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On fruit mincemeat and Christmas fruit mince tartlets

20/12/2016

19 Comments

 
Christmas fruit mince pies or tartlets
Growing up in a Hungarian household, there was never any mention of fruit mince and fruit mince tartlets or pies in my mother's kitchen. It would be years before I knew such things existed. If memory serves me correctly, a high school home economics teacher may have lectured about them in a class on suet.

Given my inexperience with Anglo-Saxon cooking, my young mind was boggling at the thought of combining dried fruits with spices, "minced meat" and raw animal fat. Lordy! I can remember that I had absolutely no interest in tasting these strange fruit mince pies. 

Of course, eventually, I did try one (or two) and found them pleasant enough, however the pastry seemed stodgy and the fruit mince a little too sweet for my palate. With Peter, my Englishman, on the scene, fruit mince tartlets have made an annual appearance at our place over the last decade, and I have grown more accustomed to them.

According to author and food historian, Theodora Fitzgibbon, in A Taste of London, (1973), fruit mincemeat dates back to the sixteenth century (perhaps earlier) and was originally made with a certain quantity of meat, in order to preserve the meat so that it could be used throughout the winter. "Nowadays," she said, "the only ingredient which remains to remind ous of this is the beef suet." In her book, Ms Fitzgibbon shared a 130 year old recipe for mincemeat, which included 450g finely chopped lean roasted beef sirloin. Interesting, but somehow unappealing to me.

In South Wind through the Kitchen - the best of Elizabeth David (compiled by Jill Norman in 1997), the wonderful Mrs David is quoted on mincemeat: 
​
Christmas mincemeat and plum pudding are typical examples of the English fondness for spiced fruit mixtures.

She also mentioned that the first batch of mincemeat that she prepared using ready-made shredded suet actually kept for five years. Mrs David's recipe for mincemeat, which was originally given to her by a friend, is as follows:

The ingredients are: 675g sharp apples; 340g stoneless raisins; 340g currants; 120g mixed peel; 340g suet; 340g sultanas; 60g skinned and coarsely chopped almonds; 1/2 teaspoon each of grated nutmeg, cinnamon and mace; 340g sugar, rind and juice of one lemon and one orange; and 70ml of brandy or rum. 
Wash and dry all the fruit. Chop the peeled and carefully cored apples. Mix all ingredients together well, adding the brandy last. Fill stoneware jars and tie them down with thick greaseproof paper, or alternatively pack the mincemeat into glass preserving jars with screw or clip-on lids. This amount makes approximately 2.75 kg of mincemeat.

A jar of Christmas mince is a lovely gift...
writes Australian culinary icon, Stephanie Alexander, ​in her bestselling tome, The Cook's Companion.

Ms Alexander, who always includes suet in her mincemeat "because there is nothing else that gives such a rich gloss and succulent texture", notes that her mother used to insist that Christmas mincemeat be made with new season's apples in late autumn. "In England this practice would mean that the mince matured for just a few months; in Australia it was more like 8-9 months. But the brandy and generous quantity of sugar guarantee that the product will last for at least a year. It just gets better."

Stephanie's christmas mincemeat recipe involves pre-cooking thin slices of the apple in a minimum quantity of water until the fruit is soft, then it should be covered and left overnight. The following day, the skin is stripped from the suet and the fat is then grated. All of the ingredients (which include dark brown sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon each ground cloves and allspice) are combined in a sealed container and allowed to "mature and mellow" for a few weeks.

​That said, a good mincemeat can also be prepared a few days ahead of Christmas, so we had best get cracking!

I have scoured my cookbooks and a selection of web sites to bring you an ecclectic selection of receipts for Christmas fruit mince tartlets or mini pies.

​ One of my favourite "wholefood" authors, Jude Blereau, offers an excellent recipe for gluten-free fruit mince tartlets in her book, Wholefood Baking. Serendipitously, the recipe is also available on her web site, here.

Maggie Beer's recipe sounds divine. It includes flaked almonds, honey, dried figs, apricots and cumquats, as well as verjuice, which some of you might have in your larder. Sherry can be used as a substitute.

The Healthy Chef, Teresa Cutter, offers recipes for shortcrust pastry using oatmeal, as well as almond and wholemeal spelt. She also shares her recipe for a zesty fruit mince filling.

Lorraine Elliot, a.k.a. Not Quite Nigella, says her chocolate fruit mince tarts have "the best buttery short cases because they're made with a browned butter shortbread."

For a healthy, raw vegan recipe for fruit mince tarts, look no further than Rawlicious Delicious, where self-confessed health nut, Heidi Turunen shares her recipe for a dehydrated cashew, oat and maple syrup crust.

​For those who are time-poor, ready-made fruit mince is available in Australia (just check the ingredients list). The recipe by English baker and celebrity, Paul Hollywood, uses the store-bought mincemeat. I should also mention that very good quality shortcrust pastry is produced in Australia by Carême.

Happy baking dear readers. Tell me, do you have a fondness for mincemeat and fruit mince pies?
19 Comments
Tandy I Lavender and Lime link
19/12/2016 11:41:04 pm

I make my own fruit mince and fruit mince pies every year. It's the traditional dessert for us at home.

Reply
Lizzy
20/12/2016 09:50:07 pm

That's interesting, Tandy. : )

Reply
Judy Purcell link
20/12/2016 08:43:43 am

I love the unique traditions we all have -- I good friend of mine loved mincemeat pies at Thanksgiving. I haven't seen them in a very long while now, but whenever I think of mincemeat, fond memories come back to me. Thank you.

Reply
Lizzy
20/12/2016 09:50:48 pm

Hello lovely Judy, mince pies for Thanksgiving, interesting. Happy Christmas to you xx

Reply
Gary Lum link
20/12/2016 01:21:06 pm

Even though I grew up here, being a Chinese family, we never did mince meat pies at Christmas and I never understood how 'mince meat' could be sweet. I was very keen on a hot pie and couldn't get my head around these Christmas pies.
I eat them now, but I still think they're a little weird.

Reply
Lizzy
20/12/2016 09:51:30 pm

Interesting how our different cultures mean that we find some foods curiously unappetising, no? Happy Christmas to you, Gary.

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Wenderella
20/12/2016 03:41:29 pm

I quite like fruit mince tarts, but I like fruit mince ice cream much better. It's wonderful for a southern hemisphere Christmas dessert. I make my own ice cream, but you can just soften a good quality bought ice cream, add a substantial quantity of home made or bought fruit mince, and refreeze.

Reply
Lizzy
20/12/2016 09:52:04 pm

Hello Wenderella, lovely to hear from you. Oh, noice, fruit mince ice cream, yes please!!!! Merry Christmas to you xx

Reply
Amanda link
20/12/2016 05:38:43 pm

I've never made mince pies. Some things are simply easier to buy!

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Lizzy
20/12/2016 09:52:43 pm

Hi Amanda, strangely enough, I tend to agree, although there is nothing quite as beautiful as home made pate sucree. XX

Reply
David link
21/12/2016 03:18:39 am

My Nana always made mincemeat from suet and, as a young child, I was never fin of it. As a young adult, I loved it, but also became aware that no one needs to eat suet! Your fruit mince pies sound delicious, Liz. Wishing you and Peter a happy Christmas!

Reply
sherry MacKay link
21/12/2016 04:52:38 am

hi Liz

i do find mince pies too sweet so i make mince raviolis so that you only get a small bit in each mouthful. i think the idea of using meat in them sounds very sensible. so hard to get suet these days even the packet stuff. i guess some butchers may have it. isn't it annoying how the old ingredients we used to find so readily are disappearing from the stores? i couldn't get glace cherries last year for love nor money so i grabbed a couple of packets when i saw them this year. cheers! x

Reply
SeattleDee link
21/12/2016 12:23:20 pm

Mincemeat anything and fruitcakes fit in the category "traditional treats others enjoy but no, thank you, I'll pass". Mom's epic failures with said items are still fresh in my food memory - evidence of my closed mindedness yet again.

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SeattleDee link
21/12/2016 10:37:18 pm

I may have to eat my words, as well as some minced fruit treats. Some of the linked recipes sound more than tempting - and Mom needn't ever know.

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Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella link
21/12/2016 04:53:32 pm

I have really grown to love them. I was like you Liz and really thought that they were strange at first. I also mistook them for mince meat (beef) pies once. It was an unexpected bite! Thank you so much for the shoutout, it's very lovely of you :)

Reply
kellie@foodtoglow link
22/12/2016 01:56:22 pm

Like you, I didn't grow up with mince pies so it did indeed take quite awhile for me to take more than a polite bite. The pastry and very sweet dried fruit (and loads of alcohol) are not my favourite things ;-). But I do like making my own, less sweet, mincemeat (without beef suet), using grated apples from my garden and no booze. This year I made a Slab Pie version with a kind of crumble bar dough and they went down a storm at work (I made about 10 batches up until last week!). I was interested to read so much about the history and permutations of this British Christmas staple. Wishing you and Peter and very happy Christmas xx

Reply
Karen (Back Road Journal) link
24/12/2016 09:15:22 am

My husband and I both love mincemeat and I usually make one for Christmas (no meat or suet in mine). This year we are entertaining friends that don't care for raisins so there will be no mincemeat pie.

Reply
Jeni from Northern Rivers Dreaming
25/12/2016 06:55:33 pm

Like you I misunderstood the name as a kid and avoided them like the plague. Years later we like them enough to eat a single box at Christmas but don't miss them if we forget them.

Last year we really liked ones served at a friend's place and were rather gobsmacked to discovered they were Woolies' ones. What made them stand out was their use of single malt whisky rather than brandy. So we went searching for them this year in the big supermarkets. No luck ... instead we discovered shudder worthy horrors like black forest chocolate mince pies, gingerbread and apple mince pies and mango and god knows what (strawberry???) mince pies. We ran out screaming....

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Maureen link
3/1/2017 09:19:21 pm

This American had heard about Christmas fruit mincemeat tarts but it wasn't until I came to Australia for the first time in December '94 that I tasted one on Acland Street in St. Kilda. I swooned. I've still never made them but now I want to make fruit mince as a gift. Will do in December. remind us. :)

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