A Spoonful of Sugar

By popular demand, here is the recipe for the best mincemeat in the world: Hettie Potter's Suet-free Mincemeat from Nigella Lawson's How To Be A Domestic Goddess.

I have no objection to suet in mincemeat, but I have yet to find a recipe for Proper Mincemeat that rivals this one for sheer succulence and moistness after baking. The suet is supposed to provide this, but whenever I forsake this recipe and try one with suet I am always disappointed with the dry, chewy fruit that inevitably results. So, I remain faithful to the lovely Hettie Potter and her mincemeat.

Incidentally, Hettie Potter is Nigella's right hand woman (or Home Economist, if you want to be formal about it.) She's from Devon, which might well be the explanation for the apple base to the mincemeat recipe--they do love their apples and cider down there.

This isn't a hard or time-consuming recipe. In fact, the hardest thing about this recipe is peeling and chopping the apples. (Yes, I still loathe peeling apples.) Other than that, it's very quick and easy to assemble. For best results use the undyed glace cherries. Not only do they taste better, but you'll cut out a bunch of E-numbers.

Nuts in mincemeat are a personal choice in my opinion, so I always leave them out and just add a mixture of extra fruit. (I do exactly the same with fruit cakes, although I do happily use ground almonds for additional moistness. I suspect it's the crunch factor I don't like.)

Whilst it cooks, the house fills with the most amazing spicy-sweet aromas and it's very hard to resist sneaking a spoonful (or two) from the pan. Once cooked, and cooled sufficiently to avoid third-degree burns, the mincemeat tastes fabulous and full-flavoured straight from the pan immediately after cooking, and gets better and better with age--much like Judi Dench or Sean Connery. The mincemeat pictured above is probably about three--maybe four--years old, and it's still absolutely fine to eat. I can tell that there's been additional fermentation--which will probably horrify food safety people--but there's sufficient booze in there to keep everything safe. Besides which, the extra alcohol just makes it taste even better!