The evolution of the mince pie which we all know and love began its journey as something quite different many years ago.

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Most of us have not heard that the sweet treat we enjoy at Christmas, and use to fatten up Santa, was not always in its fruitful form which we know of today. In fact, the pies were originally filled with mutton, similar to mincemeat.  

 

Meaty mince pies date back to The Crusades, due to an abundance of different culinary condiments being brought back from the Middle East.

 

During Christmas in the medieval times, the pies would have been decoratively studded with the best quality dried fruit. The pies were not round at this time, and were in the shape of a rectangle, due to their shape they were named ‘coffins’. A slightly negative label for the pie, but coffin merely meant ‘box’ throughout these years. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the Restoration period in England which ended in the late sixteen-hundreds, the mince pie changed its ‘coffin’ like shape to the circle-shape that is more familiar with today’s recipe.

 

Its most popular time of consumption was through the seventeen-century when the pies contained minced cooked mutton, beef suet, currants and raisins. Ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon were added to give more flavour, as well as sometimes salt and a pinch of sugar.

 

The next century saw the distribution of cheap sugar from the slave plantations in the West Indies, leading to it becoming far more widespread. This meant that the mince pie started going through some changes. The filling was shaken up, and meat became optional. Instead, modest amounts of sugar, along with cooking apples, suet and dried fruit became the rival filling. The pies had become more suitable for tea time, unlike their savoury sisters.

 

The popularity surrounding the ‘meatier side of mince pies’ was a distant memory by the nineteenth-century. The pies were more similar to the ones we now recognise and very few recipes used beef suet for extra flavour, to boost the pies juiciness. Most recipes dropped the meat completely.

 

For the Food for Thought team, the old recipe proved something of a delight many years on in the twenty-first century. Perhaps it’s time the meaty mince pie made its comeback.