Newcastle University archivists have unearthed an unusual festive recipe you might like to try on your family this year – depending how much you love them.
It comes from the recipe collection of Jane Blenkinsopp Coulson, heiress to Northumberland ‘s manor of Blenkinsopp near Haltwhistle.
Almost 300 years ago, she married and moved to Jesmond, Newcastle , as the wife of William Coulson – whose descendants founded Newcastle Dog & Cat Shelter – and recorded her favourite family recipes.
Here is her mince pie recipe full of suet, apple, currants, cinammon and nutmeg – oh, and a cow’s tongue! Mince pies were a sweet and savoury dish all in one back in 1733.
Minced Pyes
- Take a neat’s tongue and boil it till the skin come off, and to every pound of meat put to one pound and a half of suet
- Shred your tongue small and skin your suet and shred it small then mix them together and shred them again very small then season them with a little salt, pepper, good store of cinnamon and nutmeg, a little cloves and mace
- To every pound of meat put to it one pound and a half of currants, then put in half a pound of lemon peel, orange and citron cut grossly
- Sweeten it with sugar and lastly put a little cinnamon on water, a little sack and a little rose water
- Shred some Pippins in among them and a little verjuyce.
Notes:
Neat: Archaic regional term for a bovine animal – an ox, bullock, cow or heifer.
Grossly: Coarsely
Sack: A class of white wines formerly imported from Spain and the Canaries.
Pippins: Apples.
Verjuice: The acidic juice of pressed green or unripe grapes, crab-apples, or other sour fruit.
Source: Newcastle heiress’s 300-year-old mince pie recipe has a surprise ingredient – Chronicle Live