Homemade Mincemeat

Our go-to mincemeat recipe, featuring homemade candied peel, plenty of citrus, and brandy. Butter is used in place of suet for this recipe.

Mincemeat is a Christmas classic, and like most things, much improved when homemade. Ours uses homemade candied peel – it makes such a difference, trust us – fresh fruit, brandy, and brown sugar. It’s not ultra sweet and has a great flavour.

Traditional mincemeat is made with pork or beef suet. With the difficulty of getting those ingredients, especially now, and since butter is more palatable to most, we have chosen butter instead. Just because something was used historically due to higher availability at the time doesn’t mean we need to stick to tradition!

If you’re craving a real holiday classic this year, then, mincemeat and mincemeat tarts is the way to go. Sweet, bright, and warming, it’s a real treat.

Jump to:

• Method
• Tips and Notes
• Substitutions
• Recipe

Use the JUMP TO RECIPE button at the top of the post, or scroll to the bottom of the post, to see the full recipe card with ingredient measurements and instructions.

Method

Add the apples, raisins, currants, walnuts, mixed peel, brown sugar, lemon zest and juice, butter, nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon to a large pot.

Heat the mixture over medium and bring to a low simmer, until the butter and sugar melt.

Reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. The raisins should be plump and apples softened after this time.

Stir in the brandy and remove the mincemeat from the heat. Cool fully before storing in the refrigerator in a sealed container.

For longer storage, fully cover the top of the mincemeat with a layer of melted butter.

Tips and Notes

Mincemeat will keep for a long time in the refrigerator, covered with a layer of butter over it. If you want to preserve it for an extended period, we recommend freezing in airtight containers. It is possible to can with a pressure canner but there’s always some risk involved there if you’re not an experienced canner.

Using homemade candied peel really makes all the difference here, and it doesn’t take long to make. Definitely go that route if at all possible.

The brandy is not cooked for the mincemeat (it helps with the long storage potential), but it will be when you bake the tarts, etc. so use your discretion with what age you think is appropriate here. There may or may not be alcohol present after baking, we’re not sure.

More Ways to Use Mincemeat

• Sub it for the apples in our apple cinnamon rolls
• Add it to bread pudding
• Top ice cream
• Make turnovers, either with puff pastry or pie dough
• Make stuffed French toast (with brioche, if you have it)
• Top pancakes or waffles (or stuff pancakes)
• Add it to a classic apple pie for a Christmas twist

Substitutions

For an alcohol free version, sub apple juice for the brandy. If preferred, use cognac in place of brandy.

Pear can be substituted for apple.

Substitute sultanas (golden raisins) or craisins for the raisins and currants.

Pecans can be used in place of the walnuts.

For a vegan version, use a good vegan butter, like Miyoko’s.

More Christmas Classics

Cranberry Marzipan Stollen
Chewy Vegan Ginger Cookies
Maple Butter Tarts
Cinnamon Sugar Cookies
Stamped Brown Sugar Shortbread Cookies

If you make this recipe, let us know by tagging @baked_theblog + #bakedtheblog on Instagram! We love to feel like we’re in the kitchen with you.