Mincemeat Pie: Revisiting a Misunderstood Classic

The pretty blonde behind the counter was ringing up the sale when she paused. &ldquo;You know this is not made of meat,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s fruit. Like, raisins and stuff. Just so you know.&rdquo;

I assured her that I knew, joking that I wasn&rsquo;t expecting a Cornish pasty or an Australian meat pie. She laughed politely, but neither triggered any recognition. I scooped up the fancy pastry box, grateful to have located even one mincemeat pie in Worcester.

Quest for an Elusive Pie

As an aficionado of underappreciated desserts, I was determined this holiday season to ferret out mincemeat pie, the traditional British holiday favorite. Full of finely diced fruit, raisins and orange peel, my visions were not of sugarplums but of warm, cinnamon-spiced mincemeat enrobed in buttery crust. How hard could it be to find? As it turned out, much harder than I expected.

Call after call yielded nothing. The owner of one artisanal bakery apologized, saying that her customers, mostly young professionals, never request it. The story was the same for other bakeries. My dessert forecast was going from fair to cloudy fast.

Finally, I located two sources: The Crown Bakery & Cafe and Mrs. Mack&rsquo;s Bakery & Restaurant. The vagaries of my search led me to ask the experts why it was so difficult to track down.

&ldquo;We used to make hundreds every year, but now it&rsquo;s in the tens or twenties,&rdquo; said Lenny Soderman, Crown Bakery&rsquo;s production manager for the last 41 years. &ldquo;Now we only make them around Thanksgiving and Christmas time. The young people don&rsquo;t like it. Teenagers won&rsquo;t touch it. Some old people eat it, but [demand is] going down faster than any of our other products.&rdquo;

Grainne McAvey, one of the granddaughters of the original Mrs. &ldquo;Mack&rdquo; concurred. &ldquo;Some people wince when I mention &lsquo;mincemeat.&rsquo; So now I tell them it&rsquo;s a raisin and spice pie,&rdquo; she said. Mrs. Mack&rsquo;s version does contain a bit of meat, but McAvey explained that they use only two pounds of stew meat for every 80 pound batch of filling.

Mincemeat History

Food historians trace the provenance of mincemeat back to Medieval Europe when it was common to chop meat finely and combine it with fruit, sugar, and alcohol. It was a smart way to stretch and preserve the precious commodity in the days before refrigeration. From the Renaissance onward, meat figured less prominently in recipes. Today, the inclusion of suet &mdash; beef fat &mdash; is the only reminder of meat fillings past. Many modern bakers eliminate suet altogether, while others simply call it &ldquo;mince pie.&rdquo; A dash of brandy is often added. In Great Britain today, mince pies and tartlets are a mainstay of Christmas dinner. Fortunately, the Brits are not the only ones acquainted with its charms.

For Diana Burrell, a freelance magazine writer, recipe developer, author of three books, and devoted Anglophile, mincemeat pie is one of her favorites.

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like a classic novel,&rdquo; she said enthusiastically. &ldquo;You turn to it. Sure, there is some great new literature, but mincemeat is a classic. It&rsquo;s a comforting throwback at the holidays.&rdquo;

Burrell was so enamored with the mincemeat she encountered on a recent trip to London that she returned home to suburban Boston and whipped up a batch. Her recipe for Orange and Almond Mincemeat (along with dishy tidbits about the Royal Family) can be found on her blog, Hail Britannia, at hailbritannia.com.

Tasting Notes

Worcesterites less inclined to craft the pie from scratch can sample these bakeries&rsquo; versions.

The Crown Bakery & Caf&eacute; (133 Gold Star Boulevard) packs its sweet mincemeat with raisins and candied citron flavor reminiscent of fine fruitcake. The crust is buttery and golden. Crown&rsquo;s version contains no beef or suet and sells only whole versions of the pie for $10.99 each. While there, be sure to pick up Swedish holiday favorites V&ouml;rt Limpa (rye bread with anise and fennel) and sweet saffron buns.

Mrs. Mack&rsquo;s Bakery & Restaurant (1393 Grafton St.) uses a family recipe that has been pleasing patrons for more than 80 years. Its mincemeat is subtly sweet compared to Crown&rsquo;s, featuring plump raisins and diced apples. The filling proffers a bright citrus peel flavor, and is enclosed in an oh-so-flaky sugar-dusted crust. In addition to whole pies for $10.95 each, the bakery regularly offers mincemeat pie squares for $1.20 each.

This holiday season, don&rsquo;t be afraid of the mincemeat. Oldsters and Anglophiles shouldn&rsquo;t be the only ones having all the nostalgic fun.