I really do not like mincemeat pie.
I have never liked cloves nor nutmeg.
Today though, again, I invested several hours making homemade mincemeat, as I really love mincemeat pie.
My beloved Uncle loved mincemeat and my Mom would always make him one for Thanksgiving, even if he only ate it, and it was out of a box.
I first made mincemeat a number of years ago. I had grown my own red currants and as the recipe was my Grandmother's I found that since I had just retrieved from my Auntie, Grandma's pressure canner, I would use that as I really am fond of the nostalgia of touching the past, even if my Gram never had anything to do with me.
The canner is a Wards before Montegomery purchased them. It is close to 100 years old now, and it is a 3 quart and 4 point canner.
When I was a child, I can remember my fascination when my Mom borrowed my other Gram's canner, and that hissing steam seemed as if it was alive.
One of the first items I brought home from Ebay was a like model of the canner I remembered from when I was four years old.
I ground the meat in a hand grinder, in one of the several I have accumilated as I loved hand meat grinders, as Mom used to grind pork heads, hearts, livers and tongue to make our version of German scrapple which I love.
It was like a ghastly horror movie having a pig's head in a pot, and the smell was not impressive, but one never threw away anything but the squeal, and it is interesting you really can taste the difference in sausage in the types of meats you put into it. Hog jowls in their lard just give something to scrapple.
2 cups minced meat
1 cup lard or butter
4 cups apples diced
2 cups raisins
1 cup currants
1 cup walnuts
1 cup citron
1 cup cider
1 cup sugar
1 cup meat broth
1 tablespoon cloves
1 tablespoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon cinnamon
Simmer 40 minutes in stock pot, can and process at 15 pounds for 40 minutes.
I made rosettes and krumkake too. I'm not Norwegian, but purchased the irons several years ago from an antique shop. Mom played with me in making them. It was interesting making such pretty things as Norwegians are so dull.
I love the smell of food in the house. Kruellers rising in the oven to the scent now of mincemeat lingering from the kitchen.
You just can not make a good tasting pie without animal lard. People no longer taste things in how bad things taste in all this processed foods now.
Olive oil tastes different than corn oil.
Somehow my mincemeat tastes better cooked in a little pot I once did not like that I purchased from a thrift store, just like it being in Grams pressure cooker gives it a flavor that is so appealing.
When I rescued Grams canner from storage the dampness was rusting the inner rack away. Neglect and time makes everything just crumble.
As in most things it isn't about mincemeat, it is about the other things, and old stand mixer which make heavy whipped cream, and a well shaped old ladel to caress it just right on top of a piece of pie.
Off to make my plum pudding..........never really liked that either.
agtG
