My kids and I have been going a bit nuts with making pies. We have made two sets of pumpkin pies (one sugar pumpkin baked, makes three and we've done that twice). We have made two apple pies and we are planning on another couple this weekend. I even made a rhubarb pie: the kids didn't care for that though, but its an old family recipe.
However, I decided to take a crack at mince meat pie. I used to make it from a jar when I was a teen and loved it. My first wife's aunt used to make an incredible faux mince meat pie from green tomatoes. Our first thanksgiving, I ate a pie and a half, stunning them. It was really good!
I hadn't made a mince meat from scratch, so I set out to do so. I decided I wanted to try a hybrid of mock mince meat pie and mince meat: some meat, but not with all that gawdawful fat. I was mildly surprised how difficult it was to find beef neck around here. Then again, I am time pressed doing superdad duty, so I settled on oxtail.
I boiled the oxtail for 8 hours to make extremely tender. I separated the meat, shredded it and tossed the bones. I mixed in sugar, dried cranberry, raisins, one green apple and some cranberry sauce. I spiced it with cloves, cinnamon, and ginger. I let the filling sit overnight. It baked for an hour and came out quite well.
My kids hate it.
Ah well, mince meat was always a niche pie and I think my mother and I were the only ones to really like it back home. And me more than her.
Next time I'll slice up the oxtail. While its good, its a bit stringy as it is. And I'll take a week to eat this at least.
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