Perfect Mince Pies | Fruit Recipes | Jamie Oliver Recipes (2024)

FAQs

Who's making the best mince pies this year? ›

Traditions, folklore and superstitions

Stirring the mincemeat was quite an event, and English tradition dictates that it should only be stirred clockwise. Stirring the mincemeat anti-clockwise would lead to bad luck and poor fortune in the coming 12 months.

Heat a pile of mincemeat in a pan with sugar, orange and lemon juice, orange peel, half a cinnamon stick and brandy, wait for it to thicken and then stir in some whipping cream.

A mince pie (also mincemeat pie in North America, and fruit mince pie in Australia and New Zealand) is a sweet pie of English origin filled with mincemeat, being a mixture of fruit, spices and suet. The pies are traditionally served during the Christmas season in much of the English-speaking world.

Apple Pie. Apple pie is arguably one of the most popular pie flavors. A symbol of America, the apple pie was actually invented by the British. Apple pie is simply made with sliced apples on double-crusted pastry dough.

Best Buy recommendation and wowing the panel with their buttery pastry and sweet glossy filling. At £2.75 for six, or 46p per pie, the panel also noted a generous filling-to-pastry ratio. Following closely behind, Tesco Finest Mince Pies also earned a Best Buy award.

It has been claimed that eating the snack is illegal in England if done so on Christmas Day. The tradition comes from the time of Oliver Cromwell in the 1650s, when mince pies were banned at Christmas, along with other tasty treats.

Going on to how one should formally eat a mince pie, she explains: 'One would pick up the mince pie with a thumb and first finger, and lift [it] away from the plate. 'The mince pie is crumbly, so make sure anything that falls from the mince pie falls onto your plate.

A pie full of spices and meat appears in 1390 in A Forme of Cury, an English cookbook originally written on a scroll, under the name “tartes of flesh”. To make these morsels, cooks were instructed to grind up pork, hard-boiled eggs, and cheese, before mixing them with spices, saffron, and sugar.

Start by tasting it, then add extra flavours that suit: nearly always add a little freshly grated lemon or orange zest, extra spice, extra brandy or rum and some cherries or nuts.

How do you make store bought mincemeat better? ›

Store-bought mincemeat can contain alcohol, and if it doesn't, here's my tip: add some. It will kick your mince pies up to the next level. Rum or brandy go especially well with the other ingredients.

Mincemeat over time does deepen in colour but the bitter taste may be that you pressed too hard when the citrus zests were grated!

Mince meat pie was given many names including “shred pie,” “mutton pie,” and “Christmas pye,” and was particularly loved in England.

In American English, "mincemeat" is a sweet pie filling (I think it's mince pie in BrE) which originally contained some meat but in modern times it is generally made mostly of apples and raisins.

Aldi Holly Lane Deep-filled Mince Pies 6 Pack

The mincemeat has a forgettable flavour and is unevenly filled but the pastry is worse as it is hard and claggy. Aldi's mince pies may be cheap but they are far from memorable and among the worst in this test.

The Kirkland signature mince pies from Costco. For me and my family these are some of the best mince pies you can buy, and the festive season does not start for us until we get a huge 12 pack of these incredible little cakey pie things.