Mincemeat Recipe

Learn how to make mincemeat this British classic is full of flavor. A gorgeous mixture of dried fruits, spices, brandy, orange liqueur, and more fruit. This classic British pie filling is absolutely scrumptious and synonymous with Christmastime. Step-by-step photos teach you how to make this delicious mincemeat recipe.

Growing up my mother always made mincemeat for her mince pies. As a child mince pies were not my favorite, to be honest anything with raisins or currants I wasn't into. I loved when my mom made bread and butter pudding but I would pick the raisins out LOL One of the reasons we made sticky toffee pudding the most, no raisins! Nowadays I am not so picky.

Traditionally in America kids leave cookies out for Santa while in England they leave out mince pies. And to leave Santa the best mince pies you've got to make your own mincemeat. And the best part? It couldn't be easier!

This recipe makes a large quantity since mincemeat is one of those things that is so easy to make you might as well make a large batch and gift to friends or keep for yourself and have mince pies all year long! The mincemeat will keep for about 6 months so it has a nice long shelf life.

Ingredients

For this recipe the ingredient list may look long but you pretty much just dump everything together so don't let the long list intimidate you!!

• Apple. I prefer Granny Smith but any cooking apple will work.
• Pears. Some recipes only call for apples but my mom always used pears too, the contrasting textures and flavors are a welcome addition!
• Currants. Currants are dried grapes from a smaller variety of grapes that are very dark.
• Raisins. Raisins are dried grapes, try not to snack on too many when you are cooking! Ha, we can't resist!!
• Sultanas. Sultanas are also known as golden raisins, these are dried green grapes.
• Mixed Candied Lemon and Orage Peel. You can buy it premade or here is a recipe for it.
• Brandy. You can't mimic the flavor of brandy, it just adds so much to the mincemeat! You could also use Rum if you like.
• Orange Liqueur. I use Cointreau, I like adding some citrus liqueur as it goes so well with everything in mincemeat, but you could just add more Brandy if you don't have any orange liqueur.
• Lemons. I like to zest the lemon and then use the lemon juice as well. Make sure when you are zesting the lemon not to zest any of the white part, just the peel.
• Dark Brown Sugar. This sweetens up the fruit mixture, but it's definitely not overly sweet more or just a slight sweetness is what we like in mincemeat.
• Spices. You'll need ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground ginger, and allspice. Don't skimp on the spices those are what give mincemeat its delicious, classic, flavor.
• Mixed Spice. This classic spice blend is delicious. You could substitute Pumpkin Pie Spice if you can't find mixed spice.
• Salted Butter. Lots of recipes call for suet but we like the taste of butter, if you prefer suet go ahead and substitute it here. You can use suet which is made from animal fat or you can also use vegetarian suet.
• Sterilized Jars. To get the jars nice and ready for storage you can run them through the dishwasher at the highest setting or you can fill them half way with water microwave them until the water is bubbling and steaming.

Some recipes may call for chopped almonds, we personally never used nuts in our mincemeat but if that's your favorite go for it! I would add about 1 cup/ 140 grams of roughly chopped almonds when you add all of the fruit.

If you don't want to use any alcohol you could use orange juice or apple juice but this will effect the shelf life of the mixture, use the mincemeat within 5 days.

Instructions

This recipe is really easy and quick to throw together. You could use it right away but letting it sit for a few days really lets the flavors meld together.

Start by cutting the apples and pears into small diced pieces. 

In a large stockpot combine all of the ingredients and warm over low heat for about 30 minutes, you are letting all of the ingredients and flavors meld together and plump up the fruit.

Portion mincemeat into sterilized jars making sure to leave the top 1 ½- 2 inches free, this leaves room for the fruit to expand.

Take a small round piece of wax paper and press it on top and directly onto the mincemeat then put the lid on tightly. 

Mincemeat can be used right away or ideally let it sit for about two weeks to really bind all the flavors together. Store the jars in a cool dark place, in the back of the cupboard for up to 6 months. 

Don't miss the brandy snaps recipe next!

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Recipe adapted from The Good Housekeeping Step-by-step Cookbook