Mincemeat
Mincemeat is a mixture of chopped
Etymology
The "mince" in mincemeat comes from the Middle English mincen, and the Old French mincier both traceable to the Vulgar Latin minutiare, meaning chop finely. The word mincemeat is an adaptation of an earlier term minced meat, meaning finely chopped meat. Meat was also a term for food in general, not only animal flesh.[2]
Variants and history
English recipes from the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries describe a
16th-century recipe
Pyes of mutton or beif must be fyne mynced & seasoned with pepper and salte and a lytel saffron to colour it / suet or marrow a good quantitie / a lytell vynegre / pruynes / great reasons / and dates / take the fattest of the broath of powdred beefe. And if you will have paest royall / take butter and yolkes of egges & so to temper the floure to make the paest.[3] |
Pies of mutton or beef must be finely minced and seasoned with pepper and salt, and a little saffron to colour it. [Add] a good quantity of suet or marrow, a little vinegar, prunes, raisins and dates. [Put in] the fattest of the broth of salted beef. And, if you want Royal pastry, take butter and egg yolks and [combine them with] flour to make the paste. |
In the mid- to late eighteenth century, mincemeat in Europe had become associated with old-fashioned, rural, or homely foods. Victorian England rehabilitated the preparation as a traditional Yuletide treat.
19th-century recipe
Ingredients — 2 lb. of raisins, 3 lb. currants, 1+1⁄2 lb. of lean beef, 3 lb. of beef suet, 2 lb. of moist sugar, 2 oz. of
pottleof apples, the rind of 2 lemons, the juice of 1, 1⁄2 pint of brandy.Mode — Stone and cut the raisins once or twice across, but do not chop them; wash, dry, and pick the currants free from stalks and grit, and mince the beef and suet, taking care the latter is chopped very fine; slice the citron and candied peel, grate the nutmeg, and pare, core, and mince the apples; mince the lemon-peel, strain the juice, and when all the ingredients are thus prepared, mix them well together, adding the brandy when the other things are well blended; press the whole into a jar, carefully exclude the air, and the mincemeat will be ready for use in a fortnight.[4]
Apple mincemeat
By the late 19th century, "apple mincemeat" was recommended as a "hygienic" alternative, using apples,
A recipe for apple mincemeat appears in a 1910 issue of The Irish Times, made with apples, suet, currants, sugar, raisins, orange juice, lemons, spice and brandy.[6]
There is also a similar recipe using green tomatoes instead of apples to create mincemeat in the 1970s book Putting Food By.[7]
20th century
By the mid-twentieth century, most mincemeat recipes did not include meat, but might include animal fat in the form of suet or butter, or alternatively solid vegetable fats, making it
Mincemeat can be produced at home. Commercial preparations, primarily without meat, packaged in jars, foil-lined boxes, or tins, are commonly available.
Mince pies and tarts are frequently consumed during the Christmas holiday season. In the northeast United States, mincemeat pies are also a traditional part of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Like other pies,[8] mince pies are sometimes served with cheese, notably cheddar.[9]
References
Notes
- ^ "mincemeat". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ "Lexico definition". Archived from the original on November 12, 2020.
- ^ A Propre new booke of Cokery, 1545
- The Book of Household Management, 1861, p. 657 § 1309
- ^ "The Poultry Monthly". Ferris Publishing Company. December 21, 1893 – via Google Books.
- ^ Weekly Irish Times (Saturday, December 3, 1910), page 49.
- ^ Hertzberg, Ruth; Vaughn, Beatrice; Greene, Janet. Putting Food By (1973, 1974 ed.). Brattleboro, Vermont: The Stephen Greene Press. p. 218.
- ^ Ladies of Toronto et al., The Home Cook Book, Musson Book Company, 1877, p. 384
- ISBN 039448505X, p. 243
Bibliography
- Cunningham, Marion. The Fannie Farmer Cookbook. Alfred A. Knopf: 1979. ISBN 0-394-40650-8.
- Kiple, Kenneth F. and Kriemhild Coneè Ornelas. The Cambridge World History of Food. Cambridge University Press: 2000. ISBN 978-0-521-40216-3.
External links
- Mincemeat at the Wikibooks Cookbook subproject