British Food

Historic Recipe: Mince Pie

Cook it British! Brian Turner's Favourite British Recipes

A reprint of a historic mince pie recipe from 1623 (you'll have to use your own interpretations of some expressions!)

Ingredients
Lamb
Veal

Preparation
Take a leg of mutton, cut the best flesh of the best flesh (whatever that means!) from the bone. parboil well, then put to it three pounds of best mutton suet and shred it very small: then spread it abroad. and season it with pepper and salt, cloves and mace.

Then put in a good store of currants, great raisins, and prunes, cleaned washed and picked, a few dates sliced, and some orange peel sliced: then being all well mixed together, put into a pie (old English, coffin!), or divers pies. and so bake them; and when they are served up, open the lids and strew store of sugar on top of the meat and upon the lid.

And in this sort you may also bake beef or veal; only the beef would not be parboiled, and the veal will ask a double quantity of suet.

From: The English Houswife, 1623

Submitted by: Anonymous