Pie of the Week: Making the World Safe for Mincemeat!

This pie is wonderful because it can be slightly different every time I make it. It started out in the 1980's with a recipe I made up on the fly -with shredded apples, pears, and oranges, dark raisins, and a mixture of clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice (which is also very good).

But this Pie of the Week is a little different. I wanted to try a new kind of mincemeat filling that comes condensed into a 2-by-2.5-inch brick. I found this in the holiday cooking section of the grocery store. I thought it would be equivalent to the Crosse & Blackwell product in the big glass jar. Here at Sac Pie we are always experimenting and striving for maximum pie happiness.

Package instructions call for reconstituting the sticky brick of mince filling with hot water, and that doing so would create enough filling for an 8-inch pie. When it was all re-hydrated, though, it was not enough for a respectable 8-inch pie. The liquid was also a little too thin. So I peeled and chopped 2 MacIntosh apples and mixed them in with the store-bought filling.

The result was a spicy, chunky filling, pleasantly moist but not runny or gooey. A little bit sweet and agreeably tart.

A lot of people I tell about this pie will wrinkle their noses when they hear or read "mincemeat." As if I were pushing Grandma's fruitcake or bread pudding. But if you like those Thanksgiving spices and apples, raisins, and citrus, mincemeat pie is delicious and feels rich and decadent without being at all heavy. And please note, packaged "mincemeat" filling sold in the U.S. does not contain any animal products.

Try it! You might be surprised how much you like it.