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A mixture of dried and candied fruit, raisins, currants, sugar, suet, apples, brandy, spices, and nuts. Many variations are possible and available, including vegetarian versions, alcohol-free versions that use North American soft apple cider, and nut-free. Fruit-free is more problematic.
It is used as a filling for pies and tarts, especially at Christmas time. It is a British tradition that transferred to all the new English-speaking countries born out of British colonies, such as America, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
You can buy Mincemeat already made in jars or tins. You will of course be told off by Foodies for doing so, but you won't the only person with a jar of it in your cart -- Harrods alone sells over 10,000 pounds (4,000 kilos) of jarred Mincemeat each December (as of 2004), and what Foodie wouldn't quiver when presented with a jar of Mincemeat from Harrods or Fortnum and Mason's?
Mincemeat Pies (aka Wayfarers Pies)
Mincemeat pies are often referred to as just "mince pies". Out of context, that could of course mean "minced beef" pies, but at Christmas everyone knows what it means. "Mincemeat pie" could in theory be used to refer to a whole, large pie that has several servings in it, but in practice it actually means "Mincemeat tarts", they being far more common than the large pie.
History
When Mincemeat was born in Elizabethan times, Medieval cooking and tastes still lingered, with blurry lines between savoury and sweet. In a meat pie, you might put lots of fruit. Mince pies were banned when the Puritans under Oliver Cromwell came into control of Parliament (roughly from the late 1640s to the late 1650s). The Puritans were already predisposed to ban anything in the way of pleasure and self-indulgence (plus ça change, hein?), but what pushed them over the edge about mince pies is that they were traditionally made in the shape of a cradle, representing the manger. To the Puritans, this was another Popish representation.
When mince pies were legal again, they came back in a round form. Up until the late 1800s, though, the recipe still contained minced beef. Mrs Beeton's recipes for Mincemeat do. Nowadays, the beef suet is the last trace of meat in Mincemeat.
Literature & Lore
One Christmas superstition is that for every Mincemeat pie you eat between Christmas and Twelfth Night (the evening of the twelfth day after Christmas), you will have 1 month of happiness in the coming year. Sounds like a way of snookering people into eating up what's left of the mince pies, at a time when everyone is past sick of them. Actually, the full superstition was that you had to eat 1 pie a day at 12 different houses, but no one tells you that, as they're hoping you'll take 3 or 4 off their hands at their house alone.
In 1662, Samuel Pepys records in his diary that on Christmas Day he ate mince pies that he bought (pace purists: he notes that he had to buy them as his wife was ill).
Acknowlegements
Baldini, Luisa. Centuries old mince pie recipe found. BBC News. 13 December 2004.
Also called:  Dörrobstmischung (German)
See Also
Dried Fruit
Other entries for Pies & Tarts
Bakeapple Pie, Butter Tarts, Chess Pie, Cottage Pie, Devizes Pie, Fray Bentos Pies, Huntingdon Fidget Pie, Lemon Pie Filling, Manchester Pudding, Manchester Tart, Marlborough Pudding, Melton Mowbray Pork Pies, Mincemeat, Molasses Pie, Osgood Pie, Pasticcio, Pecan Tassies, Pork Pies, Poutine à la Mélasse, Poutine Carreautée, Pumpkin Pie, Raised Pies, Shepherd's Pie, Shoofly Pie, Stand Pies, Stokenchurch Pie, Taffy Tarts, Tarte à la mélasse, Tartiflette Tart, Tortini, Vinegar Pie, Zougnes
Other entries for Desserts
Aboukir Almonds, Angel Delight, Applesauce, Bananas Foster, Bangbelly, Belgian Waffles, Bhapa Doi, Bizcocho Borracho, Blancmange, Cakes, Cassata Gelata, Cassata, Cassatelle di Ricotta, Cherries Jubilee, Chiboust Cream, Compote, Cookies, Cream Tea, Crème d'amandes, Crème Plombières, Cumberland Rum Butter, Custard, Doughnuts, Dream Topping, Dream Whip, Dutch Crunch Topping, Eton Mess, French Toast, Fürst-Pückler-Eis, Halvah, Ice Cream Cones, Marshmallows, Meringue Italienne, Meringue Powder, Meringue, Mishti Doi, Moonpies, Nanaimo Bars, Nun's Tummies, Orange à la Norvegienne, Pastry Cream, Poor Knights of Windsor, Poutine au Pain, Poutine à Trou, Puddings, Spumoni, Syllabub, Timbale Brillat-Savarin, Tiramisù, Tortoni, Trifle, Vark, Waffles, Wagashi, Warabi Mochi, Zuccotto
Other entries for Dishes
Dumplings, Ozoni, Salads, Savoury Dishes, Zoni
Related Recipes
Banana Mincemeat Pie, Cranberry Mince Pie
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