Mincemeat
Difficulty 3/5 Ingredients 14 Steps 11
Mincemeat is a mixture of spiced chopped fruits. Traditionally mincemeat has contained meat, although many modern recipes omit it. This recipe, however, does contain beef.
Ingredients
- 6–8 pounds (2.7–3.6 kg/about 30 ea.) Baldwin apples
- 3 - stew beef (neck, plate, etc.)
- 1 whole lemon, seeds removed
- 2 cups (160 g/5.6 oz) seedless black raisins
- 4 cups (900 g/2 lb) sugar
- 2 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- 1 Tbsp dried coffee (regular or decaffeinated)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup (250 ml/8.5 oz) cider vinegar
- 1 ½ cups (375 ml/12.7 oz) meat stock
- 1 ½ cups (500 g/1.1 lb) sorghum molasses or regular molasses
- ½ tsp ground black pepper
Steps
- Core apples, removing seeds. Do not peel.
- Cube meat. Cover with water. Simmer until tender, up to an hour.
- Remove meat. Cook stock down to amount needed, or thicken slightly with cornstarch.
- Run meat through food mill (medium or coarse blade), or grind equivalently in food processor.
- Halve lemon. Remove seeds. Purée whole lemon, rind included, in blender with some of the liquid ingredients, or process as finely as possible in food processor.
- Grind apples, or process with coarse blade, not too fine.
- Combine apple, meat and raisins in large, heavy-bottomed pot.
- Add sugar, spices, liquids and lemon purée. Rinse last of molasses in with hot meat stock. Stir thoroughly.
- Cook slowly, uncovered, stirring often to prevent burning, until mixture is pasteurized and liquids have evaporated to desired texture and thickness.
- Cool. Stir in ground pepper.
- Refrigerate several weeks for spices to mellow.
Notes from the original
- If desired, you can substitute ½–¾ cup (125–185 ml/4.2/6.3 oz) of the meat stock with a high quality brandy.
- The apples are the most important ingredient, without doubt. Insipid apples make lousy mincemeat. A sharp, crisp, flavor-laden “pie” apple is best—late maturing Baldwins and Cortlands are good. Granny Smiths are crisp and tart but less flavorful. If you can’t find Baldwins or Cortlands, use the best pie apple you can find at their peak of flavor and texture in the autumn.
- Mincemeat at its best needs a few weeks to season in the refrigerator, say 6–8 weeks. If you make it in late October or early November, the spices and flavors will continue to mellow and be just right for Thanksgiving and the coming holidays.
- The suet can be removed before cooking and the fat skimmed off that renders from the meat as it cooks if desired.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Mincemeat” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2025-06-20, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.