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Mince Meat (Seven pounds of good lean beef)
Seven pounds of good lean beef, boil until tender, two and one-half pounds of beef suet chopped very fine, one tablespoonful salt, one teaspoonful pepper, one bowl of chopped meat to two of chopped apples; one ounce cinnamon, one-half ounce of nutmeg, one teaspoonful of cloves, seven pounds of raisins seeded and chopped, two pounds of currants, one pound citron, one quart of cider, one pint of brandy, the juice of six lemons, seven pounds of sugar; add beef jelly left from cooking the meat, fruit juice may be used and is very delicious.
This is a full winter's supply of mincemeat, made on the old scale and meant to be packed into crocks in a cold cellar. Everything below assumes you will cut it down and keep it cold.
- Yield, and how far to scale itThis makes a very large quantity: the listed solids alone come to some twenty-six pounds before the apples, which are specified at twice the volume of the chopped meat, and before the cider, brandy and lemon juice. Dividing by five gives a batch a home kitchen can actually handle.
- The ratio is the actual recipeThe hinge is "one bowl of chopped meat to two of chopped apples" — a measure of volume, not weight, and it governs the whole batch. Chop the cooked beef and suet, measure it, then chop twice that volume of tart apples. The listed poundages of fruit and sugar are what the old proportion produced in one household's bowl; trust the ratio and adjust the rest to taste.
- Beef jellyThis is simply the beef cooking liquid, strained and reduced until it sets when cold. It carries the meat flavour and moisture; without it the mixture is dry. Skim the fat before adding.
- SuetBeef suet is the hard kidney fat, sold by butchers on request and quite different from ordinary trimmings. Freeze it firm before chopping or grating, or use packaged shredded suet.
- Currants and citronCurrants here are dried Zante currants, not fresh redcurrants. Citron is the thick candied peel of the citron fruit, sold at holiday time; candied orange and lemon peel substitute reasonably.
- Spice weightsOne ounce of cinnamon is roughly 4 tablespoons ground, and half an ounce of nutmeg about 2 tablespoons. Scale them with the batch and add the last third by taste.
- Cider is ambiguousAt the time "cider" could mean either sweet or hard cider, and the pint of brandy suggests the mixture was expected to keep by alcohol as much as by sugar. Either works; hard cider gives a drier result.
- StorageDo not keep this in a crock at room temperature as the original intends — it contains cooked meat and was written for an unheated cellar. Refrigerate in covered jars and use within a couple of weeks, or freeze in pie-sized portions. Flavour improves after a few days.
- Baking the pieA double-crust mincemeat pie needs no further cooking of the filling, only browning: 425F for 15 minutes, then 375F for 25 to 30 minutes until the crust is set and colored.
Mincemeat began as a genuine meat pie: medieval and early modern English "minced pies" combined chopped meat, suet, dried fruit and expensive imported spice, the spice serving to display a household's means. This version, apparently from around the turn of the twentieth century, still keeps the beef and suet, but the seven pounds of raisins and seven pounds of sugar against seven pounds of beef show where the balance was heading — through the nineteenth century the meat steadily shrank, and by the mid-twentieth century mincemeat was often made without it altogether, keeping only the suet, and eventually not even that. The scale of the batch is the other period detail: mincemeat was made once, in quantity, after autumn butchering, and drawn on all winter for pies from a cold cellar or pantry.