In William Shakespeare’s time people enjoyed mince pies, but they had far more significance than they do today. Mince pies then had thirteen ingredients to represent Jesus and his Apostles. They contained fruit (including raisins, prunes, currants) and spices (including black pepper, cinnamon, saffron, mace, cloves) and also mutton to represent the shepherds in the nativity story. The fashion was for them to be shaped like a crib.
Mince Pie Recipe: 1604
From Hilary Spurling, ed. Elinor Fettisplace’s Recipe Book (Penguin 1986). Reproduced as it was originally written.
Parboile your mutton, then take as much suet as meat, and mince it both small, then put mace and nutmeg and cinnamon and sugar and oringes peels, and currance and great reaisins and a little rosewater, put all these to the meat, beat your spice and oringe peels very small, and mingle your fruit and spice all together with the meat, and so bake it (in pastry) put as much currance as meat and twice so much sugar as salt, put some ginger into it, let the suet bee beef suet, for it is much better than mutton suet.
Today, mince pies are most often enjoyed as a sweet treat, rather than a savoury snack. You might prefer to stick to a modern interpretation of this dish.
Mince Pie Recipe: Present Day
Filling:
125g
currants
125g raisins
125g
sultanas
60g dates
60g candied
peel
60g flaked
almonds
1 banana
(mashed)
4tbsp brandy
½ tsp ground
ginger
½ tsp ground
nutmeg
½ tsp mixed
spice
Shortcut
pastry:
125g plain
flour
Pinch of
salt
55g butter
(cold and cubed)
30-45ml cold
water
Method:
- Put the
flour and salt into a large bowl and add the cubed butter.
- Use your
fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse
breadcrumbs.
- Using a
knife, stir in just enough of the cold water to bind the dough together.
- Wrap the
dough in cling film and chill for 10-15 minutes before using.
- Combine all
of the filling ingredients in a separate bowl.
- Once
chilled, roll out the pastry and cut into circles using a pastry cutter.
- Place a
circle into each space in a cupcake baking tray, pressing it down to line the
base.
- Put a
spoonful of filling into each case and place another pastry circle on top.
- Bake for 10
minutes at 20 degrees Celsius, or gas mark 6.
You might like to try your hand at both recipes and let us know which you think is tastiest!
This recipe comes from one of the hundreds of activities that we've developed for primary school children as part of our annual Shakespeare Week celebrations. Families and schools across the UK can sign-up for free to access resources like this one, helping to bring Shakespeare to life across the whole curriculum.
> Visit our Shakespeare Week website to find out more.
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