Shop bought versus making own mincemeat

[TheDreamCrusher]

I love baking and make mince pies every year and they are delicious, but I feel a bit of a fraud as I buy the mincemeat from the shop.

Taste wise, which is best, shop bought or home made mince meat? If it’s make your own, please recommend a recipe.

Thx

I’ve made this recipe this year, it tastes amazing 🤩 and definitely the best I’ve made. www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/food/recipes/a572825/px-and-pear-mincemeat/

I haven't made it for a few years as we inly really use one jar a year and it's hard to scale it down and have been buying Sainsburys TTD instead but it's not as good. Tempted to have a go again this year.

What I always do is loosen it with a bit of brandy or sherry then use a microplane grated to add a bit of zest from an orange or clementine on top of the mincemeat in each pie before putting the lid on, that really adds a lovely zingy touch to them.

I use walnuts rather than almonds; they're softer.
For anyone who likes mincemeat but not pies, I've made this recipe a few times, and it's been very popular. https://www.bbcgoodfoodme.com/recipes/christmas-white-chocolate-traybake/

Mum used to make her own mincemeat, but this was Australia in the 60s so maybe it was harder to get in the shops. She'd make it in early spring and it was liberally "fed" ( as was the Christmas cake) She'd make gallons. I think once the aussie neighbours tried it she had no trouble distributing spare jars. But she and my aunt had friendly rivalry as to who made the best so theyd often give each other a jar. "Well, itll save you making it this year, i know how busy you are"
The house smelled heavenly.

grate an apple, and some orange zest into a posh shop bought op then add an extra slug of alcohol - cook it up a bit.

This is what I do too, although I don’t bother to pre cook it as it cooks in the oven in the pies. Lemon zest is also good.

Do I need to buy special jars and sterilise them?

I like the cheap Aldi one and then add my own alcohol.

No need for special jars. They need to be very clean and dry, but not necessarily sterilised. Good lids are essential.

I use Delia’s recipe. Much nicer than bought. Worlds apart.

I use old jam and honey jars. I wash them and sterilise in the oven. I also put wax discs on top before putting the lids on.

This is clearly a minority view but unless you enjoy making it from scratch, I don't find the difference to be worth the effort of making it. Agree with the suggestion to buy good quality shop mincemeat then add your own alcohol to it. Yum!

But it's really really easy to make, takes no effort and tastes a thousand times nicer.

I know, everyone says this, I am clearly a mince pie philistine 😅

Unless you're making a huge vat of it...it's probably far more economical to buy a jar of mincemeat, even the posh ones. All the dried fruit and the brandy will add up and end up quite expensive

A pielistine? (I'll eave quietly now)

😅

I’m going to give it a go. TBH, life’s a bit h at the moment and listening to music whilst baking is a stress reliever.

I feel a fraud baking luscious mince pies, then when asked I have to say no, I bought the mince meat from Tescos 😂

I’ll give it a go.

I make my own because I find shop versions a bit too sweet for my taste (though if I don't get round to it I just add a bit of extra brandy to bought mincemeat). The other reason to do it is if you have a glut of apples so this year I did it when one of the big storms blew them all off the tree. I use Delia's recipe but vary the dried fruit depending on what I like, and I use butter instead of suet. I think I originally started because I wanted to make them suitable for vegetarians (so no proper suet) but also wanted to avoid trans fats in veggie suet. Though apparently some veggie suets don't use hydrogenated oils any more.

For the PP who has too much - it keeps really well. You'd probably only need to do it once every three years.

we always used shop bought mincemeat, shop bought mince pies are another story altogether

I can’t get it where I live so I make my own, also for gifts.
Authentic mincemeat has those white bits of suet in it (fat from around beef? kidneys), and I wouldn’t touch that willingly, so for a few years I used a recipe with butter, sourced from the Nigella website.

Now we live in an area where the local cakes have a lot of spiced dried fruit in them and we can just do without mince pies!

I made Mary Berry’s yesterday. It was unbelievably easy. It made 2 large jars.

I will go through that quickly given how many people I’ll have passing through my house in Dec and so tomorrow I’m making the pear mincemeat.

I much prefer homemade.

This is my favourite recipe.

I'm making Mary Berry's Special mincemeat right now. I'll leave it to cool overnight then add the 400ml brandy tomorrow. I've doubled the recipe so will have 8 Bonne Maman jars full. It's the best ever recipe.

I was wondering about this and tried costing it up. I don't think there's much in it either way if the comparison is with the most expensive bought mincemeat, i.e. the ones most comparable to home-made. I would still always prefer home-made here, though, even if it cost double. It's so easy to make, doesn't take all that long, is exactly to our taste, keeps for ages and I know exactly what's in it. The basic mincemeat from supermarkets has preservative in it, not brandy. No thanks.