Eating Pie

With the holidays just around the corner it set me to thinking about the feast to come. Traditional foods to be prepared and enjoyed. My Mother and now my wife always prepare certain dishes and desserts.
I look forward to having certain foods as well. For me it just isn't Thanksgiving dinner without cranberry sauce( jellied without whole berries) and turnips. Everyone has their favorites. My Father was a big fan of Mincemeat Pie. UGH ! Never did try that and never will.

I was talking with a co-worker who also enjoys this pie and she told me there was no meat in mincemeat. What ? I didn't know this and had never really given it any thought. I saw this pie every year and just avoided it. That was all I needed to know about it. Now I became curious about this apparently misnamed pie. My father has been gone for ten years now and I haven't seen any mincemeat pie since.

Off to wikipedia. As with most subjects there were numerous websites that you can also check. I did find out that mincemeat pie has been around a very long time,possibly as far back as ancient Egypt. In its original recipe it did indeed contain meat. Finely chopped meat( minced ) hence the name. There is also speculation that is was a method of preserving food and would have been prepared in large quanity. I found that it also contains alcohol,normally Brandy.

Today the pie is made with or without the meat. More often without. The "meat " I have discovered traditionaly used in this recipe is suet. OMG  I didn't know people ate suet. I have only seen it used for feeding the birds. In case you don't know and I admit I didn't Suet is the fat that gathers around the kidneys of a cow.            Mincemeat Pie      No Thank you