Mince … uh … Meat?

Looking fairly disgusting, to the left is the beginning stages of MinceMeat. In the pot is an unfortunately small amount of our green tomatoes, mixed with some pears, apples, orange peels, lemon peels, raisins, dried cherries, orange juice, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, port wine, sherry, Pomona’s Universal Pectin, sugar, and spices. This is the first of what looks to be around 100 quarts of mincemeat (with maybe some of that 100 turning into chutney).

To give you some perspective upon the size of what turned out to be 10 quarts, please note our poor stove straining beneath the massive cooking vessel. It performed admirably, I must say, but wrestling that pot into a position from which to move lava-like liquid into jars? Terrifying.

I had intended this batch to be a full twelve quarts – ’cause that’s how many quart jars I’d dragged up from the garage/basement – but in this pot it’s difficult to measure 1 quart. It turns out that a quart is about 1/2 an inch as measured against the side of the pot … and that’s difficult to figure when you’ve got lumps in your liquid. So, 10 quarts it is.

Shown in jars it’s not so exciting – yes, that’s an excuse for having not taken any pictures of them yet – but here’s the final shot before being jarred up. We’ve got some nice caramelization, and the green tomatoes? Can’t even tell what they are when you taste it, which is as it should be. They really do suck up whatever flavor you throw at them, and aside from being nutritious and a great filler, that’s all you could ask for.

Note that this, as most everything we make, is vegan. No meat involved, I’m sorry, but the idea of mixing Suet (beef fat) into this lot? Utterly disgusting, and never crossed my mind until I was writing this post and realizing that the name “MinceMeat” had to come from somewhere. Bleh.

Each 1-quart jar will fill a couple of pies: just add corn starch and bake in a blind-baked shell for about 1/2 an hour and you’re there.

Just for Sarah, here’s some idea of the recipe we used. It originated with the Ball Blue Book of Preserving. It’s sort of a variation / combination of Tomato-Apple Chutney (page 50) and Brandied Mincemeat (page 84), but with our own twist to it.

• 10 Quarts chopped, de-seeded tomatoes
• 2 Quarts diced apples (Fuji, Granny Smith, or something which holds up to cooking)
• 3 Pounds raisins
• 2 Cups candied ginger, diced
• 2 Cups dried apricots, chopped
• 2 Cups dried cherries
• 1 Cup dried mango*, chopped
• 1 Cup dried papaya*, chopped
• 8 Orange peels (use a vegetable peeler, to just get the skin), matchsticked
• 8 Oranges’ juice
• 4 Lemon peels (same technique)
• 4 Lemons’ juice
• 4 Cups brown sugar
• 4 Cups white sugar
• 1 Liter Port Wine (we used Christian Brothers brand; it really should be just the cheapest you can find)
• 1 Liter Sherry (again, whatever’s cheap)
• Freshly-Ground spices: 6″ cinnamon stick, 20 allspice berries, 10 whole cloves, 2 Tbsp dried ginger.

1. Combine everything.
2. Boil it until it doesn’t taste of raw liquor any longer (maybe an hour, maybe 2)
3. Jar, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.
4. Process 30 minutes in boiling-water canner**.

*note: vary these fruits as you see fit. We did one version that was a “tropical” version, another version that had pears instead of apples, one pretty much just tried to make them each unique. They all turned out marvelously, so … go crazy with the dried fruit!
**note: we processed ours 30 minutes in a pressure canner. We did this because 1) we had such a thing, and 2) we’re paranoid, since we varied the recipe by not adding apple cider as it calls for in the blue book. Yes, the brandy & sherry should have been acidic enough … but we weren’t going to risk it.

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