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Mince Meat
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Booshway
posted
Anybody make mince meat?

I've seen colonial recipes with venison, but I make the old traditional English mince meat using beef suet. Recipe came over with my Great Grandmother's family from England, she was 1 when they made the trip. Raisens, currants, lemon peel and juice, apples, beef fat/suet, brandy, citron fruit (that fruit cake stuff), nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, all run through the meat grinder.

Always smells like the holidays to me when I make it. I can remember sitting in my great grandmother's kitchen as a kid, being drafted as the muscle for the hand crank grinder. I make the mince meat now, but my Mom makes the tarts - still using the original tart tin they brought from England. She'll make the first batch this week for Thanksgiving, then more for Christmas. Mmmmmm.
 
Posts: 429 | Location: Delmarva | Registered: 22 December 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Sounds delicious.
 
Posts: 353 | Location: Pocono Mts. in PA | Registered: 12 June 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I don't care for it myself. I don't like raisins or grapes.


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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I like mince meat.The real stuff.My great aunt introduced me to it,it was made with bear meat from what I understand.Much better than the fake stuff they sell in stores.


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Free Trapper
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My Grandma always made mincemeat pie for Thanksgiving. I liked it but could only eat a small slice as it seemed to be very rich for my much younger taste buds!

In reality, her homemade pumpkin pie which accompanied the mincemeat always got most of my attention!
 
Posts: 197 | Registered: 15 January 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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quote:
Much better than the fake stuff they sell in stores


Well they can't very well sell venison or bear as the majority of states prohibit the sale of game animal, and there's not much call yet for deer farming.

The big problem with a lot of those older recipes is ingredients. You need to have a butcher these days to get proper beef suet. If like me you're going to make a Figgie Pudding, or any of the boiled or steamed puddings from the UK, you simply MUST use the beef fat from around the animal's kidney. No other fat will work, or even come close.

I am trying to make Springerle cookies for Christmas too, and you need Ammonium Carbonate (old style smelling salts) Eeker instead of baking powder or baking soda. It was the original quick leaven. The ammonia bakes out of the cookie, and they are very light and crisp afterwards. Still, I'm going to need to use the Dutch Oven to bake them outside, as the ammonia goes somewhere as it bakes out and into my house is a no-go. Wink

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I don't know about real vs. fake, but there are two different styles of mince meat. The American version uses ground deer (or bear) meat and is normally heat canned to preserve it. The English version, which I make, uses beef suet and is stored in jars in the fridge, topped with brandy to cover and seal. That's not actually cooked until baked into pies or tarts. Some years I can find beef suet, some years just clean beef fat, never been able to tell much difference in the flavor on our end.

The origin of the difference is that in the colonies they had deer and bear aplenty. In England meat was limited and expensive, thus the use of rich fats to add calories and flavor.

It is rich. The traditional mince pie tarts that came over in my family are only 3" round tarts, with a spoonful of mince meat in the middle, baked and topped with powdered sugar. Used like that a jar goes a long way.

Funny story, making mince meat was the only time I ever saw my great grandmother drink. Making the mince meat she'd add a little brandy to the mix, then a little shot for her, then more for the meat, and so on, and so on. I do try to honor her instructions when I make it! Smiler
 
Posts: 429 | Location: Delmarva | Registered: 22 December 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Walkingeagle
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Lol, now that is the way to honour someone!!
Walk
 
Posts: 342 | Location: Alberta, Canada | Registered: 15 January 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Osprey,I was referring to the fake stuff they sell in stores whose major ingredients consist of artificial flavorings,and colors,with sugar to make it palatable.I would be interested in tasting the English version sometime.


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Free Trapper
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Just like the pie crust recipe's used these days with modern Crisco, are not nearly as good as my Grandma's!

She used both lard and beef suet in her crusts and boy what a difference!

I try very hard to make grandma's crust but her system of measure was a pinch of this and a wallop of that.
I have hit it spot on a time or two but my taste bud memories are kind of like my first deer hunt or first girl friend! Smiler (Virtually impossible to duplicate)
 
Posts: 197 | Registered: 15 January 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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quote:
She used both lard and beef suet in her crusts and boy what a difference!


I'm old enough to have had original McDonald's French Fries, fried in hot beef tallow. Wink

If you ever watch Cake Boss the show with the Italian guy in NJ who makes novelty cakes for special occasions, they have a cannoli event every year, and the pastry tubes are all fried in...hot lard. They've tried other of the "new" fats and oils and nothing gives the right taste but lard.

I'm not sure that it's the old ingredients that are so bad for us as the lack of manual exercise today, that's bad for us, but used to burn off the calories from the fats we used to eat. Wink

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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My wife finally got pie crust right when she tried using lard.


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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You boys can send all of the left over mincemeat pies to me!

My Dad used to make mincemeat with either venison(if available) or a fine cut of aged beef. He used a really tasty dark rum too.

I can smell the pie baking right now, with such a find sweet-spicy fragrance wafting from the oven.

Regards, xfox


The forest is a wilderness only to those that fear it, silent only to those that hear nothing. The forest is a friend to those that dwell within its' nature and it is filled with the sounds of life to those that listen.
 
Posts: 532 | Location: Bitterroot Valley | Registered: 23 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Xfox,now you have me drooling,too.


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Free Trapper
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Not to turn anyone's taste buds but my old memories of a cartoon where "Klondike Cat" is always threatening his arch nemesis "Sav' Wa' Fare" the mouse who is always saying he is everywhere........"I'm going to make mincemeat out of that mouse!" Red Face Eeker
 
Posts: 197 | Registered: 15 January 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Yeah,I remember that 'toon. Smiler


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Hivernant
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I have not smelled a mince meat pie since my Grandma passed. Brings back memories.
 
Posts: 101 | Location: Davidsville , PA | Registered: 10 August 2016Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I'll try to remember that if I ever make it up to a PA bear camp John!
 
Posts: 429 | Location: Delmarva | Registered: 22 December 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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Homemade mince meat pie filling like Auntie Olga made was like heaven to me when Olga was still with us. She made it with venison from a recipe that had been handed down for generations. She likely made it from memory as we never found the recipe when she passed. It was always the highlight of the meal. The old tyme recipes had animal fats that would turn rancid as a result the commercially made mince meat do not contain any meat. One of the best mince meat pie filling that you can buy is by a company called CROSSE & BLACKWELL and has been stocked by Cub Foods here in Minnesota.

http://www.crosseandblackwell.com/products/seasonal
 
Posts: 32 | Location: Southern Minnesota | Registered: 24 May 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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