National Mincemeat Day celebrates a 15th-century English recipe mixing spiced meat and fruit. Mincemeat needs time for all the flavours to meld so today should be your signal to get this year’s batch of mincemeat ready for the holidays.
Nothing says British Christmas like mincemeat. Originally mincemeat was made with ground meat, offals, eggs and whatever else was on hand which was a way for preserving meat without salting or smoking.
The Victorians were the first to start making mincemeat without meat, but still used suet which is still a component of many modern recipes. Suet is the fat taken from the kidney area of a beef carcass. It adds a silky texture to mincemeat and English puddings.
While you can get suet from your local butcher, Amazon to the rescue as you can purchase packaged pre-shredded suet, either beef suet or a vegetarian version.
Mincemeat Recipes
Once you have mincemeat prepared you can incorporate it into your holiday baking in a number of ways.
- Mince pies (pictured)
- Mincemeat Cake
- Mincemeat Oatmeal Squares
Easy Peasy Classic Mincemeat
Ingredients
- 3 large lemons
- 4 cups raisins
- 4 cups currants
- 1 ½ cups shredded suet* or 1/2 cup softened butter or shortening
- 2 cups brown sugar or sugar substitute
- 1 cup mixed candied peel
- 2 tsp. allspice
- 2 tsp. ground cloves
- 2 tsp. nutmeg
- 1/2 cup brandy or rum
- 1 tbsp. orange marmalade
Instructions
- Peel the zest off the lemons, avoiding the white pulp, then finely dice. Juice the lemons then add to a Dutch oven.
- Add in the remaining ingredients except the brandy. Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat to simmer until it has thickened and is syrupy, about 45 minutes.
- Allow the mixture to cool, then add the alcohol.
- Store the mincemeat in a cool place until ready to use.
Notes
Mince is best prepared in late November so it will be well-fortified for your holiday baking.
Use your mincemeat to prepare
