One of the fondest memories of growing up in the late 1940s and the 1950s, was after Thanksgiving late in the evening sitting with my Mother and having a piece of mincemeat pie topped with vanilla ice cream and a large glass of cold milk on the side. We would quietly talk to each other as a we slowly enjoyed the moment together. This lasted for three or four days until the pie was gone. Mother and I were the only ones in the Family and friends who liked mincemeat. It was our special connection.
@@RedshirtAfficionado Who says the version needs to be savory, it can be sweet and often is sweet. Try it with ice cream. you will love it. And yes, mincemeat can have meat or there is a non-meat version. Both are fruity with apples, raisins, sugar, a little orange sometimes, etc., so they go excellent with ice cream, especially vanilla .
My grandma used to make minced pie and fruit cake every year. Only she and her sister ate them since no one else in the family liked them, but to her and my Aunt (her sister) they were a requirement for Christmas food.
Mincemeat pie and fruitcake were (and are) essential in my celebration of Christmas. I am from an area in the South, USA where the largest majority of people were from England with some Scottish, Welsh and Irish ancestry. Our family recipes are very British. My father was in the US Navy so my immediate family lived in a lot of places with people from other cultures. My mother learned to cook dishes from different cuisines; I’ve continued cooking family recipes from both our extended family and my immediate family. When applying to culinary school, my younger daughter wrote her acceptance essay on the role the different types of dishes had on her love of food. Her professor wrote me the sweetest letter explaining that I was a self taught chef who had instilled in her what they hoped to do as professional chefs for all of their students. 😊
@merk9569 That is so awesome. I'm sure, thanks to your influence, your daughter has become an accomplished chef. My family is originally from southern Ohio, so the cooking was a blend of southern and northern as well as depression era style where they would use dabs of this or that because we didn't dare waste a crumb of food. My Aunt (great-aunt really) was a master of putting together a whole meal with nothing but leftovers.
As a child in the UK, Christmas pudding made weeks before. All of us had to give it a stir and make wish before a sixpence coin was put in. We always got to lick the spoon and clear the bowl with our grubby little fingers. Then minced pies - grans and mum trying to stop us raiding the mixture as above, once baked they tried to hide them in tins. We always found them. They always made more. ❤
The best mincemeat I ever had was made with suet and shredded chuck roast along with the sugar, walnuts, spices and sweet meats. It had, over the course of months, brandy and dry sherry. It was handed down from the gentleman's family, originally from London.
My Dad's family recipe for mincemeat which has been handed down at least 6 generations starts with a venison neck or 2 boiled until the meat falls off the bone. The next day the mincemeat is made and left to simmer on the back of the stove until thick and done, a day or 2. The broth is left in and suet is used along with the usual fruit and spices. Candied citrus peel is made whenever it is available and used through the year for flavoring and dressing up desserts. Think cookies, cake, pudding. The whole peel is cut into small even pieces and boiled in 3 changes of fresh water to remove bitterness. Then the drained peel is simmered in sugar water until it evapotates, then laid out to dry.
Townsends is one of the most effective companies in the world. We're all literally willingly watching an ad. Other companies have alot to learn from Townsends.
Considering that Townsends started out as a storefront in a small Indiana town I've long thought this channel was a textbook case of how to grow a business using social media.
@@JeffDeWitt A lot of their business is not direct to individual consumers but working with film and TV producers, as well as living history sites. So social media is not the only way, maybe not even the primary way, their business has grown.
The recipe calls for 'sack' - had to look that up. It's the older name for 'Sherry'. It's where the Sherry brand Dry Sack gets its name. Always learning here... Thanks.
Not gonna lie, this had me stumped and I was just about to turn to google and see what I could dig up. Thanks for doing the leg work for me and others who are scratching our heads.
The word "sack" comes to us from the French _sec,_ meaning "dry" (as in "dry wine"), and Shakespeare's character Sir John Falstaff is famously shown to be a fan of sack, it being a strong wine.
@@vaylonkenadell My research says the origin of 'sack' is debated. It could come from the Spanish 'saca' for 'extraction' (e.g. from a cask). Language historians say the Spanish might have used 'saca' for their dry wines, and when importing into France, it sounded like 'sec' to them, so their words 'merged'. If it means 'dry', wouldn't that make the brand 'Dry Sack' redundant? 🙂
@@kindabluejazz "If it means 'dry', wouldn't that make the brand 'Dry Sack' redundant?" The brand name suggests unawareness of the origins of the word, much like the use of "chai tea" in English, for example. And words passed down through the ages don't always make sense: in English, we call dried grapes "raisins" -- although in French, they are _raisins sec_ ("dry grapes"), the word _raisin_ being from Old French. What is your source? I was citing from the Online Etymology Dictionary.
My Mother used to make hundreds of mince pies every Christmas, all from a Mrs. Beeton recipe. I used to love helping her, and they always came out delicious!
My far north Maine grandmother made mince pie. It was sweet and did not contain any meat just fruit and pie dough. There were limited items avaiable in the winter and many truckers died on icy Maine roads delivering food and other goods to the far north. Nothing better than pie dough made with fresh butter and lard.
I make my own mincemeat. I "borrowed" my recipe from HM The Queen. To commiserate the fact that I am a Brit living in America, I add dried cranberries, pecans, and bourbon to Liz's the II's method. You cant beat homemade!
I used to make my own mincemeat. I always put beef in it. I frequently used round or chuck roast. I always put in alcohol in, usually bourbon. I aged it for several months before using it in pie, cookies, or bread. Mincemeat must be aged for the best flavor. Alcohol and sugar lets you store it in your cool pantry.
Thanks for sharing this Mince Pie with us. I can remember eating Mince Meat Pie when I was a youngster over 70 years ago, some were terrible but one neighbor made them that were delicious. Never got the good recipe so I have stayed away from Mince Meat Pies. I did enjoy your interpretation of the different cookbooks and how they changed things around in the recipes. Stay safe and keep up the great videos. Fred.
My place of work has a training restaurant, and in its bistro, there was the most delicious Flapjack with Mincemeat filling. Absolutely the taste of Christmas.
Recipes should also be elastic. You may not have enough of an ingredient or that ingredient may not be available for some reason. Back then, our tables were more susceptible to crop failures as food availability would be more local unless money were no object. Also, depending on your means, some ingredients would be too expensive unless you saved up for a special occasion like Christmas. Just remember you can and probably should treat recipes as a guide and not Gospel.
I made these mince pies (heavily modified though) for my family this christmas! A big hit! I used premade sheet dough, and folded it into triangels, because where i live, it is very common to do that with an apple filling. I must say, I took only about one tenth of your recipe, and it was still enough filling for more than twenty (overfilled) triangels. The amounts mentioned in the text truly would last you 4 months haha. Great succes, great video, merry Christmas!!
I made this today for Christmas using beef tongue and the fat from it in place of suet. I adapted it to my low-carb, grain-free needs, and it was the star of Christmas dinner!
with very few exceptions (I probably won't put a beet in as I can't swallow one) the first time I make a recipe I follow the instructions exactly, after that the words on the page are just a guideline, I'm always tweaking my recipes 🎄🎄🎄
Thank you for posting this. This year I was remembering things from my childhood. I remembered mincemeat pie and that my grandmother would make them. I miss having them. Now if I can find a way to make Christmas pudding my life will be complete.
Mince pie was always a holiday pie at our house, I havent had it for years , since my brother and sister inlaw passed . Not everyone liked it ,because it is so rich. I just couldn't eat a whole mince pie , so it dosent apper at the table anymore. Yes mince pie is best cold . I have never heard of rose water as an ingrediant before.
As a kid, i wondered why mince meat pies sometimes didn't have meat, and i never really trusted it. As Ryan read the ingredients i thought, "Holy moly, it's like pemmican meeting a fruit assortment!" The suet would be filling AND provide the means to preserve the mixture for awhile.
I just had to watch this, because I _love_ mincemeat pie! I used to use Nonesuch brand, but since I became aware of the ingredients (high fructose corn syrup, etc.) decades ago, I started making my own. I never use actual meat - just the suet. Adding orange peel and brandy are musts. I make the mincemeat in October, put it in a crock, and, just to be safe, put the crock in the fridge. The flavors age and meld. I use my mom's pie crust recipe, and the crust is always tender and flaky. Thanks for sharing!
I love this series, and how such old dishes are still great to make today, even if they don't get the attention of more "modern" stuff.. I am far from living the "17th century lifestyle" but do have a very old fashioned approach to my cooking ( lots of cast iron/ carbon steel, no microwave, cooking on the top of my wood stove occasionally, basic ingredients vs boxed junk) My next challenge is going to be making my own crusts for pies like this, I'm thinking a lard and flour dough :)
The key to successful crust making is practice. Your first attempts will likely be less than stellar, but as you get used to working with pie crust dough, you'll improve. I never made an inedible crust, but the ones I make today are tastier. And, the best pie crust I've made, I've made with lard. Lard, cold water, salt, and flour. Tallow is second to lard, and I found I needed to add a bit extra to get the right consistency for the crust.
Leaving out or substituting ingredients is totally normal. My wife runs a small catering business, she has to change her recipes to suit certain customers. Totally normal. Just as a family recipe changes over time.
I've always been intrigued by the fact, that here in the US, especially, the spices and dishes in wide use in the 17th and 18th Centuries have somehow come to be thought of a "Christmas" Flavors and dishes. Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Pumpkin...they were everyday things back then, now relegated to that one specific time of year. It would be interesting if Townsends could explain how that came to be.
I suspect it’s mostly because Christmas/winter holidays are a big baking time in general, because people are more likely to have extra time off, and they’re major holidays for which we’re more likely to make the extra effort. July 4th isn’t a big baking time because you get one day off if you get any time at all, and it’s hot, so who wants to bake?
My great grandmother always read or talked about different recipes, heck I do too, one thing she pointed out was with what some things cost you don't want to put ingredients into a recipe that no one likes because you're wasting time and money. I'm quite sure that for as far back as recipes have been around people added and omitted ingredients for the same reason, ingredients are expensive and why make something that no one is going to eat.
True. We host an afternoon of cooking and playing games with relatives/inlaws on a regular basis and in Oktober, one of the dishes was a creamy pumpkin soup. The recipe called for it to be drizzled with pumpkin seed oil, as they often do. So I spent 7€ on a tiny bottle, even though I do not like pumpkin seed oil at all. But I didn't want to be 'cheap' and just omit it. Well. Turns out, no one else liked it, either. I'm using up the bottle as a prewash treatment in my long hair, now 😆
We still eat millions of minced pies in the UK at Christmas time and the ingredients seems to have changed little/not at all from your recipe. Delicious.
Wonderful point about how fluid the recipes of the era could be. I find it exciting to think that we are simply a continuation of these old traditions rather than some kind of culmination where they are set in stone.
My grandmother, 11th generation New Englander born in 1900, always made oyster stew and plum pudding with the flaming rum on top for Christmas Eve. Christmas Day was her mince pie. One Christmas we came home from church to find the pies- apple, pumpkin, and mince all knocked off the dinning room table. The pie fully licked clean was the meat mince pie- found the dog stretched out asleep on its back on an upstairs bed!
I was stationed in, and lived in Bahrain for a few years, rosewater is very commonly used in the Middle East. Rosewater ice cream was actually my favorite treat. Edit: *stationed and lived there as a member of the US Navy. ⚓️
I always think it's interesting how incredibly popular rosewater used to be, and how completely it's vanished. As a flavoring, it's not even associated with food anymore. I've had rose petal jelly before and rose lokum, and even though I don't mind it, it's GOT to be subtle, and it's nice more because of its scent than its taste. It makes me wonder if a century from now, people will feel the same way about vanilla extract, barbecue sauce, or anything else that we put on everything. Vanished flavors are fascinating -- and not just rare ones, but ones that were once ubiquitous and have gone away almost totally.
Thanks so much! A long time ago I made venison mincemeat and canned it. I've been wanting to do it again and you have definitely encouraged me to do it!
I grew up eating mince pie and it's still my holiday favorite. My grandmother made it; she was a great "scratch" cook but I think she used the mince in the jar and maybe doctored it up with extra apples and currents. Mrs. Smith's brand frozen pies used to be the next best thing, now you can't find them anywhere. Sad.
Absolutely agree that a recipe is a suggestion. I was told by one of my chef school professors that a recipe is much more like a snapshot in time of a community bulletin board than a finished painting behind glass. That board is always changing. Man, I just realized that few people under 30 will even know what one of those was. It's more like an evolving meme than a finished reel.... How's that? However... Ryan did say that he doesn't care for rose water... which implies that he at least tried it once or twice. I've made some of these recipes, as-is, knowing (or thinking I'm knowing) that I will detest it, and been pleasantly surprised. I mean, granted, sometimes I've been absolutely right. But, I'd encourage folks to step out of their comfort zone and give some of these things a shot as they're written - you can always make it again!
My mother and grandma like mince pies and my grandma was an awesome baker. I can't have it because it upsets my stomach. I have made a kind of this with chicken, raisins, and seasonings, but no citrus peels. You wouldn't think that sweet spices would be good with chicken, but strangely it seems to work!
If I would only eat what doesn't upset my stomach, I wouldn't eat any dairy anymore. There are workarounds. Eat less of the dish for example, or take a tablet for heartburn.
@@hokuhikene There are things that I can't have because they always make me sick, I have an intolerance towards them, or I'm mildly allergic to them. I don't eat things that make me sick.
I make lilac or violet water as a substitute for rosewater especially if I add a little rosemary to the mix for a small amount of sweet and strong smell.
My mom, who was born in 1929, LOVED mincemeat pie. She told me that it was always made with venison in her experience. Nowadays, mincemeat pie has no meat of any kind in it. My wartime cookbook and Lowney's 1912 cookbook both call for beef and suet.
The plum pudding recipe I use is really just a type of mincemeat that is aged ten days and then breadcrumbs and flour and eggs are added before it is steamed. I love tongue so much I would never "waste" it in my plum pudding/mince meat tho. It makes incredible tamales.
We grew up eating mincemeat pies at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Family recipe, always made with venison. We kids would often help with the mixing. The recipe made enough for 3 or 4 years, Mom would can it and keep it in the fruit cellar. My sister has made it after Mom passed in 2009, we're due to fix another batch. There was the one year we made it with ground venison gifted by friends, the texture was awful, but we suffered through the next couple holiday seasons and ate it- never again with ground meat!
The nearest thing I can think of these days to a mince pie containing actual meat would be a katt pie, which I've never seen in a bakery (even in Wales where it comes from). Ended up making one myself and it was pretty good.
Hello Ryan. Nice to see you. This pie looks interesting to make. I don't think I would like meat in it though. I might have to try it. Thanks for helping us all learn about food of the time and that it is not that different than today.
The intolerance of opinion in many of these comment replies is actually stunning. I thought we were adults watching informative historical cooking videos, but many of those around here are children in their words.
I love the flavour of roses especially in Turkish delight, it's a Christmas favourite in our house! I have only met one person however who likes parma violets 😅
I love this observation that historically people changed and adapted recipes to their tastes. I think it is a more modern concept to follow a recipe exactly, probably because we don't cook as much at home as people used to. In modern times, we have frozen food, canned food, boxed food, fast food, jarred food. How many modern people cook from scratch? I think a person is more apt to adjust a recipe if you are making food from scratch, rather than having food that is pretty much prepared for you. On the other hand, the use of spices in a recipe is an area where most people will adjust according to taste.
My mother loved mince pie, and the rest of us weren't so fond. I started adding diced apples and a shot of whisky to "improve" it. She still loved it and most of us could eat a small piece. I did use the Borden's block of mince dehydrated mix. Other pies will go totally nuclear to be "real."
Growing up, it was always called "mincemeat pie". I honestly don't know if it had meat in it, but it seemed like a given. I never heard it call mince pie until I got much older.
Love the videos :) wanted to ask if you’ve done a video on the water pie ? I couldn’t find one, I know you covered the sea pie but that’s different :) thank you
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One of the fondest memories of growing up in the late 1940s and the 1950s, was after Thanksgiving late in the evening sitting with my Mother and having a piece of mincemeat pie topped with vanilla ice cream and a large glass of cold milk on the side. We would quietly talk to each other as a we slowly enjoyed the moment together. This lasted for three or four days until the pie was gone. Mother and I were the only ones in the Family and friends who liked mincemeat. It was our special connection.
That's a sweet story. Thanks for sharing the memory.
I can almost picture your memory from the 40s-50’s.
Thank you for posting it Jerry🥧🥛🦃
I enjoyed this :) Its nice to picture such fun connections and good memories.
Meat with ice cream?
@@RedshirtAfficionado Who says the version needs to be savory, it can be sweet and often is sweet. Try it with ice cream. you will love it. And yes, mincemeat can have meat or there is a non-meat version. Both are fruity with apples, raisins, sugar, a little orange sometimes, etc., so they go excellent with ice cream, especially vanilla .
My grandma used to make minced pie and fruit cake every year. Only she and her sister ate them since no one else in the family liked them, but to her and my Aunt (her sister) they were a requirement for Christmas food.
I loved both, my Great Grandmother's mincemeat pie was always welcomed. She would preserve it for all of us.
Mincemeat pie and fruitcake were (and are) essential in my celebration of Christmas. I am from an area in the South, USA where the largest majority of people were from England with some Scottish, Welsh and Irish ancestry. Our family recipes are very British. My father was in the US Navy so my immediate family lived in a lot of places with people from other cultures. My mother learned to cook dishes from different cuisines; I’ve continued cooking family recipes from both our extended family and my immediate family. When applying to culinary school, my younger daughter wrote her acceptance essay on the role the different types of dishes had on her love of food. Her professor wrote me the sweetest letter explaining that I was a self taught chef who had instilled in her what they hoped to do as professional chefs for all of their students. 😊
@merk9569 That is so awesome. I'm sure, thanks to your influence, your daughter has become an accomplished chef.
My family is originally from southern Ohio, so the cooking was a blend of southern and northern as well as depression era style where they would use dabs of this or that because we didn't dare waste a crumb of food. My Aunt (great-aunt really) was a master of putting together a whole meal with nothing but leftovers.
My grandmother made fruitcakes and even the family members that weren't keen on them would eat hers. I think it was the butter. Lol!
As a child in the UK, Christmas pudding made weeks before.
All of us had to give it a stir and make wish before a sixpence coin was put in.
We always got to lick the spoon and clear the bowl with our grubby little fingers.
Then minced pies - grans and mum trying to stop us raiding the mixture as above, once baked they tried to hide them in tins.
We always found them.
They always made more. ❤
Sweet memories of holidays know no national boundaries.
The best mincemeat I ever had was made with suet and shredded chuck roast along with the sugar, walnuts, spices and sweet meats. It had, over the course of months, brandy and dry sherry. It was handed down from the gentleman's family, originally from London.
My Dad's family recipe for mincemeat which has been handed down at least 6 generations starts with a venison neck or 2 boiled until the meat falls off the bone. The next day the mincemeat is made and left to simmer on the back of the stove until thick and done, a day or 2. The broth is left in and suet is used along with the usual fruit and spices. Candied citrus peel is made whenever it is available and used through the year for flavoring and dressing up desserts. Think cookies, cake, pudding. The whole peel is cut into small even pieces and boiled in 3 changes of fresh water to remove bitterness. Then the drained peel is simmered in sugar water until it evapotates, then laid out to dry.
Townsends is one of the most effective companies in the world. We're all literally willingly watching an ad. Other companies have alot to learn from Townsends.
Considering that Townsends started out as a storefront in a small Indiana town I've long thought this channel was a textbook case of how to grow a business using social media.
I read a comment on another video saying that Townsend's are the opposite of sellouts
@@JeffDeWitt A lot of their business is not direct to individual consumers but working with film and TV producers, as well as living history sites. So social media is not the only way, maybe not even the primary way, their business has grown.
and they make money off the vid, it's monetized
@@reginabillotti But I expect a lot of those video producers found out about Townsends from these videos.
The recipe calls for 'sack' - had to look that up. It's the older name for 'Sherry'. It's where the Sherry brand Dry Sack gets its name. Always learning here... Thanks.
Not gonna lie, this had me stumped and I was just about to turn to google and see what I could dig up. Thanks for doing the leg work for me and others who are scratching our heads.
Thanks for answering my question on "what is sack".
The word "sack" comes to us from the French _sec,_ meaning "dry" (as in "dry wine"), and Shakespeare's character Sir John Falstaff is famously shown to be a fan of sack, it being a strong wine.
@@vaylonkenadell My research says the origin of 'sack' is debated. It could come from the Spanish 'saca' for 'extraction' (e.g. from a cask). Language historians say the Spanish might have used 'saca' for their dry wines, and when importing into France, it sounded like 'sec' to them, so their words 'merged'. If it means 'dry', wouldn't that make the brand 'Dry Sack' redundant? 🙂
@@kindabluejazz "If it means 'dry', wouldn't that make the brand 'Dry Sack' redundant?"
The brand name suggests unawareness of the origins of the word, much like the use of "chai tea" in English, for example.
And words passed down through the ages don't always make sense: in English, we call dried grapes "raisins" -- although in French, they are _raisins sec_ ("dry grapes"), the word _raisin_ being from Old French.
What is your source? I was citing from the Online Etymology Dictionary.
My Mother used to make hundreds of mince pies every Christmas, all from a Mrs. Beeton recipe. I used to love helping her, and they always came out delicious!
My far north Maine grandmother made mince pie. It was sweet and did not contain any meat just fruit and pie dough. There were limited items avaiable in the winter and many truckers died on icy Maine roads delivering food and other goods to the far north. Nothing better than pie dough made with fresh butter and lard.
I make my own mincemeat. I "borrowed" my recipe from HM The Queen. To commiserate the fact that I am a Brit living in America, I add dried cranberries, pecans, and bourbon to Liz's the II's method. You cant beat homemade!
I used to make my own mincemeat. I always put beef in it. I frequently used round or chuck roast. I always put in alcohol in, usually bourbon. I aged it for several months before using it in pie, cookies, or bread.
Mincemeat must be aged for the best flavor. Alcohol and sugar lets you store it in your cool pantry.
My ultimate comfort channel 💙
Thanks for sharing this Mince Pie with us. I can remember eating Mince Meat Pie when I was a youngster over 70 years ago, some were terrible but one neighbor made them that were delicious. Never got the good recipe so I have stayed away from Mince Meat Pies. I did enjoy your interpretation of the different cookbooks and how they changed things around in the recipes. Stay safe and keep up the great videos. Fred.
My place of work has a training restaurant, and in its bistro, there was the most delicious Flapjack with Mincemeat filling. Absolutely the taste of Christmas.
@PlymouthT20 My Dad and his brothers would put fresh warm mincemeat from the kettle simmering on the back of the woodstove on their morning flapjacks
Thank you Ryan. I have been waiting for a good mincemeat receipt. Great video...
Recipes should also be elastic. You may not have enough of an ingredient or that ingredient may not be available for some reason. Back then, our tables were more susceptible to crop failures as food availability would be more local unless money were no object. Also, depending on your means, some ingredients would be too expensive unless you saved up for a special occasion like Christmas. Just remember you can and probably should treat recipes as a guide and not Gospel.
Ryan, Thanks and Blessings To You and Your Family Along with the Townsends! Be Safe.
I made these mince pies (heavily modified though) for my family this christmas! A big hit! I used premade sheet dough, and folded it into triangels, because where i live, it is very common to do that with an apple filling. I must say, I took only about one tenth of your recipe, and it was still enough filling for more than twenty (overfilled) triangels. The amounts mentioned in the text truly would last you 4 months haha. Great succes, great video, merry Christmas!!
"People are people" ... total wisdom
I made this today for Christmas using beef tongue and the fat from it in place of suet. I adapted it to my low-carb, grain-free needs, and it was the star of Christmas dinner!
I recall my Dad said when he was a child (in the 30s) my Grandmother would make mincemeat with venison.
with very few exceptions (I probably won't put a beet in as I can't swallow one) the first time I make a recipe I follow the instructions exactly, after that the words on the page are just a guideline, I'm always tweaking my recipes 🎄🎄🎄
Thank you for posting this. This year I was remembering things from my childhood. I remembered mincemeat pie and that my grandmother would make them. I miss having them. Now if I can find a way to make Christmas pudding my life will be complete.
Mince pie was always a holiday pie at our house, I havent had it for years , since my brother and sister inlaw passed . Not everyone liked it ,because it is so rich. I just couldn't eat a whole mince pie , so it dosent apper at the table anymore.
Yes mince pie is best cold .
I have never heard of rose water as an ingrediant before.
As a kid, i wondered why mince meat pies sometimes didn't have meat, and i never really trusted it.
As Ryan read the ingredients i thought, "Holy moly, it's like pemmican meeting a fruit assortment!" The suet would be filling AND provide the means to preserve the mixture for awhile.
I just had to watch this, because I _love_ mincemeat pie! I used to use Nonesuch brand, but since I became aware of the ingredients (high fructose corn syrup, etc.) decades ago, I started making my own. I never use actual meat - just the suet. Adding orange peel and brandy are musts. I make the mincemeat in October, put it in a crock, and, just to be safe, put the crock in the fridge. The flavors age and meld. I use my mom's pie crust recipe, and the crust is always tender and flaky. Thanks for sharing!
I love this series, and how such old dishes are still great to make today, even if they don't get the attention of more "modern" stuff.. I am far from living the "17th century lifestyle" but do have a very old fashioned approach to my cooking ( lots of cast iron/ carbon steel, no microwave, cooking on the top of my wood stove occasionally, basic ingredients vs boxed junk) My next challenge is going to be making my own crusts for pies like this, I'm thinking a lard and flour dough :)
The key to successful crust making is practice. Your first attempts will likely be less than stellar, but as you get used to working with pie crust dough, you'll improve. I never made an inedible crust, but the ones I make today are tastier.
And, the best pie crust I've made, I've made with lard. Lard, cold water, salt, and flour. Tallow is second to lard, and I found I needed to add a bit extra to get the right consistency for the crust.
I prefer lard instead of butter in my crusts! Makes it extra flaky too
@mikecollins8241 The keys to making a tender, flaky crust are to work quickly with cold hands and colder ingredients and tools.
Leaving out or substituting ingredients is totally normal. My wife runs a small catering business, she has to change her recipes to suit certain customers. Totally normal. Just as a family recipe changes over time.
Looks pretty fresh for a 251 year old pie.
It took sooooo long to get it out of the vending machine...
They keep for a long time.
I've always been intrigued by the fact, that here in the US, especially, the spices and dishes in wide use in the 17th and 18th Centuries have somehow come to be thought of a "Christmas" Flavors and dishes. Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Pumpkin...they were everyday things back then, now relegated to that one specific time of year. It would be interesting if Townsends could explain how that came to be.
I suspect it’s mostly because Christmas/winter holidays are a big baking time in general, because people are more likely to have extra time off, and they’re major holidays for which we’re more likely to make the extra effort. July 4th isn’t a big baking time because you get one day off if you get any time at all, and it’s hot, so who wants to bake?
My great grandmother always read or talked about different recipes, heck I do too, one thing she pointed out was with what some things cost you don't want to put ingredients into a recipe that no one likes because you're wasting time and money.
I'm quite sure that for as far back as recipes have been around people added and omitted ingredients for the same reason, ingredients are expensive and why make something that no one is going to eat.
True. We host an afternoon of cooking and playing games with relatives/inlaws on a regular basis and in Oktober, one of the dishes was a creamy pumpkin soup. The recipe called for it to be drizzled with pumpkin seed oil, as they often do. So I spent 7€ on a tiny bottle, even though I do not like pumpkin seed oil at all. But I didn't want to be 'cheap' and just omit it. Well. Turns out, no one else liked it, either.
I'm using up the bottle as a prewash treatment in my long hair, now 😆
We still eat millions of minced pies in the UK at Christmas time and the ingredients seems to have changed little/not at all from your recipe. Delicious.
My grandma used to make those all the time. They're downright scrumptious, I must admit.
2:56 I guess Jon got bored of time travel food and became a writer!
Older Ladies at our church would always use our deer hearts to make these pies. Must have been a common substitute.
Wonderful point about how fluid the recipes of the era could be. I find it exciting to think that we are simply a continuation of these old traditions rather than some kind of culmination where they are set in stone.
Yeah! You tell 'em, Ryan! 😀
It’s always good to watch a video of old style cooking that could still benefit us today.
My grandmother, 11th generation New Englander born in 1900, always made oyster stew and plum pudding with the flaming rum on top for Christmas Eve. Christmas Day was her mince pie. One Christmas we came home from church to find the pies- apple, pumpkin, and mince all knocked off the dinning room table. The pie fully licked clean was the meat mince pie- found the dog stretched out asleep on its back on an upstairs bed!
Thanks for the video!
Thanks Ryan
Rose water, grandma’s favorite living room fragrance.
Lovely video. Kudos to all involved.
I live for my Townsends recipes every holiday year round, and the whole Christmas season.
3:00 Jon is secretly a time traveler
what would you expect from a town sender
Two whole nutmegs? I bet he just changes his name a little to pretend he isn't 😉
Rose water is wonderful! So is orange blossom water...
I specifically wait for you to be the person doing the meals... I love your voice, enthusiasm, and showcases of food. Much love ❤️
Great video! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Ryan! Looks delicious!
You explained this really well. The pie looks delicious!
I think most people who've tried rosewater wouldn't criticize anyone from taking rosewater out of a recipe.
Then just make a modern recipe 🙄
@@MikehMike01 do you think people back then have a choice
Speak for yourself 😉
@@jaredtomongha1342I’ve had rose water, it tastes fine, but too many people today have undeveloped palates
I was stationed in, and lived in Bahrain for a few years, rosewater is very commonly used in the Middle East.
Rosewater ice cream was actually my favorite treat.
Edit: *stationed and lived there as a member of the US Navy. ⚓️
I always think it's interesting how incredibly popular rosewater used to be, and how completely it's vanished. As a flavoring, it's not even associated with food anymore. I've had rose petal jelly before and rose lokum, and even though I don't mind it, it's GOT to be subtle, and it's nice more because of its scent than its taste.
It makes me wonder if a century from now, people will feel the same way about vanilla extract, barbecue sauce, or anything else that we put on everything. Vanished flavors are fascinating -- and not just rare ones, but ones that were once ubiquitous and have gone away almost totally.
Maybe you should have a look at recipes from the Middle East. It's definitely not vanished.
Same as garum!
Rose water is still used in the turkish cuisine, turkish delight for example
@@natviolen4021
Yes, exactly. Rosewater flavored ice cream was my favorite treat while I was stationed in Bahrain in the Navy.
@@hazzmati Otherwise known as lokum.
Thanks Ryan I enjoyed this video I love watching you and John cook Happy holidays to you your family and everyone else❤
Thanks so much! A long time ago I made venison mincemeat and canned it. I've been wanting to do it again and you have definitely encouraged me to do it!
I grew up eating mince pie and it's still my holiday favorite. My grandmother made it; she was a great "scratch" cook but I think she used the mince in the jar and maybe doctored it up with extra apples and currents. Mrs. Smith's brand frozen pies used to be the next best thing, now you can't find them anywhere. Sad.
Absolutely agree that a recipe is a suggestion. I was told by one of my chef school professors that a recipe is much more like a snapshot in time of a community bulletin board than a finished painting behind glass. That board is always changing. Man, I just realized that few people under 30 will even know what one of those was. It's more like an evolving meme than a finished reel.... How's that? However... Ryan did say that he doesn't care for rose water... which implies that he at least tried it once or twice. I've made some of these recipes, as-is, knowing (or thinking I'm knowing) that I will detest it, and been pleasantly surprised. I mean, granted, sometimes I've been absolutely right. But, I'd encourage folks to step out of their comfort zone and give some of these things a shot as they're written - you can always make it again!
Followig a recipe to the letter feels like a much more modern concept than substituting with whatever one have available.
My mother and grandma like mince pies and my grandma was an awesome baker. I can't have it because it upsets my stomach. I have made a kind of this with chicken, raisins, and seasonings, but no citrus peels. You wouldn't think that sweet spices would be good with chicken, but strangely it seems to work!
If I would only eat what doesn't upset my stomach, I wouldn't eat any dairy anymore. There are workarounds. Eat less of the dish for example, or take a tablet for heartburn.
@@hokuhikene There are things that I can't have because they always make me sick, I have an intolerance towards them, or I'm mildly allergic to them. I don't eat things that make me sick.
Looks fantastic
I make lilac or violet water as a substitute for rosewater especially if I add a little rosemary to the mix for a small amount of sweet and strong smell.
Looks like a delight of a modern interpretation of an old recipe 🤤
Had my first mince pie of the season this week. It was delicious 🎄
In the UK they have their modern version of mince pies. If you buy them from the high end shop, you will like them too 😊
this isn't the uk
@@notaplasticexistence however the recipe was from a London cook book...
@@jays.8621 whatever you need to feel relevant
My mom, who was born in 1929, LOVED mincemeat pie. She told me that it was always made with venison in her experience. Nowadays, mincemeat pie has no meat of any kind in it. My wartime cookbook and Lowney's 1912 cookbook both call for beef and suet.
The plum pudding recipe I use is really just a type of mincemeat that is aged ten days and then breadcrumbs and flour and eggs are added before it is steamed. I love tongue so much I would never "waste" it in my plum pudding/mince meat tho. It makes incredible tamales.
I love mince pies.
penuts
I remember my mom making mincemeat pies for Christmas every year. It's probably been more than 40 years since I have ate it.
This is strikingly similar to the recipe I would use for mince pies, from an old good housekeeping book.
I don't like preserved peel, so I always leave it out when making mincemeat or fruitcake. But then, I love rosewater, so....
We grew up eating mincemeat pies at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Family recipe, always made with venison. We kids would often help with the mixing. The recipe made enough for 3 or 4 years, Mom would can it and keep it in the fruit cellar. My sister has made it after Mom passed in 2009, we're due to fix another batch. There was the one year we made it with ground venison gifted by friends, the texture was awful, but we suffered through the next couple holiday seasons and ate it- never again with ground meat!
The nearest thing I can think of these days to a mince pie containing actual meat would be a katt pie, which I've never seen in a bakery (even in Wales where it comes from). Ended up making one myself and it was pretty good.
As a knitter, I love the colors and pattern of your hat!
These look good. Thanks for the video.
Love Ryan's cooking videos
That looks so great, you are awesome!!
I follow a few people in England and I've always been intrigued by the mince pie obsession. I might try this recipe. Thank you!
Go for it, they taste lovely
We need to give credit to these people on eating food almost 300 years old food without dying
Wonderful video!
Hello Ryan. Nice to see you. This pie looks interesting to make. I don't think I would like meat in it though. I might have to try it. Thanks for helping us all learn about food of the time and that it is not that different than today.
I love a minced pie. You don't hear about it anymore. When I was young we had it occasionally.
The intolerance of opinion in many of these comment replies is actually stunning. I thought we were adults watching informative historical cooking videos, but many of those around here are children in their words.
What? No dear meat? You’re missing out!
And beef suet.
My grandmother,the midwest one,made mincemeat cookies. Yummy!
I love the flavour of roses especially in Turkish delight, it's a Christmas favourite in our house! I have only met one person however who likes parma violets 😅
I love this observation that historically people changed and adapted recipes to their tastes. I think it is a more modern concept to follow a recipe exactly, probably because we don't cook as much at home as people used to. In modern times, we have frozen food, canned food, boxed food, fast food, jarred food. How many modern people cook from scratch? I think a person is more apt to adjust a recipe if you are making food from scratch, rather than having food that is pretty much prepared for you. On the other hand, the use of spices in a recipe is an area where most people will adjust according to taste.
my mother loved making these for christmas
I can't believe you had to explain that.
Able to respect different tastes but rosewater is indeed a different story. Feels like parfuming perfectly tasty food.
Mr. Townsend's from 1773? Wow he's aged well!! No wonder he likes recipes from that era.
Cow tongue cooked correctly is quite good I hear.Never ran across it though,but apparently Basques have one of the best versions.
the cloves and mace nutmeg remind me not of christmas but John lol
How yall had a very thankful feast with friends n family. You guys ever thought about doing a video on the memorial ceremony for mississinewa 1812?
TY for the VIDEO 👍✌
My mother loved mince pie, and the rest of us weren't so fond. I started adding diced apples and a shot of whisky to "improve" it. She still loved it and most of us could eat a small piece. I did use the Borden's block of mince dehydrated mix. Other pies will go totally nuclear to be "real."
I tried a Mince Meat Pie for the first time this Thanksgiving. It was interesting.
Love it
Please. What is that painting @1:30? I am in love. ❤️❤️❤️
Still Life with Peacock Pie by Pieter Claesz
@@ThePluuThank you. 💛
Growing up, it was always called "mincemeat pie". I honestly don't know if it had meat in it, but it seemed like a given. I never heard it call mince pie until I got much older.
Love the videos :) wanted to ask if you’ve done a video on the water pie ? I couldn’t find one, I know you covered the sea pie but that’s different :) thank you
As soon as I heard mince, I really thought this pie would include minced meat. But this looks good, ought to try this this month.