Mincemeat

The English Christmas preserve of dried fruit, suet, and spirit that once contained meat and now does not

Origin: England

From the journey of Allspice.

The name is not a mistake and not a metaphor. Mincemeat contained minced meat for most of its history, and the dried fruit and spices were there to preserve it. Medieval English cookery had no firm boundary between sweet and savoury, and a chewette or a shred pie of the fourteenth century held minced mutton or beef with raisins, currants, spices, and suet, baked in a pastry coffin. The spices were not decorative: sugar, alcohol, and aromatic oils are all antimicrobial, and a heavily spiced fruited meat mixture would keep through a winter when plain meat would not. The pies were made in quantity at Christmas because that was when the animals were slaughtered. The meat receded slowly across the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, leaving the suet behind, and by the twentieth century most recipes had dropped it entirely. The suet survived because it does something the fruit needs, coating and enriching in a way butter does not, though vegetarian suet is now perfectly standard. The spicing stayed constant throughout, and it is built on allspice. This is the same economic story as English mixed spice: a berry that tasted of clove and cinnamon at once and cost a fraction of either, coming from a British colony, became the backbone of English festive baking and stayed there. It is made in November and eaten from December, and it genuinely does improve for a month in the jar.

Ingredients

Fruit

  • 250 g raisins
  • 250 g sultanas
  • 200 g currants
  • 100 g mixed candied peel, chopped
  • 100 g dried apricots or prunes, chopped
  • 2 whole Bramley apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely grated

Fat

  • 200 g shredded suet, beef or vegetarian

Sugar

  • 200 g dark muscovado sugar

Spices

  • 2 tsp ground allspice
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 0.5 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
  • 0.25 tsp ground cloves
  • 0.25 tsp ground mace

Citrus

  • 2 whole lemons, zest and juice
  • 1 whole orange, zest and juice

Nuts

  • 60 g flaked almonds

Spirit

  • 120 ml brandy or dark rum, plus more for topping up

Method

  1. Mix all the dried fruit, candied peel, grated apple, suet, sugar, spices, and the citrus zest and juice in a very large bowl.
  2. Stir thoroughly, cover, and leave overnight at room temperature for the fruit to take up the juice.
  3. The next day, stir again and taste. Adjust the spice: it should be assertively spiced, since it will mellow.
  4. Warm the mixture very gently in a low oven at 110°C for two hours if you want the traditional long keep, then cool completely.
  5. Stir in the flaked almonds and the brandy once the mixture is completely cold.
  6. Pack into sterilised jars, pressing down to remove air pockets, and seal.
  7. Store in a cool dark place for at least a month before using, adding a spoonful more brandy every few weeks if you like.

Notes

Suet, beef or vegetarian, coats the fruit in a way butter cannot and is what makes the texture right. Butter can be substituted but the result is different and does not keep as long. Bramley or another sharp cooking apple. A sweet eating apple makes the mixture cloying. It keeps for a year in a cool dark cupboard and improves for the first three months. For mince pies, use shortcrust or an enriched sweet pastry, fill generously, and bake at 200°C for 15 to 18 minutes. To make the historical version, add 250 g of finely minced cooked beef or mutton with the fruit. It is genuinely good and much less strange than it sounds.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

To explore — select an ingredient below.

Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
© 2026 The Gastrographer. All original research, narratives, and illustrations. All rights reserved.