Up until just recently, I had always thought the idea of mincemeat pie sounded pretty unappetizing. I had never actually tried it until this year, but it just didn’t sound like something I would ever want to eat. I think part of my aversion to it was the fact that I had no idea what was actually in it. And those jars of processed mystery mincemeat filling that appear on the grocery store shelves around the holiday season have always looked pretty scary to me!
I had always wondered, though, what exactly was in mincemeat pie filling and if there was actually any real meat in an old-fashioned mincemeat pie recipe. Well, I found my answer by looking through old cookbooks – a great source for any questions about what people used to eat and how they prepared their food. I found out that mincemeat pie really did have meat in it along with fruit and spices.
After seeing old-fashioned mincemeat pie recipes, I was curious to see what they would taste like, so I decided to go ahead and make one myself.
This is the original recipe that I found in American Cookery by Amelia Simmons, which was the first American cookbook. (The edition of the cookbook I looked at when I was searching for this recipe was the 1798 edition, but you can find the same recipe in the reprinted version of the 1796 edition, too.)
“Four pound boiled beef, chopped fine, and salted; six pound of raw apple chopped also, one pound beef suet, one quart of wine or rich sweet cider, one ounce mace, and cinnamon, a nutmeg, two pounds raisins, bake in paste No. 3 three-fourths of an hour.”
This recipe makes a massive amount of mincemeat filling, so I reduced it quite a bit.
A side-note to the recipe says “As people differ in their tastes, they may alter to their wishes.” I decided to take this suggestion and make a couple alterations. Since I had seen other mincemeat pie recipes that used both raisins and currants, and since I had some currants left over from Christmas baking, I used a mix of currants and raisins. Currants and raisins have a similar taste, so it won’t change the recipe very much if you use one or the other.
I also added some candied citron because I wanted to use it up and I had seen some old mincemeat recipes that included it. The citron isn’t necessary, but I think it adds a nice lemony flavor that goes well with the fruit and the spices. (If you want to try candying your own citron, you can read more about how I did it to use for my traditional 19th century fruitcake recipe here)
This is the version of the recipe that I used for my mincemeat pie:
(Update 9/27/16) I just made this recipe again so I could take some new pictures of it in better lighting, and I made a couple of slight adaptations to the recipe. First, I added in a little bit of nutmeg because I had forgotten to mention that back when I first posted this recipe, and I also changed the amount of cider to 3/4 cup. 1 full cup seemed like a bit too much liquid, so reducing it down a little was just about right. I also decided to try using coconut oil as a substitute for suet, and that seemed to work well.)
Old-Fashioned Mincemeat Pie Recipe:
Ingredients:
- 1 lb beef (I used ground beef from grass-fed cows)
- 3/4 tsp salt (I like using Real Salt)
- 1 1/2 lbs apple, peeled and chopped (about 3 cups)
- 1/3 cup butter or coconut oil, softened*
- 3/4 cup apple cider
- 1 Tbs ground mace (or 1/2 Tbs nutmeg if you don’t have mace)
- 1/2 Tbs cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 8 Tbs (1/2) cup raisins (or 1 full cup if not using currants too) I like to use organic raisins when possible
- 8 Tbs (1/2 cup) dried currants
- 3 Tbs chopped candied citron pieces (optional)
* The original recipe calls for suet, but good quality suet that is appropriate for use in baking is hard to find these days. If you have a good source of suet, then feel free to substitute that to be more authentic, but if not, then coconut oil and butter are good substitutes. (If you decided to use coconut oil, I recommend using an expeller-pressed refined coconut oil if you want a more neutral flavor rather than a coconut flavor in your pie) If the beef you are using has a higher fat content, you can also adjust the amount of butter or coconut oil that you use. I was using an 85% ground beef, so 1/3 cup was about the right amount for me, but if you have a leaner beef, then you might want to increase the amount of butter or coconut oil by a little.
Preparation:
Note: If you want to be really authentic, you can boil some beef in hot water and then chop the meat up into small pieces so it is truly a “minced” meat, hence the name of the pie. I’ve found, though, that it’s much simpler and faster just to buy ground beef and save time with all of the chopping.
- If using ground beef, brown the meat in a saucepan over medium heat, and add the salt in with the meat.
- In a large bowl, combine chopped apples, softened butter or coconut oil, cider, spices, and fruit. Add the beef and apple cider and mix well until all ingredients are thoroughly combined.
- Line a 9″ pie plate with your favorite pie pastry recipe (If you don’t have a favorite pastry recipe I recommend this pie crust recipe).
- Pour the mincemeat filling inside, spreading it evenly, and then put on the top crust. Seal the crust around the edge with a fork and cut little slivers in the middle to let out steam.
- Then bake in a 400 degree oven for about 45 minutes, or until the crust looks golden brown.
Recipe Analysis:
I was pleasantly surprised by how good this pie was! I never would have thought that meat could work in a dessert-type pie, but it blends right in with the other ingredients, and you hardly even notice it’s there. The first flavors you taste when you take a bite are the fruit and the spices, and the meat just gives the pie a nice rich flavor. The only sweetener in this pie is the fruit and the apple cider, so the sweet flavor is mild, not sickenly-sweet at all.
It’s not quite as sweet as most desserts are, so if you were to serve it for guests that have a real sweet tooth, you could always add a couple teaspoons of sugar or molasses. I thought the flavor was quite nice without any extra sugar, though.
This pie is a unique combination of savory and sweet, and even though it might not be as popular as it once was, mincemeat pie is a true, old-fashioned taste of history.
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with so many vegans now I have eliminated the meat and fat. I guess it would be mince pie, I add a large can of crushed pineapple and a can of cherries to the rest of the ingredients. My kids love this. Because it it a large batch I freeze the rest in 4 cup increments. Defrost, add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. Great pie.
That sounds like a good vegan way to substitute, and that’s great that your kids love it! 🙂
You definitely sound old English! Love it.
Thanks! 🙂
My recipe calls for a few more ingredients and spices. I use venison in mine. After I’ve removed all the meat from the bones, I simmer the bones for a couple hours, then pick the leftover meat off the bones , and can the broth. Mincemeat an be canned or frozen, if frozen it won’t freeze solid, but it will not spoil in the freezer. My recipe makes 6 quarts.
That’s a great idea to simmer the bones for broth and can it for later so you can use the venison for more than one purpose at a time. And I’ve never tried canning or freezing my mincemeat, but that’s great to know that both ways work to preserve it. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
I used to make minced meat when I was younger, rebel that i was. A suggestion.. if you don’t want to make a crust.. core an apple and stuff with the mincemeat. Bake until the apple is soft and serve with either whipping cream or ice cream (I think custard would be nice too)..
That’s a really great idea, and it sounds like it would be delicious that way! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
The lard you buy in stores is from healthy hogs. Otherwise they would not have been slaughtered for human consumption. It is wrong to make people scared of the food supply
It’s not really my intention to make people scared of the food supply, but I do think that it’s important to be aware of some of the potential problems with our food supply. By saying they aren’t healthy, I don’t mean that they are unsafe for human consumption but rather that the conditions that the hogs are raised in are not always the ideal farm life that many people picture in their minds when they think of a farm. When I refer to a healthy hog, I’m referring to one that was raised in humane conditions with plenty of outdoor access and an uncrowded environment. Sadly, not all hogs are raised in that sort of condition, and I don’t personally consider the lard from a hog that was raised in a crowded environment where they have no outdoor access to be as healthy as the lard that would come from a hog that was raised in a more humane environment.
You don’t use hamburger you use beef tongue and all the substitutions make it something else. They didn’t cook with coconut oil. They cooked with what came from the farm. The tingue was cooked and diced and cured with alcohol and sugar because, no refrigeration.
I agree with you that the substitutions keep this recipe from being fully authentic. Unfortunately, though, a lot of the people who visit my site and view this recipe don’t have some of the more authentic ingredients available to them, and I wanted to make this recipe accessible to as many people as possible. While cured beef tongue was sometimes used in recipes like mincemeat, it’s not something that very many people have available to them today, and suet can also be quite difficult to find, so coconut oil is a substitute that can be easily bought at any grocery store. I don’t personally have a good source of some of those authentic ingredients, and I know that many other people don’t either, so this adaptation is a way for people to be able to try something that resembles old-fashioned mincemeat even though it’s not 100% authentic. If you have access to those ingredients, though, than that’s great that you’re able to enjoy a truly authentic mincemeat pie.
When we butchered hogs, around Thanksgiving, my mother would boil a hogs head and use the meat to make mincemeat which she canned. We had it for breakfast, it was quick and tasty. A great way to start the day.
That sounds like a very authentic and traditional kind of mincemeat. And it’s a great way to make good use of every part of the hog too. It sounds like you must have some good memories of those times.
I liked your post and all the comments, and your recipe sounds like it would produce some good authentic flavors of old fashioned mincemeat. Although I agree your version saves time, I highly recommend you would add one step of pulsing all the mixed ingredients together in a food processor just until it’s ground up a little more than what your finished product shows in the photo. The whole raisins, ground beef and chunks of apples look like they would not meld as flavorful as they could or hold together well with a bite of pie. My mom would put a layer of homemade mince meat in a pie shell, then top with an apple pie filling and cover with a crust. Served with ice cream, it was the best pie I’ve ever had.
Yes, I agree that pulsing the ingredients together in a food processor would probably help the pie to hold together better. I don’t have a food processor myself, but for those that do that would be a good idea. And you’re mom’s pie with the mince meat and the apple pie filling on top sounds like it would be delicious!
I grew up with my mother making mincemeat every other year, because the recipe made enough for 12-14 qt. It keeps very well when canned properly. Her recipe came from her mother’s family and was probably used as far back as the early 19th century. It not only had meat, beef chuck roast, but apples, oranges, cherries, citron, raisins, currents, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, and ginger. It was cooked in a large kettle on top of the stove for hours. I still make it according to this old recipe.
That’s sounds like a great old-fashioned recipe! And that’s so neat that it’s one that your family has been using for so long!
Would you be willing to share your recipe with me? I have been trying to find one similar to what my grandma used to make and your’s sounds similar. She also used green tomatoes in her recipe. My email is [email protected]. Thank you!
Hi, Lisa!
Prior posts have pooh-poohed green tomatoes in their mincemeat so maybe the recipe I have for green tomato mincemeat (without meat) is a depression era thing. I’ll look for it if you’re interested.
All the best –
Diane
[email protected]
Sounds similar to my Grandmother’s recipe’. There was always some left over, but it disappeared at breakfast the next day. (My grandfather’s favorite treat)
My aunt made it with a light glaze. She liked things sweeter. It is good that way also.
I’ll have to try this.
That’s a good idea to add a light glaze to it. I’ll have to give that a try next time!
My grandmother and then my father made mincemeat similar to this. It was soooo good. I may have to give it a go. The stuff in the store uses green tomatoes. UGH!!!.
Green tomatoes?! That’s such a random ingredient to put in mincemeat! Yeah, the stuff from the store has never seemed very appealing to me either.
My mom made this every year. She also added crushed pineapple and sour cherries. We would make a big batch and freeze in quart bags, ready for the next pie.
That’s a really good idea to freeze some to use for the next pie! I’ll have to do that next time 🙂
Hello—thank you so much for the recipe! My husband remembers my mom making and canning mincemeat and he asked for the pie this year. I searched and used your recipe with some minor changes—I sliced and chopped a deer loin and boiled it in apple cider and salt until it was done. I added the apples and chopped the raisins and spices and lard and simmered this along with about 1/4 cup sugar. I did end up adding about 1/4-1/2 cup blackberry brandy too. I did it last week and now 4 days later I tried it out in small pies. The consensus is that it is delicious! Can’t wait to try it out on the Thanksgiving Day family! Thank you!
The changes you made sound like good ones, and I’m so glad to hear that the recipe turned out well for you! I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving! 🙂
* Did you add the apples to the apple cider the deer loin was boiled in?
* Do you think boiling ground beef in apple cider would have a similar taste? I’m in the city, no deer loin.
* Did you add the brandy to the cooled mixture?
* Did you refrigerate it for the four days before cooking or something else?
Thanks
My grandmother made a mince pie using deer meat and suet along with the fruits! It was the most delicious pie I ever had! I still have the vintage meat grinder she attached to her counter to grind the meat!
That definitely sounds like an old-fashioned recipe! And that’s really neat that you still have her vintage meat grinder!
I am 72 when i was a kid my first deer kill went my aunt for mince meat pies for Christmas dinner
That sounds like it must have been a very authentic old-fashioned mince meat pie!
Hey, Lori!! What a nice blog!! My ques. is; How to make a Mincemeat Cake- kind of like a fruitcake- but Mince. Thanks!! And Happy New Year!!
That’s a good question. I’ve never tried making a mincemeat cake before, and I haven’t heard of anyone else doing it either, but it could be a fun experiment to try. Since some of the flavors and ingredients in mincemeat and fruitcake are similar, you could probably try using the batter from a fruitcake recipe and then add in some of the ingredients from the mincemeat filling to the batter to make a cross between fruitcake and mincemeat. Happy New Year to you too!
Thank you for a recipe that actually has meat in it! I want to make the amount that the original recipe makes though. What temp should I bake it at and how long should I leave it in the oven? Thanks!
Are you wanting to bake the entire amount of the original recipe at one time as one really big pie? Or are you planning to make the amount that the original recipe makes but split it up into a couple of pies? I divided the original recipe by four when I made my version, so if you were making the amount of the original recipe, you would probably have enough filling for four 9 inch pies, and you could bake them all at 400 degrees for 45 minutes. If you were making one really big pie, you could still bake it at 400 degrees, but you might have to leave it in the oven for a little bit longer than the 45 minutes, depending on the dish you were using to bake it in. If you had a very wide dish that was fairly shallow, then 45 minutes might be enough, but if you had a dish that was taller and deeper, then it might take longer for the filling to cook through.