Mincemeat dates from the 15th Century, when it actually contained meat and was more of a savory pie filling. Over time the meat was replaced by animal fat (in the form of suet) and the mixture sweetened by the addition of sugar, making it more of a pudding dish.

This recipe substitutes vegetarian suet for the animal fat, although I actually used baking margarine which doesn't seem to make any difference, meat eaters could use the real thing if they wished. The recipe is adapted from one on Delia Smith's website, and is also available in her many books including Delia's Christmas.

The process of making the mincemeat is very easy, if a little time consuming, as there are a lot of ingredients to weigh out. It's one where a bit of improvisation shouldn't make a lot of difference, try substituting in different dried fruit like dates and apricots, or adding more of your favorite nuts. It's worth making quite a lot of this, as it keeps for years and the recipe won't suffer from being scaled up.

  See here for the vegetarian mincemeat recipe.

Recipe Costs

£0.60 450g bramley apples, cored and finely chopped
£0.87 220g vegetarian suet
£0.97 350g raisins
£0.29 220g sultanas
£0.62 220g currants
£0.66 220g mixed candied peel
£0.55 350g soft dark brown sugar
£0.60 juice and zest of 2 oranges
£0.60 juice and zest of 2 lemons
£0.65 50g finely chopped almonds
£0.22 4 tsp mixed spice
£0.03 1/2 tsp cinnamon
£0.03 large pinch of nutmeg
£1.29 6 tbsp brandy
£7.95 Total
£2.94 per kg of mincemeat (60% of the cost of tesco finest mincemeat)

The bramley apples are chopped finely, no need to peel them.

Raisins, sultanas and currants make up the bulk of the mixture.

This recipe was a good chance to use up some of the homemade candied peel I'd had in jars since February.

I grated the margarine, which was made simpler by keeping it in the fridge beforehand, this makes it easier to distribute it well when mixing together all the ingredients.

Lemon and orange juice and zest add flavour and moisture.

Almonds, grated nutmeg (I use the extremely efficient microplane nutmeg grater) and mixed spices.

All the ingredients are given a good mix, I found this easiest using my hands in a large bowl, which is then covered and left overnight in a cool place. This allows the flavours to mingle.

The next morning the bowl is covered with foil and cooked in the oven for three hours (at 120 degrees C), this melts the fat allowing it to coat all the fruit and helping in its preservation, it's quite a surprising amount when it's melted down, as you can see in the picture. This filled the house with the most wonderful smells of spices and citrus fruit.

It's important to keep stirring regularly as the mincemeat cools, this makes sure that all the fruit is covered in fat.  Wait until the mixture is cool before potting in steralised jars otherwise you'll end up with all the fat in a lump, it took about three hours for mine to congeal.

Before potting is the time to add brandy, this helps preserve the mixture, and also adds flavour. All the alcohol will evaporate when the mincemeat is cooked, so it's fine for giving to kids, you can leave it out if you wish but should keep the resulting mincemeat in the fridge and use it within a few weeks.

I bought cheap brandy from Aldi, no need to splash out.
I potted the mincemeat up in my recently reconditioned Le Parfait jars, it should be good to use in a few weeks and will keep for several years.

Recipe Timings

45 mins preparation
12 hours resting
3 hrs cooking
30 mins potting