Ingredients
250g soft dark brown sugar
250ml medium dry cider
1kg cooking apples, peeled, halved and quartered
½ tsp mixed spice
½ tsp ground cinnamon
500g dried mixed fruit
75g glace cherries, roughly chopped ( Although I used dried apricots cos I don't like glace cherries
75g blanched almonds (or flaked if you have them),
zest & juice of ½ lemon
6 tablespoons some spirit such as brandy or dark rum. I used grappa cos I happened to have some open.
1. Place the cider and the sugar in a large saucepan and heat gently.
2. Add the roughly chopped apples to the saucepan and stir well.
3. Add the remaining ingredients, apart from the spirit. Simmer for around 30 minutes until the mixture is soft and pulpy.
4. Meanwhile wash the jars well and sterilise. you can do this by filling the jars with boiling water and putting the lids in a bowl of boiling water. Shake as much water from them as possible before filling. Alternatively put the jars in an oven set to 180C for 10 minutes. Be careful to put them on a dry surface when removing or they could crack. Lids can be placed in a small pan of boiling water. Shake as much water from the lids as possible before filling.
5. Remove the mincemeat from the heat and set aside to cool for 5-10 minutes. Stir in the spirit of choice and transfer to sterilised jars. Once the jars are filled and the lids well screwed on, invert them to improve the heat seal. Turn the jars the right way up once they are cool.
6. This mincemeat can be used immediately after cooking if you wish, but improves with age and keeps well.
Method
It's November, Stir-up Sunday has just passed. The Eldest is leaving next week to be a saisonnaire in La Plagne, so its all feeling pretty end-of-the-year show around here. The curry party last weekend was to get friends and neighbours together to wish The Eldest well as she heads off on her adventure, and it will be our first Christmas without her as a family for 17 years. So its a bit of a watershed (in every sense...) which usually means trying to keep as much around here as Normal As Possible to minimise the trauma. So Christmas Dinner will be on Christmas Eve (more on this in another post) and the Late Wife's Family will hopefully be with us again to celebrate. Although as time passes and our ranks thin we will need to try and re-imagine these rituals for changed circumstances. Don't get me wrong, we all love Christmas but you have to evolve your rituals to fit the changing family dynamics and the Eldest stretching her wings is probably one of those points that marks the need for some change in the way we have done things to date. Enough already, hat is christmas without mince pies? Personally I can take or leave christmas pud or christmas cake, but Mince Pies are a Must.
It is not difficult to buy mincemeat to make your pies. Its not difficult to buy (excellent) pre-made mince pies and every year the newspapers seem to poll whose are best and so on, all good fun. But actually as with all things what really matters is the Love involved. It is spectacularly easy to blow a fortune at Christmas with presents and pre-made upscale food, a lot of which gets thrown away - but this approach while looking good is for me pretty hollow. Where is the love, the thought, the craft involved in exchanging money for someone else's taste. There is none. I would rather have fewer presents, with more thought and similarly with the food, I would rather have less but made with Love, craft and care. This is the lesson from the Late Wife. Take Time and spend your Love on those around you. What else is your time for? If you would rather watch EastEnders than make a batch of mincemeat then I think you need to get a sense of perspective. And actually if you sort yourself, you can do both simultaneously if you must.
And don't tell me its cheaper to buy it ready made. I don't agree - the sense of satisfaction and achievement in doing these things is way beyond any difference in price