Mincemeat Pie - Week 45

Mincemeat is the least understood of pie fillings.

Just a generation ago, this pie was a staple at most holiday dinners. Today, most people put up their nose when they hear of it. From my research I discovered there are many interpretations of the preparation of the filling. In fact, I put more thought and planning in this pie than any other pie that I had made so far. 

Just when I thought it was time to give up on this mysterious pie, my friend Wendy insisted she had a great recipe. So I decided I would follow through with it.  Taking her recipe, I found an almost identical recipe in an old "Ball Blue Book".  It included an addition of an orange. And, with the affirmation from my mom that she also had eaten this almost identical mincemeat filling from her friend. I proceeded.

I had retained a few leftover green tomatoes from my garden. I borrowed a grinder to prepare the ingredients. I bought a container of allspice and my fruits, and I bought some suet from the packing plant (suet is commonly mixed with deer meat to make summer sausage). I was ready to go.

I took the ingredients and started to feed them through the hand grinder. A little bit of everything in each feed. I found that it made quite the mess, so if you're using a manual grinder make sure you put a bowl underneath it to catch the juice. 

After it was ground, it was time to cook it. The fragrant smell while it cooked was fantastic. I was anxious to try it, but I needed to store it for later for Thanksgiving when I would make a pie. I have never canned, so I decided to freeze it instead.

Ingredients:
12-20 green tomatoes (depending on size, small is preferred)
9 apples (pared, chopped)
1 orange (seeded, chopped)
1 lb raisins
1 cup suet
3 cups sugar
1 T. salt
1 T. cinnamon
1 T. allspice
1 cup vinegar

Directions:
Using a grinder, grind tomatoes, apples, orange, and suet together. Use a balanced mix of fruit and suet when loading the grinder to keep things moving smoothly through the grinder. 

In large pot, add mix, sugar, salt, cinnamon, allspice, and vinegar. Cook for 1 hour.

Either can in pint jars, or freeze in 2 cup servings.

Use double crust pastry and 2 cups of filling for each pie.
Bake at 425 for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and bake for an additional 30 minutes.

Even though this wasn't everyone's favorite.

I think this was a successful recipe.

Wendy also tells me that it makes fantastic muffins,

I will be trying that soon with some of my leftover mincemeat.

Do you like mincemeat? 

Is it something that you can remember on your holiday table?