Perfect Mince Pies | Fruit Recipes | Jamie Oliver Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is the filling in mince pies made of? ›

A mince pie (also mincemeat pie in North America, and fruit mince pie in Australia and New Zealand) is a sweet pie of English origin filled with mincemeat, being a mixture of fruit, spices and suet. The pies are traditionally served during the Christmas season in much of the English-speaking world.

Heat a pile of mincemeat in a pan with sugar, orange and lemon juice, orange peel, half a cinnamon stick and brandy, wait for it to thicken and then stir in some whipping cream.

Traditions, folklore and superstitions

Stirring the mincemeat was quite an event, and English tradition dictates that it should only be stirred clockwise. Stirring the mincemeat anti-clockwise would lead to bad luck and poor fortune in the coming 12 months.

Go with the tradition and eat a dozen

There is a tradition of eating one mince pie each day over the 12 days of Christmas from Christmas Eve to 5 January.

"Mince" is another term for chopping meat up into very small pieces, à la ground beef. However, because the English language is confusing AF, people in the UK also refer to meat as "mince." (Even though a mince pie is not a meat pie, it's the same thing as a mincemeat pie, which has no meat.

Ingredients included dried fruits like raisins prunes and figs, lamb or mutton (representing the shepherds) and spices like cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg (for the Wise Men). By late Victorian England, mince pies ceased to contain meat and had all fruit fillings (with suet).

Consider the fat content of mince before you buy. Beef mince, and sometimes lamb, is graded by its fat content, and remember that some fat is desirable as it adds flavour and helps to keep the meat moist during cooking. The standard fat content of mince is 20%, but you can opt for a lean or extra-lean version.

Mincemeat over time does deepen in colour but the bitter taste may be that you pressed too hard when the citrus zests were grated!

If you want to bump up the umami, you could add a few teaspoon of Worcestershire and/or mushroom ketchup. Cooked ground beef really doesn't have any real taste so it is necessary to season it up. You can use just salt and pepper or you can add virtually anything to it like jalapenos, peppers, onions, etc.

It has been claimed that eating the snack is illegal in England if done so on Christmas Day. The tradition comes from the time of Oliver Cromwell in the 1650s, when mince pies were banned at Christmas, along with other tasty treats. Cromwell wanted to tackle gluttony in England.

What is the etiquette for mince pies? ›

Going on to how one should formally eat a mince pie, she explains: 'One would pick up the mince pie with a thumb and first finger, and lift [it] away from the plate. 'The mince pie is crumbly, so make sure anything that falls from the mince pie falls onto your plate.

Fill each pie level with mincemeat, don't overfill as the pies have a tendency to leak and glue themselves to the tins if you do. Dip your finger in the egg and run around the edge of each mince pie and top with a lid, pressing gently together to seal.

And it turns out we are not alone! With the national average for mince pie devourment sitting at a hefty 19 per person¹, and total UK annual consumption estimates sitting somewhere between 800m and a staggering 1 billion², it's clear that we're a nation of mince pie lovers. Or are we?

of Christmas it brings good luck for the year ahead.

Pumpkin Pie

This pie is a traditional dessert served during the holiday season. It is made with pumpkin puree, spices, and a flaky crust, and is a popular favorite for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Pumpkin Pie is a traditional American dessert that is commonly enjoyed during the fall and winter seasons.

Mince pies have been eaten as part of a traditional British Christmas since at least the 16th century. Then they were made of a spiced, sweet minced meat mixture (often lamb), but they are now commonly made with sweet mincemeat, a mixture of dried fruits, sugar, spices, and brandy.

The "mince" in mincemeat comes from the Middle English mincen, and the Old French mincier both traceable to the Vulgar Latin minutiare, meaning chop finely. The word mincemeat is an adaptation of an earlier term minced meat, meaning finely chopped meat. Meat was also a term for food in general, not only animal flesh.

Markham's recipe called for an entire leg of mutton and three pounds of suet which were mixed with salt, cloves, mace, currants, raisins, prunes, dates, and orange peel, a list of ingredients that, save for the meat, which is remarkably like that used today.

Mincemeat isn't difficult to make, but it has a lot of ingredients, which can make it expensive to produce in small batches, and it requires at least a day's advance planning to let the ingredients sit.