Mrs Beeton's Excellent Mincemeat Recipe

Now that the busy fair season is over for us here at Retrovert, things have begun to wind down and I have time to start getting into the vintage Christmas spirit.

That means I can finally begin the Christmas cooking! I love to cook and this time of year is an excuse to make all those indulgent treats we don't often have.

To me, homemade mincemeat is the most Christmassy you can get and we make it every December to last us the year round. This time, however, I though I'd break from tradition and not use the staple Delia recipe we usually do, and go for something even more traditional. And where better to find a recipe than Victorian cooking icon Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.

I would love to own an early copy of this book with its wonderful illustrations, and I always keep my eye out for one when I'm out hunting for vintage treasures. It has several recipes for mincemeat, I chose to eschew the one that actually contains a pound of beef and went for the one promisingly titled 'Excellent Mincemeat'

Recipe Number 1310: EXCELLENT MINCEMEAT

INGREDIENTS – 3 large lemons, 3 large apples, 1 lb. of stoned raisins, 1 lb. of currants, 1 lb. of suet, 2 lbs. of moist sugar, 1 oz. of sliced candied citron, 1 oz. of sliced candied orange-peel, and the same quantity of lemon-peel, 1 teacupful of brandy, 2 tablespoonfuls of orange marmalade.

Mode.—Grate the rinds of the lemons; squeeze out the juice, strain it, and boil the remainder of the lemons until tender enough to pulp or chop very finely. Then add to this pulp the apples, which should be baked, and their skins and cores removed; put in the remaining ingredients one by one, and, as they are added, mix everything very thoroughly together. Put the mincemeat into a stone jar with a closely-fitting lid, and in a fortnight it will be ready for use.

Seasonable.—This should be made the first or second week in December.

The recipe is pretty straightforward. First bake the apples until soft at a low temperature of around 160C, then zest and juice then lemons and boil the skins for half an hour (this bit smells wonderful!). You then add all the other ingredients, stir and put in jars. Simple!

The only unusual ingredient is candied citron, which I've never come across before. Often confused with lemon, citron is actually a different citrus fruit altogether. After extensive trawling online, I found it available practically on my doorstep from Emerald Foods in Cambridge Market. The flavour is wonderful - I could have eaten the whole pot on its own, but I think it will add a intriguing dimension to the mincemeat.

I like that the recipe directs you to use a 'teacupful' of brandy. Here's mine in a 40s cup by Grindley. I suppose to be truly authentic I should have dug out a Victorian era one!

Our enormous vintage mixing bowl always comes out at Christmas and we certainly needed it to fit all the ingredients in. My favourite bit is always stirring everything together at the end and smelling the evocative scent.

Now I have lots of mince pies to look forward to. I don't think this jar will last very long!

So that's the start of my festive cooking and I can't wait to get baking and eating pies to see if this mincemeat lives up to its 'excellent' name!

What traditional recipes you are going to be using over Christmas?