Ta, Andy, also Toodles and IYE
Andy
Mum used to make her own mincemeat. I e got her old 1930s recipe book. I’ll have a gander and put it up.
…..
Here we go, late night and just got back from the pub. Apologies for misspellings etc.
2lb cooking apples, 1lb raisins stoned (#metoo), 1lb sultanas, 3/4lb mixed peel, 1lb suet, 1lb caster sugar, grated rind of 2 lemons, juice of 3 lemons, 1 nutmeg grated, 3/4 lb raspberry jam (optional)
Put all fruit, peel and suet through a mincing machine or chop together as finely as possible. Texture will be slightly different, matter of taste. Stir in sugar, grated lemon rind and the juice, the nutmeg and jam if used. Sprinkle in a few whole currents, and, if possible a little brandy or whisky. Mix thoroughly. Put into pots and cover closely. These quantities make about 8lb of mincemeat. Smaller amounts mean reducing ingredients proportionally.
Mmm, I might give this a try. Good luck finding SFA free suet. If you do let me know please.
IYE
Thanks Andy, have noted and passed it on. No such thing as suet over here though π Shall have to research what the alternatives are. Watch this space….
Also food processors back in the day were our mums and grandmums – thinking of mincing machine – no doubt a modern food processor carefully controlled would do the job. Goes away with dreams of a mincemeat plait and custard….π
Btw have got a flour free fruit cake recipe if anyone is interested.
(JH: Yes please, kindly.)
Okay, suet substitutes. Have conferred. The resident Domestic Goddess recommends either butter or coconut oil. Butter has been used for over a decade in our Christmas puds.π² Make sure the butter is cold first then grate it. Same with coconut oil but trickier to handle. For savoury uses use lard.
Toods summarised
Andy! Yum! I really love minced meat. Ashamedly I must confess I usually buy it. The brand was pretty good. My mother used to make it. I have no idea where her recipe is so I am anxious to try your ‘mum’s’! Thrilled to have it. It makes so much I might put it in jars as gifts for friends too!
‘1lb raisins stoned (#metoo)’ π₯΄
Photo credit: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/22621/old-time-mincemeat-pie/
Late note from Isilme
IYE – have you tried asking the butcher for some suet. Originally that’s where you’d get it from.
I’m loving all these recipes. Trouble is, my Beloved is drooling over them and now it looks like I’ll have to try them out. Only to keep him happy, of course. I hate to say it, but I already have all those ingredients in my larder. It seems I have no excuse.
I’m making some bread and butter pudding for tonight’s dessert. I found some hot cross buns in the freezer and felt it was about time they got eaten!
They’re mini ones, so I’ll simply cut them in half and butter each piece, then lay them in a dish and scatter a bit of mixed dried fruit over them, plus a tablespoon of demerara sugar.
Then beat together an egg and half a pint (300ml) milk and pour over the top.
Quite often I do two eggs and a pint of milk because beloved likes the eggy bit.
You leave it for half an hour to all soak in, sprinkle the top with another tablespoon of demerara sugar and then cook it for 1 hour at Gas 4 / 350F / 180C / 160 fan oven.
Yummy!
……
(JH: This is the issue though, Isilme … milk, butter (bovaer poison), bread flour (folic acid). We need independent sources of milk and flour. This is what we’re banging on about.)
Isilme adds:
"Today, not long after reading your blog about the folic acid stuff, I received an email from this online company with the title "Check out our range of unfortified flour" and it explained in the email that none of their organic flour had folic acid in it (white bread flour, plain flour, self raising etc). How did they know I wanted 'non folic acid' stuff? I could have just bought the wholemeal flour because that's what I wanted, nothing to do with folic acid. How do they know I glanced to the side of the page to see the ingredients? Very weird!"