Mincemeat

Mincemeat is a mixture of chopped apples and dried fruit, distilled spirits or vinegar, spices, and optionally, meat and beef suet.

The "mince" in mincemeat comes from the Middle English mincen, and the Old French mincier both traceable to the Vulgar Latin minutiare, meaning chop finely.

These early recipes included vinegars and wines, but by the 18th century, distilled spirits, frequently brandy, were often substituted.

The use of spices like clove, nutmeg, mace and cinnamon was common in late medieval and renaissance meat dishes.

of candied orange-peel, 1 small nutmeg, 1 pottle of apples, the rind of 2 lemons, the juice of 1, 1⁄2 pint of brandy.

Mode — Stone and cut the raisins once or twice across, but do not chop them; wash, dry, and pick the currants free from stalks and grit, and mince the beef and suet, taking care the latter is chopped very fine; slice the citron and candied peel, grate the nutmeg, and pare, core, and mince the apples; mince the lemon-peel, strain the juice, and when all the ingredients are thus prepared, mix them well together, adding the brandy when the other things are well blended; press the whole into a jar, carefully exclude the air, and the mincemeat will be ready for use in a fortnight.

Some recipes continue to include venison, minced beef sirloin or minced heart,[citation needed] along with dried fruit, spices, chopped apple, fresh citrus peel, Zante currants, candied fruits, citron, and brandy, rum, or other liquor.

Mincemeat is aged to deepen flavours, with alcohol changing the overall texture of the mixture by breaking down the meat proteins.