I will just see my people aboard,’ said Jack… When he reached the cabin, Captain Lambert was calling for ‘a glass of brandy, there, and mince pies; but only small ones, d’ye hear me, only small ones,’ … ‘What did he mean by mince pies? … Mince pies. Why, of course: it must be Christmas in a day or two.
- The Far Side of the World, By Patrick O’Brian
In their book Lobscouse and Spotted Dog: Which It’s a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels, authors Anne Chotzinoff Grossman and Lisa Grossman Thomas take a look at what culinary life was like aboard one of His Majesty’s ships during the Nepoleonic wars. Patrick O’Brian’s hero Jack Aubry provides the context, but it is clear that Jane Austen’s brothers, both Naval captains, would have shared a similar table.
O’Brian’s meticulously researched books relate: There was a very old naval traditon that required a captian to give his guests a meal unlike that which they would eat in the gunroom, thus making his entertainment something of a holiday, at least in respect of food. Even in very long voyages, when private stores were no more than memories and all hands were down to ship’s provisions, the captain’s cook would make great effort to prepare the salt horse, dog’s-body and hard tack rather differently from the gunroom cook; and Jack Aubrey, a Tory, a man who like old ways and old wine, one of the comparitively few officers of his seniority who still wore his hair long, clubbed at the back of his neck, and his cocked hat athwarships in the Nelson manner rather than fore and aft, was the last to fly in the face of tradition.
- The Far Side of the World
Though provided with some difficulty in obtaing a few of the more colorful dishes mentioned in the books (salted penguins, and porpoises “rather strangely jointed by the ship’s butcher,” which “were served out for Christmas dinner and declared better, far better, than roast pork” in The Yellow Admiral) The authors have put together recipes for a rather traditional Christmas dinner consisting of Goose, Roast Pork, Ship’s Biscuits, Rum-Punch, Christmas Pudding, and of course, Mince Pie. The following information has been copied from the book’s website.
Mince pies are indelibly associated with Christmas. Indeed, until the mid-17th Century, they were known exclusively as Christmas Pies—they were usually rectangular, to represent the cradle of Jesus, and the dried fruits and spices were supposed to symbolize the Gifts of the Magi. The Christmas Pie of Little Jack Horner was a mince pie, though in his case it contained something more than meat and fruit. Sir John Horner was responsible for the delivery of a Christmas Pie to Henry VIII; and the plum he pulled out was the deed to a piece of confiscated church property—one of several hidden beneath the crust.
Under Puritan rule, Christmas Pies were briefly outlawed as emblems of Popery, but they resurfaced shortly afterward in less controversial guise, as Mince or Shrid (Shred) Pies. Under any name, they represent a very old tradition—the practice of preserving meat by combining it with dried fruits, spices, sugars, and alcohol dates back at least as far as medieval times, and may even have originated in ancient Rome.
Today, alas, mincemeat has lost something in translation—too often it is neither minced nor meat—but in Aubrey’s time it was still faithful to its roots.
[Note: the two pastry recipes mentioned below appear elsewhere in Lobscouse and Spotted Dog and are not reproduced here to save space—but you can substitute any good short pie crust and/or any puff paste.]
Mince Pies
2 recipes (1 pound) Short Pastry
1/2 recipe (1/2 pound) Puff Paste
1 quart Mincemeat (see below)
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- On a lightly floured board, with a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out the short pastry until it is about 1/8-inch thick. Cut the sheet of pastry into 4 circles big enough to line 4 small pie dishes (the ones we use are 4 1/2 inches in diameter).
- Fill the pies with mincemeat.
- Re-flour the board and rolling pin, and roll out the puff paste until it is 1/8-inch thick. Cut 4 circles slightly larger than the pie dishes. Cut a small hole in the center of each, and place them on the pies. Crimp the edges together.
- Bake 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.
- Makes 4 small pies.
Mincemeat
3 pounds shin of beef
1 pound suet, grated
1/2 pound currants
1/4 pound raisins
1/4 pound sultanas
1/2 cup candied orange peel, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup candied citron, coarsely chopped
1 pound tart apples, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped (about 3 cups)
juice and coarsely chopped zest of 1 lemon
juice and coarsely chopped zest of 1 Seville orange
2 tablespoons grated ginger
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon mace
1 teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoons nutmeg
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cider
1/2 cup brandy
1/2 cup red wine
- Put the beef in a pot with water to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, covered, 2 hours, or until the meat is tender enough to fall off the bone.
- Take the meat out of the pot (you may want to season and save the stock, as we do, for future use). When it is cool enough to handle, remove and discard the bones, fat and gristle. You should have about 1 pound of meat.
- Shred or coarsely chop the meat, and mix it thoroughly with all the other ingredients. Put the mincemeat in a sealed container and set it to ripen in a cool dark place. It will be ready for use after about 2 weeks… or it can be refrigerated for several months (ours has been aging for about a year now, and it gets a little more interesting every day).
- Makes about 3 quarts.
Paperback: 336 pages Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company; New Ed edition ISBN:0393320944 List Price:$18.95
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