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 😕 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….😋
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.😲 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)’ 🥴
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!”
Memories, memories of my Mum making mince pie in the lead up to Christmas. Usually came with piping hot custard, or vanilla ice-cream if we kids were really good. Mum was an excellent pastry cook, as all my girlfriends attested after eating with us. I’ve mentioned before she was the cook at my junior school. Her method was to assemble the pie on a large (12″) enamelled metal dinner plate with deep(ish) sides. You know the type? The school kitchen would produce dozens of these for dinner time on the last day of term before we broke up for Christmas. You can then serve it straight from the plate. A jug of custard sat in the middle of the table and the dinner ladies, wearing Xmas hats and tinsel scarves, would pour over your slice of pie. Happy days 🙂
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JH: Indeed.
After making pastry any leftovers were either rolled flat, sugared and baked in squares as “corner fillers” with a bit of jam and custard. Or if there was plenty of pastry going begging it would go into tart moulds, again with either jam or mincemeat. Custard was never far away, in distance or time in our house!
Glad you enjoyed the recipe. I was lucky to rescue the book when clearing the family home. Lots more traditional old time fayre available on request.
Us kids were given the leftover pastry bit to make currant cakes. Pastry rolled flat, then spoonful of currants in centre, sprinkle of sugar, bit of butter then the corners folded over and flattened with a rolling pin then baked. They were ours to eat. Have to admit the pastry looked a bit grey when we’d finished but I’m still here to tell the tale!
“Any leftovers were either rolled flat, sugared and baked in squares as “corner fillers”
Mother also added Raisins & Sultanas.
You got it Andy. Any leftover pastry would be recycled into biscuits in our house. Mum would roll the leftover pastry a bit thicker, knock out some biscuits with a biscuit cutter then brush ’em with milk. Baking tray, bottom of the oven on a piece of baking parchment. Delicious with jam, or if she was icing a Xmas or birthday cake Mum would ice the biscuits as well. We was spoilt having a mother who could cook better than Delia Smith.
You fellers way over yonder be talkin’ my language…mincemeat and now…🤤…🥴…🫠….custard?!!! 🤩
Flour-less Rich Fruit Cake
1 cup dried apricots roughly chopped
1/2 cup medjoul dates roughly chopped
1/2 cup dried figs roughly chopped
1/2 cup dried cranberries (optional)
1/2 cup currants
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup stoned 🤪 prunes roughly chopped
1 large orange – zest and juice
3 tablespoons coconut oil
3 large eggs, beaten
2 heaped teaspoons mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
1/2 cup of chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
2 cups ground almonds
Pinch of salt
A generous 1/4 cup brandy 😇
20 cm loose bottom tin lined with greaseproof paper, baking parchment or whatever it is called in your neck of the woods
Oven temp 150 C or gas equivalent?
Cooking time 1 hour 15 – 1 hour 25 mins.
Method
Day before you want to bake put all the dried fruit in large bowl together with zest and juice of the orange and the brandy. Stir well, make a wish, cover with a plate or cling film and leave overnight. (No nibbling now!)
Day after, gently melt the coconut oil – don’t over heat. In another large bowl mix ground almonds, salt, spices, beaten eggs and the melted coconut oil. Mix well. Add the dried fruit and any remaining liquid ( won’t be much!) and mix thoroughly. Add the chopped nuts if using at this stage too.
Empty into prepped tin and bake. Check after 1 hr 15 – stick a skewer in the middle – should be cleanish and the cake firm.
When done leave it in the tin to cool completely then wrap in grease proof paper and then in tin foil. Keeps well for a couple of weeks.
It makes quite a dense cake. Delish served with a chunk of farmhouse cheddar and a glass of port.
Note there’s no sugar in it – sweetness comes from all the dried fruit.
Hope that all makes sense – have written it in my bestest writing. 😉
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JH: Ta muchly, IYE.
Ta muchly the most! Thank you heaps!
And real Standard Measurements! 👏
Stop distracting me! 😋
“No such thing as suet over here though”
I remember mother using “Atora” – it’s still available:
https://www.tesco.com/shop/en-GB/products/313952828
Not in France! 😁
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!
😋
There was only one butcher locally whose shop didn’t look too hygienic – cooked products too near raw meat and the stench coming from the place. He has since closed down. Supermarkets are our only meat source. Mostly prepackaged though there are small meat counters but even there the cuts of meat are already in managed portions – no half carcasses hanging in the back. Lard is also hard to come by though we have found one source for that but even they only have a small irregular supply. Butter and oils are the go to fats in this neck of the woods mostly.
We make the French version of bread and butter pud using day old croissants and spread them with orange marmalade. Waste not want not!
The suet issue.
This was the brand of my youth too
https://atora.co.uk/products/atora-original-beef-suet/
According to the current ingredients list it isn’t showing any FA. Whether that will change remains to be seen. Maybe contact the company and ask?
Bovaer
The Arla List
https://michaeljblair.substack.com/p/the-arla-list
More on bovaer
https://www.valio.com/articles/information-about-bovaer-feed-supplement/
By the way President butter sometimes available in UK is bovaer-less.