Old-Fashioned Mincemeat Pie Recipe from 1798

ourheritageofhealth.com

TRW Favs

1 lb beef (I used ground beef from grass-fed cows) *

¾ tsp salt (I like using Real Salt)

1 ½ lbs apple, peeled and chopped (about 3 cups)

⅓ cup suet or tallow or coconut oil, or butter or coconut oil *

¾ cup apple cider

1 Tbs ground mace (or ½ Tbs nutmeg if you don’t have mace)

½ Tbs cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

8 Tbs (½) cup raisins (or 1 full cup if not using currants too) I like to use organic raisins when possible

8 Tbs (½ cup) dried currants (or substitute raisins if you choose)

3 Tbs chopped candied citron pieces (optional)

Originally minced meat pies were made by taking pieces of boiled meat and chopping it finely, as the original recipe suggests. You can certainly do that for the most authentic minced meat pie. Or, if you want a faster and simpler version, you can use ground beef instead.

The original recipe calls for suet, but good quality suet that is appropriate for use in baking is hard to find these days. If you have a good source of suet, then feel free to substitute that to be more authentic, but if not, then tallow, coconut oil, and butter are good substitutes – preferably in that order. Tallow is rendered suet, so it would be the closest thing (although there is a difference between kidney fat suet and regular suet, but for this pie I don’t think it would make as big of a difference as it would for puddings), and if you can’t find that then coconut oil would probably be the next closest substitute as far as consistency when baking even though it’s not the most historically-accurate ingredient (If you decided to use coconut oil, I recommend using an expeller-pressed refined coconut oil if you want a more neutral flavor rather than a coconut flavor in your pie) If the beef you are using has a higher fat content, you can also adjust the amount of butter or coconut oil that you use. I was using an 85% ground beef, so 1/3 cup was about the right amount for me, but if you have a leaner beef, then you might want to increase the amount of butter or coconut oil by a little. The original recipe calls for suet, but good quality suet that is appropriate for use in baking is hard to find these days. If you have a good source of suet, then feel free to substitute that to be more authentic, but if not, then tallow, coconut oil, and butter are good substitutes - preferably in that order. Tallow is rendered suet, so it would be the closest thing (although there is a difference between kidney fat suet and regular suet, but for this pie I don’t think it would make as big of a difference as it would for puddings), and if you can’t find that then coconut oil would probably be the next closest substitute as far as consistency when baking even though it’s not the most historically-accurate ingredient (If you decided to use coconut oil, I recommend using an expeller-pressed refined coconut oil if you want a more neutral flavor rather than a coconut flavor in your pie) If the beef you are using has a higher fat content, you can also adjust the amount of butter or coconut oil that you use. I was using an 85% ground beef, so ⅓ cup was about the right amount for me, but if you have a leaner beef, then you might want to increase the amount of butter or coconut oil by a little.

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