Mince Pie Meat I

Ingredients

• 4 lb lean beef
• 2 lb beef suet
• Baldwin apples
• 3 quinces
• 3 lb sugar
• 2 cup molasses
• 2 quart cider
• 4 lb raisins, seeded and cut in pieces
• 3 lb currants
• 0.5 lb citron, finely cut
• 1 quart cooking brandy
• 1 tbsp cinnamon and mace
• 1 tbsp powdered clove
• 2 nutmeg, grated
• 1 tsp pepper
• to taste salt

Method

Start with the braising liquid. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil and submerge the beef and suet together. Maintain a steady boil for ninety minutes to two hours — the meat is done when a skewer slides through with no resistance and the suet has rendered enough to rise to the surface as a solid fat cake. This isn't a gentle poach: the agitation breaks down the collagen in the beef and extracts gelatin into the stock, which becomes the binding agent for the finished mincemeat. Let everything cool in the liquid — the suet will set into a single cake as it cools, making it simple to lift away.

Once cool, discard the suet cake and reserve the stock, reducing it to 450ml by simmering hard for thirty minutes. Shred the beef finely by hand or mince it coarsely — you want irregular texture, not a paste. Prep the apples by quartering and coring them; you can leave the skins on if they're sharp-flavoured Baldwins, otherwise peel them. Chop both apples and quinces to a similar fineness, roughly the size of a pea. The fruit will break down further during cooking but won't disappear entirely.

Combine the minced beef with twice its volume of chopped apple, then fold in the quinces, sugar, molasses, cider, preserved-fruits|raisins, currants, and citron. Pour in the reduced stock and suet cake (chopped finely). Set the pot over gentle heat and stir every ten minutes for the first hour, then every twenty minutes for the second. You're looking for the mixture to darken from grey-brown to mahogany and thicken noticeably — it should move slowly when you drag a spoon through it. The slow heat extracts colour and tannins from the dried fruit and allows the sugar to caramelise slightly without scorching.

When the texture is dense and glossy — roughly two hours from when you started heating — remove from the fire entirely. Add the brandy and all spice|spices: cinnamon, mace, clove, nutmeg, pepper. Stir for two minutes to marry the flavours, then taste and adjust salt. This mincemeat will keep for months in sealed jars, the alcohol and sugar acting as preservatives. The flavour improves considerably after a week.