Medieval Mince Pie

This holiday season I went in search of an English medieval minced pie recipe. It seems there is no definitive recipe for this. I imagine that with most recipes of this kind, it involved whatever the cook had on hand. But the original medieval recipes included meat--actual minced meat--in their recipes. Was this a main course or was it dessert--or both? Well, it's certainly hearty. I took a combination of recipes and ingredients from multiple sources. I hope you like the result. (This is my pie to the left)

Medieval Mince Pie

1 lb boiled beef, lean, and pulled apart into fine strings(I made the mistake of not boiling it long enough, so that my beef was chunky. This will take a few hours, or all day in a crock pot.)

4 tart green apples, seeded and cut into bite-sized cubes (I'm not certain that original recipes contained apples, but apples seem to go back a long way in minced pie recipes so go ahead and add them.)

1/4 lb or more suet (I just asked my butcher for 1/4 lb of beef fat, which he gave me for free. Cut it into small pieces and throw them in your food processor. Process to fine granules.)

1 box seedless raisins

1 box of currants

1-2 citrons or lemons, cut up into very small pieces

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1/2 cup cider

pinch of salt  

black pepper

1-2 Tb mace

1-2 Tb allspice

1-2 Tb nutmeg

1-2 Tb cloves

4 Tb cinnamon

1/2 cup Brandy

1/2 cup Madeira or Marsala wine

In a big pot or Dutch oven, cook the beef fat until rendered. Mix all other ingredients together except for brandy and wine and pour into pot with crispy and rendered fat and cook down. After it's cooked down for a bit, let it cool and then add brandy and wine.

In the meantime, prepare a good lard pastry dough (I put mine in a Wilton 10 x 3 pan). Place the dough in the bottom, pour in the cooled minced meat, and cover with more pastry. I folded the edges down till they were about halfway down in the pan, and crimped the edges. I cut some fancy swirls on top with a very sharp knife and gave it an egg and milk wash. Bake it at 350 for 45 minutes. After it cools for a bit on a rack, I was able to turn it out of the pan to put it on a presentation plate. Good cold or warm. Serves a small army.

By the way, I've got a blog post about mead coming up on Gillian Pollack's blog. She's an historian on things medieval with a particular interest in the history of food. Should be an interesting place. See it here.

Comments

[Hypnotherapy London]

WOW! This looks amazing, never thought of how it all started. One big pie. Yummy!

[Jeri Westerson]

Lots of little pies were more likely. I'm supposing I'm making this for a family of 20! :)

[A Facebook User]

I believe the use of spices and dried fruits in meat dishes was common in the days before refrigeration, as it masked any rankness of smell or flavor from the meat going off a bit. The meatless version was doubtless an invention meant for consumption during Lent.
I own a small but mighty collection of recipes, "To The King's Taste", adapted by Lorna J. Sass from a 15th Century cookbook from the court of king Richard II. In it is a lovely recipe for a Lenten pie containing dried fruit, spices and fish. Yum!

[Jeri Westerson]

I have that book too! Made lots of recipes from it. But it is a myth that expensive spices were used to cover cheap rotten meat. See my newest post Top Ten Myths about the Middle Ages.