Homemade Mince Meat (for mince pies)

euronorris

Who does this? And are you willing to share your recipe?


Is it worth it? Is it cheaper, or is the flavour superior?


I'm keen to do some more home made based Christmas treats this year, as we are staying home this year and not travelling around visiting family.


I came across a gin and tonic marshmallow recipe yesterday, which I'm trying tomorrow night, and would be great gifts for my neighbours.


And gingerbread is an obvious one to do with DD.


DH loves mince pies (I don't), so would be cool to some home made ones for him as they are simple enough, but I've always used filling from a jar before.


For price comparison, both Lidl and Aldi are doing a 'deluxe' mincemeat filling this year for £1.39 a jar (411g).

Nargleblast

Various recipes for mincemeat are around, the one I use does not involve cooking.

A 500gm pack of dried fruit
A large apple, grated or chopped finely
Half a pack of suet
A heaped teaspoonful of mixed spice
50gm dark brown sugar
Zest and juice of one orange

Mix together well then add enough brandy to moisten. Leave covered for a couple of days then put into sterilised jars. Keep in a cool place. Use as you would commercial mincemeat, but it is not as sweet and sickly. The alcohol will preserve it for a few months, this quantity will make plenty of mince pies for Christmas. You can also vary the spirit used, or add glace cherries, nuts, crystallised ginger, whatever floats your boat.

buildersdaughter

My recipe, from my grandmother, is very similar, but I put everything in a heat-proof bowl, apart from the alcohol, put in a 'cool' oven - about 120 deg. for a few hours until the suet has melted ande coats everything, then I cool it and add the brandy / whisky.

caronc

I used to use Delia's recipe https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/books/delias-happy-christmas/home-made-christmas-mincemeat back when I fed enough folk to justify making my own and it keeps for a long time if you bottle and store it properly (several years rather than months) and improves IMHO with age. I found that bunging the mix in a slow cooker on low, rather than the oven, for three hours works really well and you can use whatever dried fruit and nuts you like as long as you keep the overall weight the same.

littlegreenparrot

I have made it in the past, also using that Delia recipe. It was lovely, I gave it away as gifts in pretty jars.

It was a fun way to spend a rainy weekend afternoon, felt productive and made the house smell delicious.

Whether it was worth it depends on what is important to you. I’m sure it would have been cheaper to buy it.

euronorris

caronc wrote: »

I used to use Delia's recipe https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/books/delias-happy-christmas/home-made-christmas-mincemeat back when I fed enough folk to justify making my own and it keeps for a long time if you bottle and store it properly (several years rather than months) and improves IMHO with age. I found that bunging the mix in a slow cooker on low, rather than the oven, for three hours works really well and you can use whatever dried fruit and nuts you like as long as you keep the overall weight the same.

Sounds lush!


I think it would just be nice to make, for fun. Thank you for all replies.


I found a recipe online, and used that as a base for calculating cost. That particular recipe worked out at roughly £1.34 per 411g (comparison to Lidl/Aldi price). Ever so slightly cheaper. I think you could get it cheaper if you got the majority of ingredients from Lidl/Aldi (I couldn't confirm their prices for everything, so used Morrisons for a number of things via MySupermarket).


The batch would make roughly 2kg worth. So to make the whole batch would cost £6.52, and you'd have a lot of leftovers. And if you had to buy everything from scratch (ie, you didn't have any necessary ingredients in), it would set you back £19.93! Half of that is the Brandy.


If you're not Brandy drinkers anyway, that's a pretty hefty layout to be fair. We're not, so I almost scrapped the idea, but MIL is and has offered to give me some for the recipe and then I can share the resulting mincemeat filling with her Luckily, I do have a fair few of the other ingredients in.


Going to check out Delia's recipe now, and see how that stacks up cost wise. So long as it's not prohibitive, I think I'll opt for that.

euronorris

Delia's recipe works out at £1.43 per 411g (roughly). Slightly more expensive, but it does seem popular. Might give that a go

PollyWollyDoodle

Delia's recipe is brilliant - I keep cheap(ish) 'cooking brandy' for things like this but I think you could substitute other alcohol if you've got something in the cupboard. In my opinion the taste is far superior to bought mincemeat, and as said above it will keep for ages, I am still using up some from December 2017. I usually make mine with vegetarian suet so the subsequent mince pies are suitable for everyone who might want one.

Nargleblast

I think that whilst home made mincemeat appears to be more expensive than most commercial mincemeats, it is a vastly superior product and more fruity and less sickly than something made in a factory. You also know what's in it!

euronorris

Thanks for the suggestion, but we don't keep much alcohol in the house full stop. Have the occasional bottle of gin on the go, and either some beer or cider, but that's it really. I don't think any of those would work.


Glad it keeps for so long!

buildersdaughter

You need spirits, so beer or cider wouldn't work. Gin in theory, but I think its taste doesn't complement the fruit.
2 options: 1 to buy a minature bottle - but not easy to find, and expensive.
2: use fruit juice (which I have done for teetotallers). Orange, apple, or 'red fruit' all nice.

And, as with the xmas cake recipe, Delia's recipe is very close to my traditional family one!

Can I add that if you search this forum, you will find an amazing recipe for mince pie pastry, posted some years ago by someone who was given it by an elderly neighbour. It is a lovely example of how this forum taps in to collective wisdom, and I honour that lady every Xmas when I make the recipe (actually much nicer than any of my traditional family ones!)