Christmas Pie Recipes

Grandma's Old-Time Christmas Pie Recipes Are Perfectly Delicious

Little Jack Horner sat in the corner
Eating his Christmas pie;
He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum
And said, "What a good boy am I."

To make good minced Pies take one pound and half of Veal parboiled, and as much Suet, fhred them very fine, then put in 2 pound of Raifins, 2 pound of Currans, 1 pound of Prunes, 6 Dates, fome beaten Spice, a few Caraway feeds, a little Salt, Verjuice, Rofewater and Sugar, to fill your Pies, and let them ftand one hour in the Oven: When they go to Table ftrew on fine Sugar. [Verjuice is a vinegar-like juice.]

Baking Mincemeat Pies

Mince pies should be always baked with two crusts. For Thanksgiving and Christmas pie recipes, puff paste is often used for rims and upper crusts, but is never satisfactory when used for under crusts.

Old-Fashioned Mincemeat

This is an old-style Christmas pie recipe that calls for minced cooked beef. Though meat is not a common ingredient in today's mincemeats, it is very traditional and the true minced-meat filling is quite tasty.

5 cups chopped cooked beef, 2-1/2 cups chopped suet, 7-1/2 cups chopped apples, 3 cups cider, 1/2 cup vinegar, 1 cup molasses, 5 cups sugar, 3/4 lb citron finely chopped, 2-1/2 cups whole raisins, 1-1/2 cups raisins finely chopped, salt, juice 2 lemons, juice 2 oranges, 1 tablespoon mace, 2 tablespoons each of cinnamon, clove, allspice; 2 nutmegs grated, 2 tablespoons lemon extract, 1 teaspoon almond extract, 1-1/2 cups brandy, 3 cups liquor in which beef was cooked.

Mix ingredients in the order given, except brandy, and let simmer one and one-half hours; then add brandy and shavings from the rind of the lemons and oranges.

English Mincemeat

5 lb raisins, seeded; 5 lb suet, finely chopped; 5 lb apples, 4 lb citron, 1-1/2 lb blanched almonds, 5 lb currants, 5 lb light brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon mace, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 2-1/2 cups brandy.

Cook raisins, suet, apples, citron, currants, and sugar slowly for one and one-half hours; then add almonds, spices, and brandy.

Mincemeat without Alcoholic Liquor

Mix together one cup chopped apple, one-half cup raisins seeded and chopped, one-half cup currants, one-fourth cup butter, one tablespoon molasses, one tablespoon boiled cider, one cup sugar, one teaspoon cinnamon, one-half teaspoon cloves, one-half nutmeg grated, one saltspoon of mace, and one teaspoon salt. Add enough stock in which meat was cooked to moisten; heat gradually to boiling-point, and simmer one hour; then add one cup chopped meat and two tablespoons Barberry Jelly. Cook fifteen minutes.

English Mincemeat Pie Recipe

Ingredients: Good puff paste (1/2 lb of paste sufficient for 4 pies), mincemeat.

Mode: Make some good puff-paste by recipe; roll it out to the thickness of about 1/4 inch, and line some good-sized patty pans with it; fill them with mincemeat, cover with the paste, and cut it off all round close to the edge of the tin. Put the pies into a brisk oven, to draw the paste up, and bake for 25 minutes, or longer, should the pies be very large; brush them over with the white of an egg, beaten with the blade of a knife to a stiff froth; sprinkle over pounded sugar, and put them into the oven for a minute or two, to dry the egg; dish the pies on a white doily, and serve hot.

They may be merely sprinkled with pounded sugar instead of being glazed, when that mode is preferred. To re-warm them, put the pies on the patty pans, and let them remain in the oven for 10 minutes or 1/4 hour, and they will be almost as good as if freshly made. Seasonable at Christmas time.

Excellent Mincemeat

Ingredients: 3 large lemons, 3 large apples, 1 lb of stoned raisins, 1 lb of currants, 1 lb of suet, 2 lb of moist sugar, 1 oz of sliced candied citron, 1 oz of sliced candied orange peel, and the same quantity of lemon peel, 1 teacupful of brandy, 2 tablespoonfuls of orange marmalade.

Mode: Grate the rinds of the lemons; squeeze out the juice, strain it, and boil the remainder of the lemons until tender enough to pulp or chop very finely. Then add to this pulp the apples, which should be baked, and their skins and cores removed; put in the remaining ingredients one by one, and, as they are added, mix everything very thoroughly together. Put the mincemeat into a stone jar with a closely fitting lid, and in a fortnight it will be ready for use. This should be made the first or second week in December.

Lemon Mincemeat

This lemon-flavored mincemeat recipe would make a suitable Christmas pie recipe and a nice change.

Ingredients: 2 large lemons, 6 large apples, 1/2 lb of suet, 1 lb of currants, 1/2 lb of sugar, 2 oz of candied lemon peel, 1 oz of citron, mixed spice to taste.

Mode: Pare the lemons, squeeze them, and boil the peel until tender enough to mash. Add to the mashed lemon peel the apples, which should be pared, cored, and minced; the chopped suet, currants, sugar, sliced peel, and spice. Strain the lemon juice to these ingredients, stir the mixture well, and put it in a jar with a closely fitting lid. Stir occasionally, and in a week or 10 days the mincemeat will be ready for use. Sufficient for 18 large or 24 small pies. Make this about the beginning of December.