For the Love of Dirt: EVIL Mincemeat....

The lowly Mince pie has had a bum rap over the years. It's cousin, the butter tart, seems to be highly favoured , as of late. Mincemeat tarts have an astonishing pedigree that goes back to the 13th century. The Butter tart goes back as far as pioneer days. .....But I digress. The Mincemeat tart, once known to be highly EVIL in its origin, is the star today. Shameful Mincemeat. So yummy.

Crusaders found mince pies in the middle east. Back then they were full of ground up meats, fruits and spices.
( Not the crusaders, mind you.....just the pies... Though I'm sure they ground up a few people in their time. Hopefully not into pies)

Mince pies were also known as Shrid pie, Mutton pie, Christmas pie, and stuffed full of suet, meat, and fruit with cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Around Christmastime it was served to the lucky few. Puritans frowned on mincemeat pies as being frivolous and smacking of the devil. It was a terrible thing to serve a mincemeat pie to a preacher! Scandal would erupt, because the pies were considered to be Catholic in origin.They included elements like raisins and spices, which represented the apostles and the Christ. Those EVIL raisins.....

Ingredients for Modern Mincemeat these days is: 1 cup apples, 2/3 cup raisins, 2/3 cup dark raisins, 2/3 cup currants, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 oz beef suet ( which I don't add, by the way. See alternate.) 1/4 cup brandy ( or more...go ahead, slog it in), 2 tsp lemon peel , 2 tsp orange peel. 1/2 cup cranberries, 1/2 tsp allspice, 1/2 tsp nutmeg.( Of course, I don't really measure. Just go by sight. Enjoy yourself.
ALTERNATIVE TO SUET: Freeze butter or margarine, then grate into the other ingredients, while still frozen. It can be dusted with flour, or flour aleternative.

This can then sit and mellow for a while , or you can freeze it for later use.

In Tudor England, "Shrid" pies contained lots of spices to represent gifts of the Magi.

Early pies were oblong shaped, and huge. Today's be held in the palm of the hand. In old English cookbooks the crust is referred to as a "coffin" (John Selden). I like that explanation. A little morbid perhaps. But descriptive. A coffin of mincemeat.Delectably evil, of course.

These days, mince tarts can be made in silicone tart shells. They pop out like bubble gum balls.

In 1854, there was a recipe for Mincemeat that includes chopped tongue, beef suet, blood raisins, currants, mace, cloves, nutmeg, brown sugar, apples, lemons, brandy and orange peel.

In Puritan times, it was considered treason to make and serve mincemeat pie and "Death within the Pot" (Marchamont Needham). Oh that EVIL mincemeat. Shame Shame.

The biggest evil was the chopped up meat in the pie. Eating an entire cow was considered fine, just not minced up . It then became "unclean" in the eyes of the Puritans. Chop. Chop. Chop.

In 1773, an article written about the "Christmas Pye" , called it "An invention of the Scarlet Whore of Babylon, an Hodge Podge of Superstition, Popery. the Devil and all his works." (Gentleman's Magazine 1773) Shame. They didn't know what they were missing.

Really? That lowly little mince pie? Evil? Something so yummy this way comes....

Thank goodness mincemeat has become more or less fruit soaked in brandy. Or not. Depending on your preferences.

But Remember: replace the suet with frozen butter or margarine.

The Puritans would approve.

Puritans did not celebrate Christmas, so the pie shifted to American Thanksgiving tradition, while the ingredients for New England Mincemeat pie, similar to the British one, with apples, omitted minced beef. And you know, the stuff in the jars, in the store, is VERY good. Just slosh in some brandy, stuff into pasty and bake. WONDERFUL.