Mincemeat

I haven't had a piece of mince pie in ages, so yesterday I thought I would make one to have for our Solstice celebration supper. Only problem it turned out is that I couldn't find a can or jar of prepared mince pie filling anywhere. Not Hannafords, not Shaws, not Whole Foods (that place makes me shudder, btw) not even the little gourmet shop down the street. I hope its not becoming extinct. Anyway, my gram used to make it out venison from time to time, so I figured I would do like they done in the past. I found a recipe using beef instead of venison on line and made up a big enough batch for 2 pies. I'm letting the filling sit in the fridge of a couple of days to ripen up.

I'll post the recipe below. I note that I was up till about 3 a.m. wassailing in the return of the Sun, and not feeling too good, but I had a little nip of the brandy going into the filling and that perked me up a little.

I used some left over pot roast for the meat, and substituted the brown sugar with molasses.

Happy Yule!

From the Old Sturbridge Village Cookbook.

Ingredients

1 1/4 pounds of beef round or leftover roast
1/4 pound suet
1 1/2 pounds apples
1 cup raisins or currant
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon clove
2 teaspoons nutmeg
1/4 cup brandy
2 cups cider or apple juice
Double recipe for Pie Crust
1 tablespoon butter (optional)

1. If uncooked meat is used, simmer beef 2-3 hours or until very tender, adding suet for last 1/2 hour of cooking.

2. When cooked, chop beef and suet very fine, into about 1/4-inch pieces.

3. Pare, core, and chop apples to make 3 cups.

4. Mix beef, suet, apples, raisins or currants, white and brown sugars, spices, brandy and cider or apple juice.

5. Prepare pie crust.

6. Line pie plates with pastry, fill each with half of meat mixture. Cover with top crusts, seal edges, slit holes on top for steam to escape. If desired, spread a thick layer of butter on pastry for flaky upper crust.

7. Bake 3/4 hour in 400°-425° oven.

Yield: Two 9-inch pies