Countdown: Thanksgiving Pie #9

Wacky Wednesday
The story for today's pie recipe involves this pressure canner. One day the next recipe on the list to try was for mincemeat, and it made enough so that you were supposed to can it. Because we only had a water-bath canner at the time, and not a pressure canner, we borrowed one from a friend. We prepared the jars of mincemeat and stuck them in the pot to process. Half-way through the 90 minute processing time it started smelling awful, but we were following the directions, so didn't worry too much about it. After all, we'd never made this before and weren't exactly sure how it was supposed to smell. The timer dinged and we took the pot off the stove. It looked a little funny, but we didn't think too much of it. When the pressure abated, we removed the lid and discovered a charred mess. The jars were okay, but all the water in the pan had evaporated. Apparently, you supposed to add more than the recommended amount of water when you're processing for more than a normal amount of time. Since there was no way we could in good conscience return the borrowed pot, we bought our friends a new one. With a lot of elbow grease, and probably some hammering, the warped pan became usable. However, it will probably never can mincemeat again.

For those of you who are interested in experiencing this yourselves, I found a recipe for you. But Mincemeat Pie will not be gracing our Thanksgiving table.

Mincemeat

4 lb. beef or venison

2 lb. seedless raisins

15-oz. box light raisins

1 Tbsp. salt

1 Tbsp. cinnamon

1 Tbsp. ground ginger

1 Tbsp. cloves

1 Tbsp. nutmeg

1 12-oz. box currants

3/4 lb. beef suet

3 lb. apples, peeled and quartered

1 tsp. allspice

1 tsp. mace (optional)

2 qt. cider, grape juice, or other fruit juice

1 lb. brown sugar

Trim fat from meat. Cover with water. Simmer until meat is tender. Refrigerate in cooking liquid and allow to cool overnight. Remove all fat from top of liquid. Separate meat from bones and put meat through grinder, using a coarse blade. (There should be enough to make at least 2 quarts of ground meat.) Grind suet and apples. Combine all ingredients in a large kettle. Simmer for 2 hours to plump fruit and blend flavors. Stir often to prevent sticking. Use "as is" for cookie recipes. Add 1 c. apple for every 2 c. of mincemeat for pie

Preserving: Mincemeat can be frozen or canned. Process pints or quarts of mincemeat for canning for 90 minutes at 10 pounds pressure (240 degrees) in a weighted gauge canner or 11 pounds pressure in a dial gauge canner. Adjustments in pressure need to be made at altitudes above 1,000 feet.