Best mincemeat recipe for mince pies and puddings
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Christmas, Desserts | 108 comments
Mince pies are the quintessential Christmas treat. But every year loads of us bite into a proffered mince pie and resolve never to accept one again. it’s a shame as nothing beats a homemade one, bursting with mincemeat and a slug of brandy. I always make a few on Christmas Eve. I was pretty smug about them until Anne Mary mentioned that she always made her own mincemeat. I’m embarrassed to admit this but five years ago I didn’t know that you could make your own. I rushed home and thumbed through our cookbooks, convinced that it would be a complicated grinding, sieving, mincing process. It’s not. It’s really easy.
There was one major drawback, most of the recipes that I found produced mincemeat with a short shelf life. The apples often start to ferment after a couple of months. I didn’t want to make just the one jar or a batch to give away labeled “Unstable contents. Eat me within two months as I might explode”.
Then I struck gold, Delia Smith’s ‘Complete Illustrated Cookery Course’ includes a recipe that solves the fermentation problem. We have tweaked it over the years and now just stick to the original with one exception. We replace the candied peel (we are not fans) with halved glacé cherries (we’re addicted to these). We add the cherries with the brandy when the mincemeat comes out of the oven and has cooled down. Delia’s mincemeat recipe is simple to make and absolutely delicious. Luckily she has published the recipe on her website and the link is here.
Great mincemeat is not just for mince pies at Christmas. Delia has a lot of recipe ideas for puddings on her site that are worth checking out. Danny stuffed cooking apples with a jar of mincemeat that he found loitering in the fridge. Baked for for 40 minutes in a moderate oven they have become one of our favourite puds at this time of year.
Tips and tips:
- If you are pressed for time you can adapt shop bought mincemeat by adding a small handful of halved glacé cherries and sultanas soaked overnight in brandy. Always add a teaspoon of brandy to shop mince pies. The best shop bought mince pies are the luxury ones from M&S and Waitrose.
- Update November 2009:
- As Delia says the mincemeat has a really long shelflife. I opened a jar from our 2006 batch tonight and it’s fine!
Leave a reply
Hi,
Just to say thank you for this article and all the comments. I now live in Estonia and am determined to make mince pies this year. I used butter as I have been unable to find suet. Also went for dried cherries we can get here as candied peel is available, but very expensive.
Well it’s all prepared and ready to sit for 12 hours, hope it turns out ok. Thank you again.
Hello there – I am a newcomer to this website and I have to say, I found these comments very useful! I made Delia’s mincemeat for the first time this week and am a newcomer to the whole home made mincemeat process. I wanted to ask, when my mincemeat was cool enough to add in the brandy it seemed to look paler than I expected – is this normal? I was expecting it to look glossier, runnier and darker (like shop-bought) but it was kind of thicker, stickier and paler. Or is that just the suet melting and reforming? I made two batches and both had the same outcome!
Hi Hannah
I understand your point. Delia’s recipe doesn’t look like the supermarket brands but tastes far better and lasts for longer in sterilised jars. When served as minced pies the mincemeat looks almost the same as supermarket ones but the taste is out of this world!
Don’t fall at the first fence. Impress your family/friends!
I’m a bit confused as to how to can mincemeat as I’d like to make some now and put them in Christmas baskets as gifts.
Since there’s meat or some suet in the recipe, typically that means you must can using a pressure cooker. If it’s a fruit in the recipe, then you need to add acid of some sort and a ton of sugar to preserve using the water bath method. I’ve seen the non-method of the wax circles, which doesn’t prevent botulism from forming.
So what is the correct canning method in this case? Thanks!
Hi there,
Im going to attempt to make this tonight but only have cognac in the cupboard before I rush out to the supermarket is it Ok to substitute the brandy for cognac??
Hi Caroline
Yes the cognac would be fine!
Hi folks,
I was making a christmas cake tonight, and had a lot of fruit left over so I decided to make some mincemeat with it. I followed Delia’s recipe but only thing is, I didnt have any suet and decided to use lard instead- I know I should have waited to get some!! Have I ruined all my work? Would the mince pies be edible/ good to eat with lard?
Hi Angharad,
So pleased that you’re happy with your mincemeat with this site which I find invaluable!
Fiona, Danny and all the people that contribute are wonderful, they’re all so kind, generous helpful and it’s lots of fun!
I’m sure that you Angharad, like I will become a frequent visitor.
Enjoy your cooking,
Odelle.
Thanks for all your comments, I left it to stand cooked it and it smells and tastes really good even before having time to mature. I’m very glad I found the suggestion for the recipe on here
Hi Kooky Girl,
Would love to try the recipe that you suggested, Nigella Lawson recipe without suet,I love the idea of using butter for mince-pies, always up for a challenge, trying out new recipes ideas, where will I find this site?
Would be much obliged if you can point me in the right direction.
Many thanks,
Odelle.
I use the recipe for suet-free mincemeat which you can find in the ‘How to be a Domestic Goddess’ book by Nigella Lawson. The recipe is also online. Last week I was called on to make a batch for my work colleagues who so loved them last year. This is using mincemeat I made in 2008. No fermentation. I put the mincemeat in sterilised jars with a wax disc and the lid screwed on tightly. This still tastes amazing.
Angharad, I always leave mine to stand overnight and I’ve never had any problems (even when I was eating the mincemeat more than a year later) so you should be fine. Just be sure that the jars you put it in are sterile as an extra precaution.
LJ, It probably depends on how much alcohol there is in that little bit of brandy. If it isn’t fermenting and there is no other visible sight or smell of spoilage perhaps you could risk testing it on yourself? Make a small mince pie and nibble on the corner of it?
Roz.