These are historical documents, not instructions. Do not cook, drink, or apply anything on this site.
Don't Cook That

Good Mincemeat Without Intoxicants

Temperance mincemeat, put up by the crock — and hot-packed like fruit.

From
Good Housekeeping's Cook Book
Published
1909
Yikes Scale
Odd

Exactly as printed, 1909

Five pounds of beef boiled until tender (it should be salted when partly done).

Let cool in liquor, remove fat, chop very fine and measure. Use twice as much finely chopped apple, which should be tart, as meat. To the apple and meat then add the liquor in which the meat was boiled; also the fat which has been removed, and one quart of boiled cider.

If there was a scant amount of fat, add also half a cup of butter. Jelly or candied fruit will improve the pies, if wanted richer. Add also three teaspoons of cloves, two of cinnamon, same of mace, and three pounds of seeded raisins.

No definite rule can be given for sugar, as more or less is required, according to acidity of apples. Sweeten to taste with brown sugar. After all the ingredients have been put together, warm, and if found too thick for use, thin with cider or unfermented grape juice. When hot this can be put up as fruit and kept indefinitely.-Mrs E. M. Widdicomb.


Good Housekeeping's Cook Book, 1909. Public domain; transcription unaltered.

So what happens if I make it?

The temperance part is harmless. Mincemeat without brandy is just mincemeat, and boiled cider carries the sweetness perfectly well.

The instruction to put it up “as fruit” is the problem. This is a low-acid mixture of beef, broth and fat, and hot-packing it into jars the way you would peaches cannot reach the temperature that low-acid food requires.

Notes from the 21st century

  • Low-acid food needs a pressure canner. Boiling water tops out at 212°F. Clostridium botulinum spores need around 240°F, which only pressure reaches.
  • The fat makes it worse. Reserved beef fat and an optional half cup of butter insulate the middle of the jar and slow heat penetration further.
  • Measure by volume, not weight. The book says chop the beef fine, measure it, then use twice as much apple. Two parts apple to one of meat by volume is nothing like two to one by weight.

Also in this book

  • Broiled Beef Balls — Raw round scraped to a pulp with a knife, pressed loosely into balls, cooked two minutes.
  • Syllabub — Brandy and sugar in a cup, then milk into it straight from the cow until the foam reaches the top.

Don't take our word for it. The complete book is online, free and searchable.

Read the original page →