It might still be two months to go till Christmas, but getting an early start on a few things will make the festive period that much more relaxing. So why not make mince meat this weekend?
The secret is to make it well in advance to give it time to mature – make now and enjoy in home made mince pies or wam over vanilla ice-cream. We are making a fairly traditional mincemeat, with a Caribbean twist.
Fun fact: even though, mince meat contains dried fruit, spices, spirits and shortening (meat or vegetarian) nowadays, originally it would have been made with real meat.

You will need:
1 Bramley apple
120g unsalted butter, cubed
Juice and zest from 1 lemon and orange
1 tabelspoon of mixed spice
1 teaspoon of of ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
220g muscavado sugar
50g roughly chopped pecans
100g mixed candied peel
180g dried cranberries
170g sultanas
170g raisisns
170g currants
50g desiccated coconut
200ml spiced dark rum

Cube the apple into roughly 0.5mm cubes (don’t bother peeling)
Combine all the ingredients (apart from the rum) in a sauce pan and bring to a
simmer until the butter and sugar have completely melted and dissolved (about
10 minutes)
Make sure you stir the mixture occasionally to avoid it burning to the bottom of
the pan
Leave to cool, pour in the rum and stir
Spoon into sterilised jars and keep in a cool place until needed