Mincemeat for Pies

Ingredients

• 1 quart calves or hogs' feet, boiled tender and forced through colander
• 1 quart chopped apples
• 1 quart currants
• 1 quart raisins, stoned and cut
• 1 quart good brown sugar
• 1 quart suet, chopped
• 1 quart cider
• 1 pint brandy
• 1 teaspoon mace, pounded
• 1 teaspoon cloves, pounded
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg, pounded
• 1 teaspoon black pepper, pounded
• 1 teaspoon salt
• citron, sliced thin
• paste

Instructions

1. Boil either calves or hogs' feet till perfectly tender and rub them through a colander.
2. When cold, pass them through again, and it will come out like pearl barley.
3. Take one quart of this, one of chopped apples, the same of currants washed and picked, the same of raisins stoned and cut, of good brown sugar, of suet nicely chopped, and of cider, with a pint of brandy.
4. Add a tea-spoonful of pounded mace, one of cloves and of nutmegs.
5. Mix all these together intimately.
6. When the pies are to be made, take out as much of this mixture as may be necessary. To each quart of it, add a tea-spoonful of pounded black pepper and one of salt; this greatly improves the flavour, and can be better mixed with a small portion than with the whole mass.
7. Cover the moulds with paste, put in a sufficiency of mince-meat, cover the top with citron sliced thin, and lay on it a lid garnished around with paste cut in fanciful shapes.
8. They may be eaten either hot or cold, but are best when hot.