Mince Pies and the misunderstood mincemeat

Mincemeat for Christmas mince pies is often misunderstood outside of the United Kingdom, even Europe. It has nothing to do with animal meat…anymore.

These mince pies, though not a grandiose affair now, were definitely something I was proud of. It was my first time putting all the pieces together from scratch, fermenting the meat, and feeling like I had accomplished something so foreign to me, yet extremely familiar. I thought fitting to write about to close out the year.

My mince pies was a great excuse to use up the leftover Thanksgiving homemade cranberry sauce. I hate food waste. Whenever I can find an alternative use for something leftover it makes me happy to find it. Mince pies was that calling. Growing up in the UK we were surrounded by all the British treats and Holiday specials like Christmas pudding, Christmas cake and the aforementioned mince pies. I used to dislike them when I was younger. Mainly because I detested anything using currants and raisins in cooked food. It was like saying you didn’t like Brussels sprouts, because the smell when boiled was so pungent and putrid and that can’t just have been me... I put my mind to it within that week and figured why not try to use the load of cranberries in place of the more traditional apples and fruit peels. Then I dug into its history and realized its connection to the Middle East, and was taken aback.

Mince pies, much like Christmas pudding (different to Christmas cake for those not aware this side of the pond), were originally filled with meat, such as lamb or beef in mince form. So the label mincemeat was very accurate as far back as the 13th century. The pies sometimes referred to as Christmas pies, mutton pies and shrid pie were filled with a mixture of mince meat, suet (the raw hard fat from mutton or beef) and a range of fruits and spices, the latter of which are the main ingredients today. Flavored petal waters like rose and orange blossom were also a part of the mixture, adding sultry flavor and perfume.

Nowadays, mincemeat containing lamb or beef and suet still exist, but they are rarer than before. Fruity versions are the new and more favored wave. Bramley apples and chopped fruit peels known as mixed peel (oranges, lemons, grapefruits) replace the mutton and beef. Making your own homemade mixed peel is much tastier than store bought, which use candied peels, making the flavors bitter and processed. Mixed peel should be fully rounded that captures the essence of the citrus. I do believe that store bought bitter mixed peel is probably what made me really dislike mince pies before. Everything today is about ease, and we sometimes forget that certain things done the old ways, like making your own peels, are a testament to flavor, texture and better health.

Butter replaces the suet, if needed at all. I didn’t use fat in mine, other than for making the pastry, but my mixture was far from traditional, therefore, I have yet to know if fat is an essential element in making other types of mincemeat. Dried fruits like currants, raisins and cranberries are an important element to the recipe. With mine, I replaced the apples for the fresh cranberries, which had already been turned into a jam-like consistency and flavored with orange zest and juice, spices, and sugar, all of which are also essential ingredients in mincemeat.

All that was really different in mine was the main fruit and lack of fat, but the cranberries themselves are juicy and jammy when cooked, more so than apples, so there is less help needed in consistency and texture than others. You can switch it up and replace the alcohol (typically brandy or dark rum) for jams, marmalades and more fat such as butter or shortening for the fermentation and flavoring. The mincemeat undergoes a fermentation period, which brings out its flavors over the course of two-three weeks at least and up to several months at the latest. My school back in England used to prepare the mincemeat for both the pies and the Christmas pudding months in advance. It was a celebratory moment the minute they started the process, and tended to it weekly. I would glance at this massive aluminum pot on the kitchen floor filled to the brim with the mixture, brandy being poured in every so often over the next several months. They were feeding hundreds of us, so constant attention to it was necessary, this wasn’t regular size homemade portions. We also giggled at the idea of being served boozy desserts underage. Wow were we in for a treat. Little did we know it would have zero effect on us…

The origins of mincemeat are important to me, as it ties back to the Middle East, which was new information to me, but not surprising at all. It dates as far back as the European Crusaders who brought back these ancient mixtures of dried fruits, nuts, spices, sugar, and suet from the Middle East. We often combine fruits and meat in our cooking, and it is a major part of our ancestral cuisine till today. It brings to light how wars, colonization, and migration are a part of everything we know and touch. There is deep, meaningful history in everything we eat, be it as simple as a hot dog to as elaborate as the Christmas or Thanksgiving meal. You may not necessarily know the ties back to certain origins and that these spice mixtures and dried fruits came from the Asian continent. Most of the time there is no connection to these recipes today, because these traces of history or origins are almost lost in translation or erased over time, but they exist. They are there in writings and now more than ever these mince pies feel connected to where I come from ever more than I anticipated.

I feel bad I used to detest them. They are symbolic to two places I have been raised by; my own homeland and England. Though both carry very different revelations of the mince pies, I feel as though I have more appreciation for them today. I want to be enjoying it more and more now to give it its honor and thanks to the Middle East for the dried fruits, nuts, sugars and spices that make up its whole essence. The mixture of dried fruits and meat in Middle Eastern cuisine is a beautiful harmony of flavors. Though, the history may not be told as often, it is still comforting to know a mixture that is part of my culinary table was quietly consumed through mince pies in the Western world and still is today.