Mincemeat!

[jethrien]

I have made mincemeat! Involving real meat! All my poor party guests will be subjected to genuine medieval-style mincemeat pies. (Plus I got a plum pudding I will attempt to set on fire.) It's actually delicious, if very strange to modern palates. Beef + fruit + spices = surprisingly delicious! Oh, and + brandy. Don't forget the booze. Because apparently it's supposed to sit for a week (I'm only giving it four days), so the anti-germ properties of cinnamon and booze are totally key. (Yes, it'll be in the fridge, it'll be fine.)

Did I mention that the IT party had jello shots?

(No, I'm not actually drunk. Just buzzed enough to be more excited about my mincemeat than perhaps I should be.)

Oh god, I'm such a geek.

Comments

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

We had a Hanukkah party wwith home-made latkes. And Christmas cookies. (?) And then there was the pile of smoked salmon that got put out by the coffee maker after the party which was...maybe not the best idea.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

What, you don't like rotting salmon in your coffee?

[(Anonymous)]

I am FASCINATED. But not actually that surprised; I like chutney on meat and the flavors are pretty much the same.

[lithoglyphic.livejournal.com]

Er, that was me.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Ah. I thought it was perhaps my mother-in-law.

I don't know what this stuff will be like on Sunday. But last night it was really, really tasty.

[wendywoowho.livejournal.com]

Holy CRAP, I love proper mince meat.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I've never even seen it before. (Cooking blind - scary. Absolutely no clue what it's supposed to look, taste, or smell like. And I couldn't find a single recipe that I could use on its own - I couldn't find suet, refused to put in pickle juice, and wasn't about to braise a 4 lb pork butt for three hours before starting, as three different recipes suggested. Also wasn't going to let this stuff sit in my fridge for two months. So I was sort of combining the reasonable parts of different recipes together and hoping it would average out to edible.)

[wendywoowho.livejournal.com]

Suet: pretty much have to sweet talk a butcher for weeks or months so that when some comes in, it's put aside for you.

Pickle juice: surprisingly wonderful in cooking both sweet and savory.

Braising? But... the booze is enough! Needn't cook...

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Suet: Yeah, I know. I mean, if it were really really important, I'm sure I could get my hands on some. But I wasn't willing to put that much effort in.

Braising: I know, the hell? You were supposed to braise a big chunk of meat for hours, then chop it up, then simmer it with the fruit for more hours, then cover it with booze and let it sit for weeks.

I ended up simmering cubed beef in cider for something like fifteen minutes while I peeled the apples and opened some of the fruit, put it through the food processor, and then dumped in fruit, sugar, lard, etc. and simmered it some more. Then boozed it and fridged it. It was weird, overall - I feel like most traditional recipes, if you look at three or four, sort of converge on at least a basic method and a few key ingredients. These were all over the place.

So do you just combine everything raw, let it sit, and then first cook it once it's in the pie shell?

[wendywoowho.livejournal.com]

Yup. But the only meat I have in mine is the suet itself. Lots of it, sure, but still. And beautiful fruits. And spices galore. And the booze. And the months of waiting...

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Oh, ok. I'd be much more comfortable not having cooked it if it were just the fat, for some reason. But the raw meat sitting there seems like asking for trouble, even if there is a lot of booze involved.

So presumably the suet doesn't melt until you bake the pie. So how do you get it evenly mixed? Or is it not supposed to be even? (I've never worked with suet - I'm picturing it as sort of like lard, which you have to work at getting it mixed in. Sticky.)

[wendywoowho.livejournal.com]

The suet doesn't melt until you bake the pie, yes. The mincemeat combo is very thick, and things don't tend to settle into layers in it. If there's settling, though, you just stir before putting it in the pie shell. It's much more like fatback than lard... you cut it up into little pieces, or grind it like bacon, and you still end up w/ individual wee pieces that mix with your individual wee pieces of apple, raisin, etc.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

More like cold butter, then - it stays in little nubs unless you really squish it.

Ok, that's easier to see how you'd mix it up.

[wendywoowho.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. Like butter, but w/ a higher melting temp. The slooooow melt into the filling (or the pudding, if you're doing a pudding) makes the texture just amazing.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Well, we'll see how the store-bought pudding comes out. (I wasn't going to deal with substituting fats on something that actually requires them for structural integrity - at least the pie has the crust to keep it together even if the texture isn't quite right. Also, was not going to try two labor-intensive, no-one-may-eat-this archaic desserts at the same time.)