[Sca-cooks] Re: Favorite fruitcakes

[johnna holloway]

OED says: A mixture made of currants, raisins,
 sugar, suet, apples, almonds, candied peel,
 etc., and sometimes meat chopped small;
used in mince-pies.
Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery, edited
by Karen Hess, gives a recipe
"To Make Mincd Pies" that begins "Take to
4 pound of ye flesh of legge of veale.."
There are numerous others but that one
was close to hand. Minced  is the earlier
term; mincemeat as a term is 19th century.
Meat was traditionally
found in the recipes and gradually it disappeared.
People now tend to think that mincemeat... means
nut meats....not real meat.
Not to get into another discussion but we used to
use some of the things like the heart and tongue
in the mincemeat.

Johnna Holloway

Nelson Beth wrote:>
> okay...not to show my lack of knowledge or anything ;)
> but I thought that mincemeat was made from the nuts
> not actual meat...am I missing something here or just
> been told REALLY wrong?> Orlaith
>
> --- johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
> wrote:> > Actually our family recipe for fruitcake requires
> > that you  make mincemeat with real meat that is canned.