Use-it-up Christmas mincemeat

... a satisfying weekend task

Good morning!

This week saw my annual therapeutic mincemeat making session, with Bristol Fire School Christmas classes just around the corner. There are still a couple of places left on 22nd November and the 6th December classes should you fancy tasting my mincemeat (in amongst a huge feast of other things).

If you want to make your own, read on.

I always very loosely base my mincemeat on Delia’s, using my well battered copy of her Complete Cookery Course, because its my most treasured and nostalgic cookbook. I left home, aged 18, and headed off to university with this book in my rucksack. Given to me by mum with a promise that Delia would always see me right. And so she did, I basically taught myself to cook with this book and owe Deels so much. I do wonder what she thinks of barbecue…? Somehow I imagine not much which makes me smirk.

Anyway. To mincemeat. I don’t, as a rule, think a huge amount about the general fuss made of Christmas, a lacklustre vibe that stems from my duel dislikes of dark nights and over-commercial consumerism. But, but… I do love mince pies and to paraphrase Delia once you’ve tasted homemade there’ll be no reverting back to shop brought.

And it is ridiculously easy. You chuck a load of dried fruit in a mixing bowl, stir through spice, citrus, apples, sugar, suet. And booze.

The reason I say ‘therapeutic’ is because it’s the perfect annual opportunity to fish out all the odds and sods that seem to accumulate in my cupboard through the course of a years worth of teaching, cooking and feeding people. So in true Taylor Style I completely ignore Delia’s recipe and make it my own.

In the back of my cupboard I find 4 (yes) bags of dried dates, each containing a small handful, along with half a bag each of prunes and apricots and a nearly full bag of raisins. And in they all go, like this:

Take a pack of SUET (225g) chuck it in a big mixing bowl and add to it a total of 800g DRIED FRUIT (whatever you fancy, whatever you need to use up), 3 COOKING APPLES (peeled and diced), a whole TUB DRIED MXED PEEL (225g), 350g BROWN SUGAR, ZEST + JUICE 2 LEMONS, 2 ORANGES, 4 GOOD TEASPOONS MIXED SPICE, 2 TEASPOONS CINNAMON, 1/2 FRESH GRATED NUTMEG

Stir it all together and slide into a low oven (100°C) for 3 hours, stirring a couple of times. This is important to stop fermentation.

Take it out and leave to cool to room temperature before stirring in some boozes. Delia says 6 tablespoons of brandy, I say as much as you like of whatever you have got. I invariably use whisky, a very generous few glugs. People like to give me bottles of whisky for which I am always grateful. I love whisky but I very rarely drink it, its a real a treat for (probably) a just a handful of times a year.

And thats it. Now you can spoon into cleaned jars, seal and store at ambient temperature. Or shove it into a couple of big tupperware boxes and store in the fridge, where it will easily last until next Christmas.

Looking forward to meeting many of you at the Christmas classes over the next few weeks. If you want to nab one of the last places click the lists at the top of this page. There are also a few gift vouchers up on the website that you can buy at Christmas presents, they last a year and 2025 dates get released to voucher holders early in the New Year.

Big love,

GT x