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Mincemeat, Excellent
INGREDIENTS.-3 large lemons, 3 large apples, 1 lb. of stoned raisins, 1 lb. of currants, 1 lb. of suet, 2 lbs. of moist sugar, 1 oz. of sliced candied citron, 1 oz. of sliced candied orangepeel and the same quantity of lemon-peel, 1 teacupful of brandy, 2 tablespoonfuls of orange marmalade.
Grate the rinds of the lemons; squeeze out the juice, strain it and boil the remainder of the lemons until tender enough to pulp or chop very finely. Then add to this pulp the apples, which should be baked and their skins and cores removed; put in the remaining ingredients one by one and, as they are added, mix everything very thoroughly together. Put the mincemeat into a stone jar with a closely-fitting lid and in a fortnight it will be ready for use.
SEASONABLE. - This should be made the first or second week in December.
A meatless mincemeat built on boiled whole lemons rather than the older beef-and-suet mixtures. Two things decide whether it works: the lemons must be cooked soft enough to pulp, and the fruit must be given its fortnight to settle.
- The lemon step is the hingeGrate the zest and squeeze the juice first, then simmer the spent shells in water until a knife goes through the pith easily; depending on the size and thickness of the fruit this can take anything from half an hour to well over an hour. Chop or process them to a coarse paste and pick out any pips, which stay bitter.
- Baked apples, not rawBake the whole apples at 350-375F until collapsing, about 45 minutes, then scoop the flesh from skin and core. Baking drives off some water, which should help the finished mincemeat keep better than one made with raw grated apple. Use a cooking apple such as Bramley or Granny Smith.
- SuetBeef suet, finely shredded. Packaged shredded suet works directly; a block from the butcher should be grated frozen. Vegetable suet or frozen grated butter substitutes acceptably, though butter softens the texture.
- Moist sugarVictorian "moist" sugar is unrefined soft sugar with the molasses still in it. Light or dark brown sugar is the modern equivalent; two pounds is roughly 4 1/2 cups packed.
- A teacupfulAround 6 fluid ounces, or 3/4 cup, of brandy, though Victorian teacup measures varied. The sugar does most of the preserving here, with the brandy assisting.
- Candied peel and citronCandied citron is stocked mainly at Christmas and in Italian groceries; candied lemon or orange peel in equal weight stands in without much loss. Buy peel in slabs rather than the pre-diced mixed peel if you can, and cut it yourself.
- Maturing and keepingA stone jar with a tight lid, kept cool, is the original method, and a fortnight is the minimum rather than a maximum. Pack into sterilised jars, press the surface down so no fruit sits dry above the liquid, and refrigerate if you intend to keep it past a few weeks. Any patch that develops mould should send the whole jar out.
- YieldSomething over 6 lb by the weight of the ingredients, enough for several dozen small mince pies. It thickens as it stands; loosen with a little extra brandy before filling pies if it has gone stiff.
Mincemeat began as what its name says: minced meat, usually beef or mutton or tongue, mixed with suet, dried fruit, sugar and spice, a medieval way of stretching and preserving flesh with sweetness. Through the nineteenth century the meat gradually dropped out of many household recipes and the suet alone remained as the fatty carrier, which is the stage this version records — Mrs Beeton's book carries more than one mincemeat, with meat and without, side by side. The boiled-lemon base gives bitterness and pectin where later commercial mincemeats rely on more sugar. The note that it should be made in the first or second week of December is a working instruction rather than sentiment: a fortnight's maturing put the jar at its best for Christmas pies, when a mince pie eaten on each of the twelve days was traditionally said to bring twelve lucky months.