- Makes just over 2.5 litres of mincemeat - Ready in 1 - 2 days (as it needs to soak overnight and then heat for 3 to 4 hours in the oven) -
Makes almost 6 x ½ litre jars (make sure they have metal lids if you want to do easy oven-sterilising) which fills just over 200 mincepies - or just halve the quantities below if you don’t intend to make that many mince pies! You can also use it in your Christmas cake, in festive cheesecake, in sourdough babka and even mixed into festive breakfast-porridge, so you'll use plenty…
Gather together…
300g fresh cranberries (or 250g dried cranberries plus 1/4 cup or 60ml of extra orange / apple juice - fresh or carton - if you are using dried cranberries) .
2 oranges (finely grated zest and juice).
2 lemons (finely grated zest and juice).
3 large cooking apples or 6 eating apples e.g. Granny Smith (cored and blitzed in a food processor for 20 seconds, 2 apples-worth of chunks at a time /roughly grated, NO NEED to peel them).
200g dry, shredded vegetable suet (don't be tempted to add in extra suet 'just to use up the packet' as it will end up as an oil slick, although it will still be tasty - melt the leftover suet, roll a pinecone in it and add seeds / chopped nuts, then hang it up to feed the garden birds with).
1kg of mixed dried fruit (which includes candid peel).
370g (1.5 cups) brown sugar.
4 tsp ground mixed spice.
½ tsp cinnamon.
½ tsp freshly ground nutmeg.
Get cooking…
1. Mix all of the ingredients thoroughly, all together in a REALLY LARGE, oven-proof bowl - the mixture JUST fits into my lidded, cast-iron casserole dish, which is 24cm in diameter by 12 cm in depth and approximately 5 litres in capacity (or use two medium-large oven proof bowls and put half of everything into each). N.B. Add the lemon and orange juices by squeezing the fruit (after it has been de-zested) OVER A SIEVE, to catch any pips.
2. Stir REALLY well and leave the mixture for 12 hours (or overnight) in a cool place covered with a clean tea-towel.
The next day...
3. After 12 hours (during which the flavours will have mingled), STIR WELL and cover the bowl (either with an oven-proof lid or with foil - which you can wash and re-use afterwards) and place the bowl in the oven at 120 C (100 C fan) or Gas 1, for 4 hours.
4. Meanwhile wash six 1/2 litre jars (or the equivalent mix of bigger / smaller jars) and their metal lids in hot soapy water and drain upside down on a clean tea towel.
5. For the LAST HOUR of cooking put the still-wet-washed-clean- in-hot-soapy-water- glass jars and metal lids into the oven to sterilise. (If your jars have plastic lids, then cold-water sterilise the plastic in Milton).
6. After the 4 hours of cooking time has passed, remove the bowl from the oven and stir REALLY well. Use a potato masher to squash down any whole cranberries (if you used fresh ones) as they are quite bitter if you bite into a whole one! Stir again.
7. Carefully spoon the hot mincemeat into the hot jars and (using a tea towel to protect your hands) screw the lids on to seal. See the photo below showing how many jars one batch fills...
8. Once cool, label the jars and place them somewhere cool or in the fridge. Eat within one year. This mincemeat doesn’t give you the metallic teeth-aching feeling of shop-bought mincemeat, it is delicious!
Adapted from a handwritten recipe shared by my friend MK.
*UPDATE* The 900g jars of honey sold by ASDA are perfect for this mincemeat recipe - three of the big jars fit all of the mincemeat made by this recipe in. So get eating honey this year to be ready for easy-peasy mincemeat storage next year!
