by jesawdy on Fri Dec 22, 2006 2:55 pm DaveC wrote:Mincemeat...really, you don't have it in the US, so what do you put in mince pies, I am sure I have had mince pies when I have visited the US?
You can get it.... it just isn't a common thing anymore. I never understood why they call it mincemeat anyway, so from Wikipedia:
Mincemeat was originally a conglomeration of bits of meat, dried fruit and spices, created as an alternative to smoking or drying for preservation, a variant form of sausage. It should not be confused with minced meat. Mincemeat containing actual meat has become less common over the years. The customary form today typically consists of raisins, spices, grated apple, and animal suet, though many commercial varieties use hard vegetable fat instead, making it completely vegetarian. Mincemeat may also contain currants, candied fruits, and brandy, rum or other liquor.
....
The mince in mincemeat traces its roots back to the Latin minutia ("something small"). The word mincemeat is an adaptation of an earlier term minced meat, simply meaning that, "meat chopped into small pieces". As an ingredient or substance, however, mincemeat has almost always been one word.
The term mincemeat has become a common image, even perhaps a cliche. To make mincemeat out of one's adversary is to impose defeat in an especially complete and humiliating manner
In the middle ages it used to and was a sweetened form of meat, but not for hundreds of years.
