“A Partner in Pie”

~ Elizabeth

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Thanksgiving Day will be here in less than three weeks and I am beginning to buy the ingredients for our dinner. As I have written in past years, our dinner provides each person’s favorite dish including turkey and tofurky; cranberry sauce; broccoli and green peas; and rice and potatoes. In previous years the only pie has been pumpkin since it is everyone’s favorite. Everyone but me; my favorite has always been mincemeat pie. Sadly over the many years of hosting dinners, I have never had another diner want any mincemeat pie. I stopped baking them since I can’t eat a whole pie by myself.

Growing up I always chose mincemeat pie and now figure it was on the table because of a tradition coming from my English great grandmother. I loved its lattice top which I learned to make by age 12. I liked its bite, provided by the brandy. It wasn’t too sweet and it made a fitting end to the turkey dinner. Some other adults ate it also. The taste was too strong for my younger siblings, though.

This year I invited some friends to come over for pie on Thanksgiving. When I asked one of them what were his favorite pies, he replied pumpkin, pecan and MINCEMEAT! I was ecstatic. A fellow mincemeat fan. Now I had a reason to make the pie I had been missing for years. The only problem I immediately encountered was the lack of mincemeat in any local grocery stores. Apparently it has fallen out of favor in general.

I actually had to resort to mail order! A jar of brandy flavored mincemeat filling should arrive on my doorstep in plenty of time to make a pie. I can’t wait.

37 thoughts on ““A Partner in Pie””

  3. I used to have a cookery book of historical recipes – I think my son has it now. Apparently, mincemeat really used to be minced meat, but it was spiced and fruited to hide the flavour of meat that was often on the turn by Christmas. this book had a pre-Victorian mincemeat recipe, so one year I decided to make it.
    To my disappointment, it tasted very much like the stuff I bought in jars, but at least it had some protein in it.

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  5. That’s marvelous that you have another person who loves mincemeat pie. In our larger family, everyone loved the mince, and hardly anyone ate the pumpkin! I switched to making pumpkin cheesecake, which everyone enjoys. They still clamor for mincemeat. Many years ago I found a recipe for cranberry mincemeat, and no one looked back. It calls for raisins, canned cranberry sauce, fresh apples, and lots of spices. I’ll be making it the day before Thanksgiving. You obviously don’t need a recipe this year, but if you’d like this another year, let me know.

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      1. I looked for your email address to send you the recipe, but I couldn’t find it. Would you be willing to go to my blog to the contact page and send me your address? (I’ve been advised not to post my email address where anyone could see it.

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        2. Cranberry Mince Pie

          1 3/4 cups sugar
          ½ teaspoon salt
          ½ teaspoon cloves
          1 teaspoon allspice
          1 teaspoon cinnamon

          3 cups seedless raisins
          1 cup dried currants
          2 tablespoons grated orange and/or lemon peel
          1 cup pecans (nuts are really optional)
          1/3 cup lemon juice
          one can of whole berry cranberry sauce
          4 to 5 cups chopped apple (with peel)

          Combine the sugar, salt and spices. Add raisins, nuts, peels, lemon juice, cranberry sauce and apple; mix well. Pour into 9 inch pastry lined pie plate; top with lattice crust. Bake at 400 degrees for about 35 minutes.

          I noted that I first baked this pie for Thanksgiving in 1975. Everyone liked it so much that we had it every subsequent year.

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  6. At last!A reason to bake mincemeat.Thank you my friend, so glad to contribute to your joy.😋 P&B

    Sent from my iPad

    >

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  7. I’m sure it will be delicious, especially since you will enjoy it with someone who shares your love of it. I admire that you can make pie. I am a decent baker and love making cakes but never got the hang of pie crust.

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  8. I’m glad you found another mince meat fan. I don’t usually make mince meat for Thanksgiving because it’s not very popular with my guests – but I’ll generally make it a week or two later for just my husband and me.

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  15. Love your post. I have to say as a fellow mince lover that homemade mincemeat blows out of the water any mince in a jar; there is absolutely no comparison. I was lucky enough years ago to hear the recipe from my former 90 year old patient. I cleaned her teeth as she happily told me how she made mincemeat. We bought every quart jar of hers we could get our hands on when we learned she sold them at the local holiday bazaar. After she passed, my husband began making ours. Oh, yes, it’s MINCEMEAT time!! 😁

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  17. I am a vegetarian but I understand how it feels when you can’t eat your favourite dish because there is no one to eat it with. I miss Idali and Khaman that way. 🙂

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