From minced meat to Christmas mincemeat

Traditions, traditions... Festive seasons, like Easter or Christmas are meant to revive traditions. And if clothing is no longer an item that clings to tradition, food certainly is. The sense of smelling is said to be the most powerful one, in strict connection to one’s memories. The scent of freshly cooked meals and freshly baked cakes, cinnamon, nutmeg, chestnuts and apples... These stick to tradition.

The mince pie belongs to the category of traditional British Christmas cakes. Foreign tourists going shopping in the UK might find this a bit confusing, as the first thing they associate it with is the minced meat. But the reality is that this is how it all started.

Minced meat, indeed

The very early mince pie was known as mutton pie, shrid pie and Christmas pie. Typically its ingredients were a mixture of minced meat, a range of fruits, and spices such as cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.

A few hundreds of years ago, the combination of meat, fruit and spices was simply the norm. The mincemeat that we nowadays enjoy contains just fruit and spices, brandy, rum or other liqueur and usually vegetable suet.

A serious research regarding the history and roots of the mince pie might reveal very interesting stories and details, such as its religious symbolism – 13 ingredients corresponding to Jesus and the 13 apostles, or the very old Roman roots; Roman fathers in the Vatican were presented with sweetmeats.

But no matter the history, mincemeat and mince pies are traditional British Christmas desserts.

A mince pie is made of delicious pastry filled with mincemeat. The pastry can vary from puff pastry, to shortcrust pastry, deep shortcrust pastry and wholemeal pastry suitable for vegetarians.

Another special Christmas dessert

Christmas Pudding is another dessert that belongs to the traditional British Christmas cakes. In the USA and many other European countries, pudding mainly denotes a sweet milk-based dessert similar in consistency to egg-based custards. There are rice puddings, chocolate puddings and the list can go on. But the Christmas pudding is something special indeed.

The association of the pudding with Christmas goes back to medieval England and with the Roman Catholic Church's decree that the pudding should be made on the 25^th of December and include 13 ingredients to represent Christ and the 12 apostles. Also, every member of the family was requested to stir the pudding and do it from East to West to honour the three Wise Men.

In 1714, King George I (sometimes known as the Pudding King) requested that plum pudding, actually raisin pudding, be served as part of his royal feast in his first Christmas in England.

And nowadays we are able to enjoy a wonderful Christmas dessert, rich in raisins, currants, spices and other ingredients made to warm up the Christmas evening.

Blamed in the past for not being very inspiring, the British cuisine can boast with some of the most original Christmas cakes and desserts that are truly British. Dunn’s Bakery, craft bakers since 1820, have preserved some traditional recipes and use them to create some of the finest Christmas cakes and desserts.

 

Resources: Wikipedia.org