Heritage Recipe: A Delicate Chewit

Try your hand at this forerunner to the Christmas Mine Pie

This historic recipe for a Delicate Chewit is the forerunner to what has become the modern Christmas mince pie, which is stuffed with dried fruit, bearing no real connection to it's meaty name. This one uses a mixture of meat and dried fruit popular in many historical British recipes. It's been adapted from A New Booke of Cookery, 1615, by Karen at CAVLP Heritage, as part of an exploration of fruity and foodie history of the Clyde and Avon Valley. Why not give it a go?

Ingredients

300g minced veal / pork,   precooked and cooled

150g beef suet

60g bone marrow

1 large apple or 2 medium pears

300g dried fruit - mixed currants, raisins, sultanas

150g chopped dates

2tbsp mixed peel

50g brown sugar

1 tbsp nutmeg / mace

1.5 tbsp brandy / spiced rum / rosewater / apple juice

2 sheets shortcrust pastry

1 egg, beaten

White sugar for dusting pie

 

Method

1. Soak dried fruit in warm water or a splash of brandy / rum / rosewater / apple juice, until plump

2. Peel, core and chop apples / pears, then drain the dried fruit

3. Mix the meat, beef suet, fruit, dried fruit, half of the marrow, mixed peel, sugar and spices

4. Line a pie dish with pastry. Spoon in the mixture and dot the remaining marrow over the top

5. Sprinkle the pie filling with the brandy / rum / juice

6. Close pie with remaining pastry, brush lid with egg and 

dust with white sugar. Use a pie bird or cut holes to let out steam

7. Bake at 200^oC for 35 minutes until the crust is golden and fruit cooked through. Serve hot with cream or brandy butter. Enjoy!

 

Got a taste for more?

Additional historical recipes will be published soon in the Clyde Valley Apple Cookbook, available online on this website soon.

If you have family recipes you’d like to contribute, contact Karen at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / 01555 661 555.