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[quote=Anonymous]"Back" in the day it wasn't unusual to have sweet-savory blends of meat and fruit, which was actually common and a popular medieval/renaissance approach to food. We still do to an extent - recipes for pork with peaches/apricots are still used today.

Mincemeat, the original blend of chopped meat, suet and dried fruit aged in a nice amount of booze was a common way of using up bits of leftover meat and dried fruit in the winter months. As time went on, in the late 19th century into the 20th century, people started leaving out first the chopped meat but kept the suet, and now suet is usually no longer included, so it's strictly fruit.

I've never been wild for the jarred mincemeat you find in the US. It wasn't until I started going to the UK in December that I discovered their mincemeat pies, which are always small individual mini-pies about two inches long rather than a large pie as found in the US, and I fell in love with it. British mincemeat filling is thicker and less juicy than the American jarred counterpart, so the pies don't break out into an oozy mess when you bite into it. I also find the higher crust to filling ratio you get with the smaller pies enhances the overall experience, a crumbly buttery crust with an intensely fruity filling works wonders together. If you don't have enough of the right crust, then the fruity mincemeat filling can be too strong.

Mincemeat pies are hugely popular in the UK at this time of year and all newspapers will have annual competitions over which supermarket or bakery has the best mincemeat pies. But it is still an acquired taste if you didn't grow up with it, however, if you like raisins you should like them.

As it is, my father loves the traditional American mincemeat pies so I always make one or two for him each Christmas. But I still smuggle over traditional English mincemeat pies and snack on them if my father doesn't find them first! [/quote]

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