Traditional Mincemeat
Hey guys, allow me to pick some of your brains for a moment. I have been playing with the idea to make a traditional Mincemeat Pie this year. I have found a number of recipes that call for a jarred Mince filling but I would actually like to attempt the mince filling myself. Does anyone have any recommendations on a good way to do this? Recipes? Have you made it yourself?
A few years back I dated a girl who's family was Jamaican and I tried my hand at a Jamaican Christmas Pudding care of her grandma. I suppose its not all that different than Christmas Pudding from other current/former commonwealth nations and the UK. It was mostly just fruit, rum, brandy and wine but THAT I had to make and Jar in July and let it sit until December when I started making it. I remember her grandmother saying that Mincemeat wasn't much different except for the addition of Animal Fats and not as much alcohol.
I guess what I am really asking is if the 'ship has sailed' so to speak. It's currently November 28th (pretty far from July) so in the mincemeat something I can make and let it set for a week or two? Does it need to set? Beings it deals with actual meat, I am reasonably sure its not supposed to sit for months like the Pudding.
Basically, just looking for anyone with knowledge on the topic.
"I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys." ~Charles Dickens