 Once
upon a time,
when sugar was a rare and expensive spice and meat was wild and growing
abundantly, mincemeat was a way to use up leftover bits of meat by
adding small amounts of sugar to it to serve it as a sweet dessert.
Although modern day mincemeat is made of dried fruits, spices and
sugar, old-fashioned mincemeat really was minced meat. Over time, the
meat was eliminated and only fruit was used, but
you can still make a nourishing mincemeat with meat and animal fat.
Mainstream
mincemeat is usually made with cooked meat and fat and is canned. I do
not recommend canning. This recipe is a raw, lacto-fermented mincemeat
that includes a small amount of raw meat. It's a good way to get raw
meat into your diet. Eat a spoonful of it as the mincemeat condiment
along with a meal.
Mincemeat
 Things
To Make
Ahead
of Time:
When
pickled lemon peels are ready (should look mushy and fuzzy through the
jar, and the surrounding liquid begins to look a little cloudy),
make lacto-fermented salsa of tomatoes and peppers
Chop up some pickled lemon peels and mix them with the salsa to make chutney. Add any pieces of over-ripe fruit you have.
Also
popular in mincemeat is pickled watermelon rind. You need a jar that
you made in the summer. To make pickled watermelon rind, eat the red
part of the watermelon and then cut or peel away the outer green skin.
The white pulp between the edible red flesh and the inedible green skin
is the part to pickle. Cut it up into chunks, cover with brine (salt
water in a proportion of 1 teaspoon of salt to 1 pint of water) and
push it down under the brine and let it sit for a couple months, or
until the apples start to fall, which is mincemeat making season..
To Make Mincemeat
Take
a tablespoon-sized piece of meat scrap and run it through a blender or
meat grinder. Take the various pickles cited about, mix a cup (in
total) of them together. You can also use some finely chopped,
un-pickled apples and some raisins if you have them. Amounts of each
ingredient can vary to taste
and what you have on hand. Stir
in a pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Mix together, put in a jar
and keep in the fridge. Have a spoonful with a meal as a condiment.
|
:
Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar,
Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation by The Gardeners and
Farmers of Centre Terre Vivante.
by Mike
and Nancy Bubel. An excellent book on storage of
fruits and vegetables.
