Mince pies - anyone else confused?

Funny story - when I was just knee-high to a grass hopper, one of my grandmothers was notorious for messing with my head, and generally just being a crusty ol' lady. Both of my grandmothers were responsible for making the dessert pies for Christmas. One time I was milling about in the kitchen when grandma was making a pie, which she was none too happy about. And at one point I mentioned that 'mince meat' pie was my favorite. Well, that happened to be the pie she was making. So, she turned to me and asked me if I knew what they were made of. Of course I had no idea, so I asked her what they were made from.

She told me..."MONKEY MEAT!"... and then she told me to scram.

I never touched a mince pie after that...which made her quite happy and smug.

Fast forward about 15 years (about 20 at the time), my grandmother had long since passed. Mom was making pies for Christmas and asked what kind we wanted. My vote was basically for anything BUT mince pie. Mom asked why. I told her because I didn't like eating monkeys!! Mom was like...."Wait, WHAT??"

I explained that mince pies were made from "monkey meat" and that's why I never liked them!

She said "Where in the heck did you ever hear THAT????"

So I explained I'd heard it from grandma when I was just a little kid, and that was all I needed to hear, so I never looked into if further.

She busted out roaring laughing! Then, in between snorts of laughter, she explained what they were really made of.

Every Christmas after that until Mom passed I always ate mince pie, and she always had a ball telling the family and any guests the story of the great 'Monkey Meat Pie' conspiracy.

DBL

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Oh my Hat!

Reminds of one of the books (a classic in anti-cult literature) called "Monkey on a Stick".

www.goodreads.com...

originally posted by: paraphi
a reply to: SeaWorthy

That's a vegetarian recipe as it has no suet.

This is not veggie, and sounds nice... It's more traditional.

250g raisin
375g currant
100ml brandy
zest of 1 lemon
juice of ½ lemon
300g shredded suet
250g dark brown sugar
85g chopped mixed peel
½ small nutmeg grated
1 large Bramley apple peeled and grated

Mmmmmmmmm Rendered suet
Well call it animal Fat!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

She busted out roaring laughing! Then, in between snorts of laughter, she explained what they were really made of.

Wow nice Granny ruined it for the kid for all those years.

Mince pies are an ancient recipe, made from the dried or fermented fruits of the harvest and to celebrate the solstice. Originally, they did contain meat, usually dried or preserved, often pemmican

en.wikipedia.org...

. This recipe survived until Tudor times when commoners were prohibited from hunting wild animals and it was only farmers or the wealthy who still used meat in the pies. Everybody else just used the cheaper suet element.

Nowadays, many brands of ready made mince pie filling (or bought pies) still contain suet but processing means it has already been cooked into the mix and no longer visible.

Left over mince pies make good ice-cream. Just bash up the pies, fold into softened vanilla ice-cream and refreeze. Same can be done with left over Christmas pud, which being an old fashioned boiled pudding, also contains suet.

Another old English sweet delight that contains animal fat, dried fruit and spices is the Lardy cake.

en.wikipedia.org...

.

These high calorie foods were essential for maintaining weight and health through the winter months. All proper survival foods.

a reply to: teapot

These high calorie foods were essential for maintaining weight and health through the winter months. All proper survival foods.

Make sense basically the poor using what they could.

a reply to: MerkabaTribeEntity

Hey ... I like Christmas pudding. I even make it on occasion even as an American.

Love a mince pie.

mmmm