[Sca-cooks] Venison mincemeat recipe, WAS Favorite fruitcakes

[Gary Walker]

on 10/22/01 9:06 AM, welsh10thcent at tds.net at welsh10thcent at tds.net wrote:

> i dont have my grandmothers recipe for it anymore but would love to find one
> again.
>
> Morvran ab Thomas of Cardiff

This is my grandmother's recipe, 8-) -- does this sound at all familiar?

My grandmother was of Scottish heritage and venison was definitely her
preference.  No liquor tho, no siree!  The recipe feels pretty period --
rather brief!  It gives quantities for a "small" batch of 6-8 pints (8 pints
= one gallon, and one pint per pie, I think), and also quantities for a
batch about 3x that size.

I have it in her handwriting on an American Legion Auxiliary envelope, with
pencil notes by myself -- I vaguely recall asking her to write this out the
last time I was visiting when she made a batch; the envelope also has notes
about 3 other of her recipes...  She was a farm wife, Oregon Mother of the
Year sometime in the early 60's, I think.


Josephine (Bentley) Dunham's Mincemeat, ca. 1975???

2 pounds beef or venison, cooked & chopped (6 pounds for large batch)
    **can use pork, as hogs head, then don't need the suet; this last batch
she got just the deer's head from a neighbor's hunting trip, there was
enough meat on it for a small batch -- I think she "paid" for it with a
couple of jars of the finished product

4 pounds apploes, chopped (12 pounds for large batch)

1 pound beef suet, ground (grind very finely) (2 pounds for large batch, or
none if using hogs head pork)

1 cup of brown sugar (3 cups for large batch)

one-half cup vinegar and 2 cups cider, "to taste"  (1-2 cups vinegar, 2
quarts cider for large batch)
    **don't remember what the "to taste" is about; may depend on what type
of apples?  this mincemeat is not supposed to be sweet, rather mildly spicy
meat

2 pounds raisins (black regular raisins) (6 pounds for large batch)

1 pound currants (Zante currants) (2 pounds for large batch)

one-half tsp allspice (one-half TBS for large batch)

one-half tsp cloves (one-half TBS for large batch)

one-half tsp nutmeg (one-half TBS for large batch)

one tsp cinnamon (one TBS for large batch)

on TBS salt (2 TBS for large batch)

Cook well 2-3 hours.  ***bring to a boil, then stick in the oven at 300, and
it won't scorch.  Can as usual.

Patsy/Chimene
gerrekr at ravensgard.org