Mince Pie

A mince pie is a traditional festive British sweet pastry, usually consumed during the Christmas and New Year period. Mince pies normally have a pastry top, but versions may also be found without the top in which case they are sometimes known as a mince tart. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1600x1092, 1129 KB) Mince Pie File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1600x1092, 1129 KB) Mince Pie File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday that marks the traditional birthdate of Jesus of Nazareth. ... For other uses, see New Year (disambiguation). ...

Description

These small festive pies, usually between 2 and 3 inches in diameter (5-7.5 centimetres), can be made using either sweet shortcrust pastry or puff pastry. The American version of the mince pie can be much larger (8-10 inches or 20-25 centimetres). Shortcrust pastry is a type of pastry often used for the base of a tart or a pie. ... Apple turnover, made with puff pastry In baking, a puff pastry (pâte feuilletée) is a light, flaky pastry made from dough of the same name. ...

The origin of the word 'mincemeat' is of interest, especially as most modern mincemeat does not contain any meat whatsoever, save for the Amish variety, which often contains pork, beef or sausage. Up to Victorian times, the mince(meat) pie would actually have been a spiced meat pie with some dried fruit. Nowadays, the only remnant of the original meat is the inclusion of suet. Typically, the filling is now made entirely from fruit-based mincemeat containing dried fruit such as raisins, currants, glace cherries, apricot, candied peel; spices such as cinnamon or nutmeg; nuts such as walnuts or chopped almonds; suet; and some kind of alcohol, usually either brandy or rum. Mince pies are suitable for vegetarians only if the suet is replaced by vegetable fat. Mincemeat was originally a conglomeration of bits of meat, dried fruit and spices, created as an alternative to smoking or drying for preservation. ... The Amish (IPA: ), are an Anabaptist Christian denomination in the United States and Ontario, Canada that are known for their plain dress and limited use of modern devices such as automobiles and electricity. ... Suet is raw beef or mutton fat, especially that found around the loins and kidneys. ... Mincemeat was originally a conglomeration of bits of meat, dried fruit and spices, created as an alternative to smoking or drying for preservation. ... Raisins Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults. ... A Zante currant is a variety of small, sweet, seedless grape named for the Ionian island Zakynthos. ... A cherry is both a tree and its fleshy fruit, a type known as a drupe with a single hard pit enclosing the seed. ... Binomial name Prunus armeniaca L. The apricot (Prunus armeniaca or Armenian plum in Latin, syn. ... Chocolate-coated citrus rind Peel, also known as rind or skin, is the outer protective layer of a fruit or vegetable. ... Binomial name Cinnamomum verum J.Presl Cassia (Indonesian cinnamon) is also commonly called (and sometimes sold as) cinnamon. ... Species About 100 species, including: Myristica argentea Myristica fragrans Myristica malabarica The nutmegs Myristica are a genus of evergreen trees indigenous to tropical southeast Asia and Australasia. ... Species See text The walnuts (genus Juglans) are plants in the walnut family Juglandaceae. ... Binomial name Prunus dulcis (Mill. ... Suet is raw beef or mutton fat, especially that found around the loins and kidneys. ... Brandy pot stills at the Van Ryn Brandy Cellar near Stellenbosch, South Africa. ... This article is about the beverage. ... For animals adapted to eat primarily plants, sometimes referred to as vegetarian animals, see Herbivore. ... This article is about lipid molecules, for FAT see File Allocation Table. ...

Once cooked, the pie is often finished off with a delicate dusting of either caster sugar or icing sugar on top. This article deals with sugar as food and as an important, widely traded commodity; the word also has other uses; see Sugar (disambiguation) A sugar is a form of carbohydrate; the most commonly used sugar is a white crystalline solid, sucrose; used to alter the flavor and properties (mouthfeel, perservation... Powdered sugar (in Britain, icing sugar) is a very finely ground form of sugar that is synonymous with confectioners sugar. ...

History

The origins of the mince pie begins with the medieval pastry, chewette which was either fried or baked. The "chewette" actually contained liver or chopped meat mixed with boiled eggs and ginger. Dried fruit and sweet ingredients would be added to the chewette's filling for variety. By the 16th century 'mince' or shred pie was considered a Christmas specialty. In the mid-17th century the liver and chopped meat was replaced by suet and meat products were no longer generally used in the 'mince' by the 19th century in both North America and Great Britain though traditional suet pies are still made it is no longer the dominant form. ^[1] (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ... Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday that marks the traditional birthdate of Jesus of Nazareth. ... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... Suet is raw beef or mutton fat, especially that found around the loins and kidneys. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ...

Folklore and Traditions

Folklore states that mince pies are a favourite food of Father Christmas, and that one or two should be left on a plate at the foot of the chimney (along with a small glass of brandy, sherry or milk, and a carrot for the reindeer) as a thank-you for stockings well-filled. Excerpt from Josiah Kings The Examination and Tryal of Father Christmas (1686), published shortly after Christmas was reinstated as a holy day in England For the 1973 childrens picture book by Raymond Briggs, see Raymond Briggs. ...

English tradition demands that the mince meat mixture should only be stirred in a clockwise direction. To stir it anticlockwise is to bring bad luck for the coming year. A clockwise motion is one that proceeds like the clocks hands: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back to the top. ...

Tradition also says that one should make a wish whilst eating one's first mince pie of the festive season, and that mince pies should always be eaten in silence.

Eating at least one mince pie on each of the twelve days of Christmas is thought by some people to bring luck for the coming year.

Mince pies should traditionally have a star on top, to represent the Christmas Star which Christians believe led the Magi to the baby Jesus in Bethlehem.^[2] This article is about Jesus of Nazareth. ... Bethlehem (Arabic بيت لحم   house of meat; Standard Hebrew בית לחם house of bread, Bet léḥem / Bet láḥem; Tiberian Hebrew Bêṯ léḥem / Bêṯ lāḥem; Greek: Βηθλεέμ) is a city in the West Bank under Palestinian Authority considered a central hub of Palestinian cultural and tourism industries. ...

Variations

Wikibooks Cookbook has more about this subject:

Mince pie

Other variations include the mincemeat tart, similar in form and taste, save for the lack of a pastry top, as is the case for all kinds of tart. Image File history File links Wikibooks-logo-en. ... Mincemeat tarts (also known as mince pies in the UK) are a rich pastry generally associated with festive occasions, specifically Christmas and New Years Eve. ... Look up Tart in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Mincemeat turnovers (a kind of sweet pastry similar to a Cornish pasty) are often made with leftover pastry and mincemeat, and can be consumed with custard, cream or ice-cream. A pasty from Cornwall A pasty (Cornish: Pasti, Hoggan, incorrectly written as pastie) is a type of pie, originally from Cornwall, United Kingdom. ... Custard is a range of preparations based on milk and eggs, thickened with heat. ... Cherry ice cream Ice cream (originally iced cream) is a frozen dessert made from dairy products such as cream (or substituted ingredients), combined with flavorings and sweeteners such as sugar. ...

The 'petit pâté de Pézenas', a local speciality of the French town of Pézenas, Hérault département, is similar in content to the original British mince pie. Pézenas is a commune of the Hérault département, in France. ... Hérault is a département in the southwest of France named after the Hérault River. ... The départements (or departments) are administrative units of France, roughly analogous to British counties. ...

Trivia

• Mince pies is also cockney rhyming slang for 'eyes' (usually shortened to 'minces' or 'mincers').
• The Guinness World Record holder for the fastest eating of three mince pies, 2.5" in diameter and commercially available, is Barry Donovan of Suffolk, UK, and stands at 1 minute 23 seconds as of February 13th, 2006.

Cockney rhyming slang (sometimes abbreviated as CRS) is a form of English slang which originated in the East End of London. ... The Guinness Book of Records (or in recent editions Guinness World Records, and in previous US editions Guinness Book of World Records) is a book published annually, containing an internationally recognized collection of superlatives: both in terms of human achievement and the extrema of the natural world. ... Suffolk (pronounced ) is a large historic and modern non-metropolitan county in the East Anglia region of eastern England. ... February 13 is the 44th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ...

References

1. ^ Davidson, Alan. Oxford Companion to Food (1999). "Mince Pie", p. 507 ISBN 0-19-211579-0
2. ^ Matthew 2:2