In honor of the holiday
season, I wanted to investigate some intriguing questions about two classic Christmas desserts - mincemeat pie and plum pudding.
Why is there no meat in mincemeat pie? Why are there no plums in Plum pudding? Why were these dishes notorious? What is suet?
Most people encounter
mincemeat in the classic Thanksgiving pie, where it is a mixture of dried fruit, chopped nuts and apples, suet, spices, and
either rum or brandy. When the ingredients of mincemeat and plum pudding are compared, it is obvious they are closely related.
Plum pudding also has dried fruit, spices, and suet and is usually soaked in either rum or brandy. The major difference is
that plum pudding also has breadcrumbs and/or flour, which allow it to be boiled into a dense cake.
Given this commonality,
it is not surprising that both dishes trace their heritage back to medieval times, around the 15th century. Mincemeat
pies were originally small, savory (i.e. not sweet) pies, containing chopped meat or liver, and were mixed with hardboiled
eggs, ginger, and sweetener. It was Henry VIII's favorite pie.
The original plum pudding
also contained meat and was savory, and it never contained plums. Originally it contained prunes, then raisins. Both prunes
and raisins were commonly called plums, as defined by Samuel Johnson in his famous dictionary.
Mincemeat and plum pudding
were both banned in the 17th century during Oliver Cromwell's Puritan regime, as sinfully rich and unfit for God-fearing
people. Part of mincemeat and plum puddings' reputational issues were the number of superstitions associated with these desserts
- superstitions which had a smell of paganism to them as do many Northern European holiday customs which can be traced back
to winter solstice festivals.
Specifically, various
items were baked in plum puddings. The discoverer of a silver coin would experience health and happiness, of a ring would
get married, of a thimble would remain a spinster, or of a button would remain a bachelor. Mincemeat also had its superstitions
-if you ate one mincemeat pie at a different house on each of the twelve days of Christmas, you would experience good luck
for each of the 12 months of the coming year.
Both classic mincemeat
and plum pudding have gone somewhat out of fashion, largely for two reasons. People do not have the time or desire to prepare
them ahead, as is required to maximize flavor. Traditionally, a Christmas plum pudding should be made during Advent, but then
stored for one entire year to be served during the following Christmas. Mincemeat also needs to be aged; early New Englanders
made large batches of mincemeat, which were then stored in crocks sealed with a layer of lard.
A second issue is the
suet. While meat has not been a classic ingredient for either dish during the
last two centuries, suet is still a common ingredient. Suet is the hard fat around the kidneys and loin areas in beef and
mutton. It has a high melting point, producing a very light product. However, like lard, it is highly saturated fat. Some
people also do not like a meaty flavor in a dessert.
Most English recipes now
stipulate the use of vegetarian suet - the BBC encourages the use of a product
called Atora Vegetable Light. For those of you who want to create classic British mincemeat or puddings from scratch, Atora
can be purchased on the WEB at www.expatshopping.com. This site sells all sorts of food products from the British Isles.
Otherwise, most prepared mincemeat that you can buy in grocery stores does not contain either suet or meat.
To have fun with these
dishes, here a couple of ideas. For those of you who would like to make either from scratch, there are good recipes for both
at www.globalgourmet.com/food/egg/egg1296/mincmeat.html or for plum pudding, use the same WEB address, but substitute plumpudg
instead of mincmeat.
Otherwise, buy a good
plum pudding. For $28.00, Williams-Sonoma sells Cole's Christmas pudding, which is made with ground almonds, dried fruits,
citrus butter, and Suffolk ale. Put the pudding on a concave plate or large, shallow bowl. On the plate, put a holly sprig,
which is symbolic of Christs Crown of Thorns. Before serving, warm some brandy in a small saucepan, pour the brandy over the
pudding, and using a long handled match like a fireplace match, ignite the pudding. The fire is said to represent Christ's
passion.
Cooking Light
Magazine has a good idea for those of you who find mincemeat pie either too much trouble or too rich, but still like the taste
- make mini charlottes or bread puddings, as follows, (slightly modified):
Ingredients:
1 package (9 ounce) condensed
mincemeat
1 tablespoon sugar
24 slices (approximately)
very thin white bread, divided
1 cup chopped, peeled
apple
¼ cup butter, melted
¼ cup cognac or brandy
1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2) Reconstitute the mincemeat according to the package
directions. Light coat 6 ramekins with cooking spray; evenly dust each ramekin with sugar.
3) Place 12 bread slices on a cutting board. With
a round cutter, cut out 6 bread circles large enough to fit the bottom of the ramekin. Place 1 circle in the bottom of each
ramekin. Cut out 6 circles large enough to fit the top of the ramekin, and reserve.
4) Trim crust from the remaining bread slices. Cut
each slice into enough rectangles to fit the sides of each ramekin with bread rectangles, arranged vertically, side by side.
Press rectangles gently to fit.
5) Combine the mincemeat, apple, butter, and cognac.
Place enough of the mincemeat mixture in each ramekin to allow the top circle to fit within the ramekin. Press reserved circles
gently onto the mincemeat filling. Trim any of the side pieces that extend above the top circle. Place the ramekins on a baking
sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden. Remove from the oven and cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes.
Place a dessert plate, upside down, on top of each ramekin; invert onto plates. Serve warm.
