Do I need to cook mincemeat?

[penona]

Hello
Have made my own mincemeat for the first time this year, using a recipe on the BBC website that got good reviews. I mixed it all, left it to stand for a few days stirring occasionally and have just decanted into my jars.
However, This morning I unearthed DHs recipe, which includes a step for cooking at low temp for 3 hrs! He made his own mincemeat for years and it was always amazing, so now am worried mine will be rubbish!
Any advice?

According to St Delia, yes you should!

Bugger.
Do you think I can take it out the jars and cook it now? What on earth do I cook it in.
Grrrr. Next year will leave it to DH!!!

Thanks for replying though.

I've just been through this as well - I discarded the first recipe I found (no cooking) and used Delia's instead

However, I think the cooking is to melt the suet so it coats all the other ingredients. If you don't cook it the suet will still be in little bits, but once you have made your mince pies or whatever, cooking them will have the same effect and melt the suet, surely?

If you do go down the route of decanting and cooking it, I'm using a big pan with a loose foil lid in the oven. At this very moment in fact!

Yes, when I said to dh it didn't look right, he said the suet wiuld melt. I just couldn't work out how that would happen in the kitchen!

Got meringues in the oven right now (am having a domestic day, don't you know!) but will do mincemeat afterwards. And sterilize the jars again. Pah.

I've made it both ways and not sure there is much difference. Think Delia cooks hers to stop it fermenting, but the year I didn't cook it I didn't have that problem.

I have made both ways, the only difference I can make out is that bits of uncooked suet don't look awfully appealing in the jar. As you say, they get cooked when you use it, so it doesn't make much odds.

I cooked it in the end. It tastes delicious! And does look more appealing without all the horrid suet bits. Also found a jar of DHs mincemeat from 2 years ago which tasted pretty good still. I think on the Delia link above it said that cooking it helps it store longer too.

Thanks all!