“Harriet Beecher Stowe recalls the enthusiasm with which she and her siblings helped make mincemeat for Thanksgiving: ‘We were willing helpers in all the preparations—the chopping of meat and apples, and the picking over of currants and raisins for the mincemeat pies.’” (1)
Theoretically, mincemeat should be one of the best recipes to make with children. They can inhale the scent of all the spices; stir the cider and brown sugar into the dark, glistening dried fruit; sample the raisins; (and, if they are a very fresh tween, attempt to sample the brandy).
On Halloween, (because, bizarrely, we had a snow day and trick-or-treating had been postponed), I embarked on a mincemeat marathon with my 9-year-old daughter, who is a very enthusiastic cook, in the hope that I might convert her from a mincemeat doubter to a mincemeat believer.
Things did not start off well: she was in a bad mood because she wouldn’t get to wear her Medusa costume that night. But I set things up like an episode of “Chopped” (Food Network); we each had our stations—one on each end of the table—and we commenced. . . .
(Interval of 30 minutes passes]
. . . . I am alone at the table, spooning prepared mincemeat into freezer bags. My daughter is in her room, reading a Percy Jackson book with her door closed. You fill in the rest.
In the event you are more successful at convincing one of your children to make mincemeat with you, here are some lovely traditions you can start (2):
· Decorate the top of the pie with a star to represent the Star of Bethlehem.
· Stir the mincemeat mixture in a clockwise direction; counterclockwise brings bad luck in the coming year.
· Make a wish on the first mince pie of the season.
· Make your pies cradle-shaped for the Christ child, as they were originally made.
· If you bake small pies, eat one mince pie on each of the twelve days of Christmas—it’s considered lucky.
Sources
1 Hopley, Claire. 2002. “Mincemeat.” Early American Life, December. 56-60.
