue with dried fruit, spices and suet, the sugar and spice serving as much to preserve as to flavour. Over the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the meat quietly dropped out of most English and American versions, leaving suet as the last animal trace, and a mincemeat with neither meat nor suet appears to have become less remarkable over time. Here the answer to what the meat and its fat had been doing is the knob of butter in each pie, standing in for the fat that suet used to supply.