MIncemeat

Thanks to my daughter and her newly acquired relatives, I have people to share a mincemeat pie with. Actually for Thanksgiving I'm going to make some mini mincemeat pies to share. Christmas, I'll bake a couple of normal size pies and give one away. I'm excited. It's been so long since I've found someone to enjoy this holiday dessert with. My hubster can't stand the stuff. I grew up with it and it screams "Christmas!"
Been looking for a pie plate to give away the Christmas pie. Thrift shops here I come! Making up the mixture is fun. I've already collected suet and froze it just for this occasion.
I'm going to share a very old recipe supposedly dating back to Martha Washington and it's been modified to fit more modern times. If anyone has some family recipe they just adore, please share it with me. I love this but am always willing to try others. This comes the closest to what my mother and grandmother made and what I'm used to.
Here's mine: I've substituted dries cranberries for raisins.

• 1/2 lb beef
• 1/2 lb suet
• 1/4 lb citron
• 3/4 lb candied peel
• 1 lb apple
• 1 lemon
• 1 orange
• 1/2 lb sugar
• 1/2 lb currants
• 1 lb raisins (cranberries)
• 1 tablespoon nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground cloves (I don't like cloves--allspice)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup brandy (AppleJack brandy)
• 1 cup rum
• additional brandy or rum (optional)

1. Put meat, suet, citron, peel, peeled and cored apples, lemon and orange through the meat grinder. Food processor works just fine here.
2. Mix throughly with sugar, currants. rasins, spices, salt, brandy and sherry.
3. Pack into quart jars and process or freeze.
4. Every few months add a couple of tablespoons brandy, sherry or rum if the mix looks dry. 
5. Adding additional apples, sliced to the pie is always encouraged. You need more than a quart to fill a pie plate. Additional brandy or rum is slightly encouraged. After all, you must save some for you, the cook. No one else matters, just you! :)
6. If I had a picture of a luscious mincemeat pit, I'd put one here. But, dang, I'm just about to make the filling and it has to sit a few weeks, you know, to absorb the brandy and rum!