Christmas Mincemeat

Back in January I decided that I would make a batch of Christmas Mincemeat for this year, but didn't think that 1 quantity of the recipe would be enough so I tripled it; not really a big mistake, but certainly more than we can use in one Christmas; it made 20 lbs of Mincemeat; here I will Chronicle the process up to this date;
The basic recipe you have seen if you looked at the previous blog post here ( http://ourchristmasyear.blogspot.com/2010/11/mincemeat-2010-basic-recipe.html ) what I did was to multiply everything by 3; sounds simple enough, and for most ingredients it was; so here is the recipe as I wrote it down at the time; for authenticity sake, I photographed the page ;-)



(Click on picture for larger image)
For those of you who can't read my writing ;) here is what the piece of paper on the left says (with notes):

Early Jan: Mixed Fruit

1 1/2 cups mixed peel
8 cups Blk Raisins, (Thompson Seedless Raisins)
8 cups Sultana Raisins
8 cups Currants (dried black, but probably red before ;)
8 cups Brn Sugar Drk, (that is Dark Brown Sugar, light will do in a pinch)
1 cup Grd Almonds (Ground Almonds)
2 cup Suet / Beef / Chopped (I didn't increase this quantity, as I am leery of too much fat {heart disease} but if you want more triple it to 6 cups)
1 1/2 tsp nutmeg, cinnamon, all spice, cloves
3/4 tsp mace
2 cups of Sherry (we used an almond sherry, but basically what your looking for is a high alcohol content liquid that will help marinate the mix; Brandy or Dark Rum would be my next choice; Ouzo if your into Licorice flavour, or Vodka if you want no flavour at all; not sure about Whiskey, your going to have to ask the Scots or the Irish ;)

What I haven't included here, is the 4 1/2 cups of ground apples;

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ok this is how it was done in 2010 ;-) 

this is the table with the ingredients; 

Here are the apples prepared to be cut up: 

The apples crushed are in the front, the rest of the ingredients are spread around, except for the spices; 

Now for the fun part, literally we get our hands into it up to the elbows ;-) ok, a bit of an exaggeration, half way to the elbows; 

Ok in the above picture I have combined the raisins and mixed peel together, in one bowl and have the other ingredients ready to be combined in another bowl; in reality, there were 3 bowls, the raisins, mixed peel, in one, the crushed apples in the second, and the nuts, the suet and sugar in another; at this point I began to realize that I didn't have a container big enough to combine the lot; just a warning, before beginning, do realize that this recipe tripled as I did, produced a huge volume of MM ;-) so be prepared with a container that is about 12 x 18 x 5 inches in volume for easy mixing; the bowls I am using are actually meant for use on Milk Farms, I bought at Princess Auto; they make excellent mixing bowls; and in this case, were capable of containing the mixed ingredients; 

I divided up the raisins and mixed fruit after mixing, and added the dry ingredients to one part, mixed that and then combined the two into one; the method isn't important, the end product of thoroughly mixed ingredients is, so however you do, it is ok ;-) 

Now of course I couldn't leave the mix in the bowl for 11 months, so I found a container large enough to allow me to have access to mixing in the spices and the alcohol; yes, at this point I have not done that; this part took the better part of a day, from getting the places organized (cleaned up ;) and the ingredients out; then the grinding and the mixing; 

below it the mix in the container and then the fridge; 

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Imagine that 11 days have passed and we are now preparing to do the spices, the fruit juice and zest, and the initial Alcohol; are you ready for this ;-) 

the ingredients laid out on the table, Note the Juicer in the background; it is not strictly necessary, but it does work, bit messy though, see last picture;

here we have the juicer in action, the oranges and lemons cut up, and the Zest and spices in the small bowl; 

see what I mean about a bit messy; well, as I said it works; I have already begun to add the juice and will then add the spices and hand mix the mash; adding the alcohol as I mix it; the amount of Alcohol can vary, but assuming a high alcohol content, 2 cups is sufficient for the first round; 

I checked the Mincemeat twice; April 22nd when I added a cup of Sherry and mixed it again; then again on July 13th when I added a cup of rum; then I checked again in October, and made some sample tarts, and decided that aside from the addition of a bit of apple juice, there was sufficient alcohol; we will use a large portion, but certainly not the whole 19 lbs remaining; what remains I will fortify in January again, and am considering doing another batch; not necessarily as large; I have also found a recipe for a Dark Jamaican Rum Christmas Cake that requires steeping the fruit in alcohol for an extended period; sounds interesting ;-)