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Mincemeat Pie: Once a Sinful Dessert
| Article
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19562 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
11 / 1991 |
1,696 Words |
| Author
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Kay Shaw Nelson
Food and travel writer Kay Shaw Nelson has written for
numerous magazines and newspapers, including Gourmet, House
and Garden, Washingtonian, and the New York Times. The author
of thirteen cookbooks, she most recently published A Bonnie
Scottish Cookbook. |
As a child in New Hampshire, I looked forward to our traditional Thanksgiving dessert, mincemeat pie, which was flavorful and rich; it was made in my home with a blend of dried and fresh fruit, spices, brown sugar, cider, and sometimes meat. It was a cherished treat at Thanksgiving and at Christmas.
Later, I was surprised to learn that this venerable American pie had been such a popular English Yule specialty that it acquired religious significance and was later forbidden as sinful. What was dubbed the "Battle of Mince Pies" lasted over a hundred years and even continued in colonial times in our country. No other pie has such an intriguing history.
The saga of this revered specialty begin in the Middle Ages, when mammoth meat pies were popular English fare. Because the beef, mutton, game, or other flesh was cut into small pieces to fit under the top crust, the pies were called minc'd, minched, or shred.
A fifteenth-century manuscript recipe for "mynce pye" calls for many ingredients, including "a pheasant, a hare, a capon, two partridges, two pigeons, two rabbits, their meat separated from the bones, to be chopped into a fine hash." Some of the early pies contained as much as ten pounds of meat, which was seasoned with a sweet-sour sauce made with vinegar, ale or beer, sometimes mushrooms, and several spices.
Cooks gradually began adding a little chopped fresh fruit, especially apples (representing growth and fertility), to the minced meat. At first there was only enough fruit to give the mixture a pleasant tang. But as varieties of dried fruits increased due to the growth of English maritime trade, so did those in mincemeat. One early writer commented that the expansion of the English fleet was reflected in the pie pan. Raisins, currants, and orange and lemon peel embellished the ingredients.
In the list of foods for a sixteenth-century "Minst Pye," made with veal or mutton, there were dates and prunes as well as egg yolks and "a good deale of sugar." Rosewater was a favorite flavoring.
Precious Oriental spices brought back from the Holy Land by crusaders were added to the meat for seasoning as well as a preservative. Because of the spices' association with the Bible lands, the pies made with them became customary Christmas fare.
It was
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