Name: Lady Fettiplace’s Mincemeat
Yield: Serves 10-12; 1 large or 48 tiny pies
Ingredients: peel of 1 orange, finely grated, or slightly less of a Seville orange; 1 heaped tsp salt; 1 level tsp ground cinnamon; ½ level tsp freshly grated nutmeg; 250 g (8 oz, 1½ cups) dried currants; 1 big pinch each powdered ginger and ground mace; 2 heaped tsp sugar; 250 g (8 oz) leftover meat, minced; 250 g (8 oz, 2 cups) beef suet, shredded; 6 Tbsp diluted rosewater, made up to strength according to whether it is double or treble distilled; 250 g (8 oz, 1¾ cups) raisins

Preparation info

Serves
10-12
; 1 large or 48 tiny pies

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Feast of Christmas

By Paul Levy

Published 1992

About

Lady Fettiplace’s 1604 recipe used cooked, minced mutton, but leftover tongue or beef will do as well. The quantities are Hilary Spurling’s. You simply mix the whole lot together and use it as soon as you wish. Remember that Mrs Spurling found that it made a savoury rather than a sweet mincemeat.