Mid-November is the perfect time for making preserves so that they have time to mature and develop full flavour by Christmas. I like this Slow Cooker Orange Mincemeat so much that I always use it now to make my Christmas mince pies.

I came up with this Slow Cooker Orange Mincemeat recipe in the first place because I had forgotten to buy lemons. It uses all oranges – many recipes use both oranges and lemons – which is also why I also prefer to use Cointreau, an orange flavoured liqueur, instead of the more traditional brandy or rum.

What is Mincemeat?

Mincemeat nowadays is a mixture of dried fruits such as raisins, sultanas and currants, candied mixed peel, a spirit such as brandy or rum and either beef suet or a vegetable suet alternative.

I like to use beef suet in my mincemeat but you can of course use vegetable suet (although I have found it very hard to find a vegetable suet free of palm oil). It would be interesting to try butter instead of vegetable suet so look out for a possible variation in the future. If you fancy trying butter yourself please do let me know how it turns out in the comments.

How to make Mincemeat

You will need to make the mincemeat in two separate stages:

1. All the ingredients apart from the Cointreau are mixed together in a bowl and left for at least 12 hours to let the flavours develop and mingle.
2. After this time add the mincemeat to a slow cooker for at least two hours or until the suet has melted into the mincemeat. Then spoon in the Cointreau, mix well, and when cool spoon into sterilised jars.

Equipment you will need

I used a 3 litre slow cooker to make this mincemeat, but any 3 or 3.5 litre one will be fine such as the Russell Hobbs 3.5 litre slow cooker and if you want to double the recipe or just make more you could consider the Quest 5 litre or the Tower 6.5 litre model.

Ingredients you will need to make Slow Cooker Orange Mincemeat

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• 1 pound / 450 grams cooking apples (such as Bramleys)
• 8 ounces / 225 grams shredded suet (beef or vegetable)
• 8 ounces / 225 grams raisins
• 8 ounces / 225 grams currants
• 8 ounces / 225 grams sultanas
• 8 ounces / 225 grams mixed candied peel
• 8 ounces soft dark brown sugar
• 4 oranges zest and juice
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground all spice
• 1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 4 tablespoons Cointreau (or brandy or rum)

Directions

1. Core your apples and cut into small pieces. No need to peel.
2. Put the apples into a large bowl with the dried fruit (raisins, currants and sultanas), suet and sugar and mixed peel.

3. Add the spices, orange zest and juice.
4. Stir well.
5. Cover and leave in a cool place for at least 12 hours for the flavours to develop and mingle.
6. Now stir the mixture again and transfer the contents of the bowl to your slow cooker and cook on low for about 2 hours until the suet has melted and coated all the fruit. This will improve the keeping qualities of the mincemeat by helping to prevent any fermentation.

7. Spoon in the Cointreau (or brandy or rum) and stir well. This also helps to preserve the mincemeat.
8. When cool spoon into sterilised jam jars. You should be able to fill 5 one pound jars.

9. Each jar of mincemeat should be enough for 12 mince pies so this quantity of mincemeat should make about 60 mince pies.
10. Store your mincemeat in a cool place until Christmas or at least a few weeks before using. It will keep for up to a year but in my house it is usually used up by Twelfth Night.

Slow Cooker Orange Mincemeat

Recipe by Scones Plus More Course: PuddingCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy

Servings

5

One Pound Jars

Prep time

12

hours 

30

minutes

Cooking time

2

hours 

Ingredients

• 1 pound / 450 grams cooking apples (such as Bramleys)

• 8 ounces / 225 grams shredded suet (beef or vegetable)

• 8 ounces / 225 grams raisins

• 8 ounces / 225 grams currants

• 8 ounces / 225 grams sultanas

• 8 ounces / 225 grams mixed candied peel

• 8 ounces soft dark brown sugar

• 4 oranges zest and juice

• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves

• 1 teaspoon ground all spice

• 1 teaspoon grated nutmeg

• 4 tablespoons Cointreau (or brandy or rum)

Directions

• Core your apples and cut into small pieces. No need to peel.
  
• Put the apples into a large bowl with the dried fruit (raisins, currants and sultanas), suet and sugar and mixed peel.
• Add the spices, orange zest and juice.
• Stir well.
• Cover and leave in a cool place for at least 12 hours for the flavours to develop and mingle.
• Now stir the mixture again and transfer the contents of the bowl to your slow cooker and cook on low for about 2 hours or until the suet has melted and coated all the fruit. This will improve the keeping qualities of the mincemeat by helping to prevent any fermentation.
• Spoon in the Cointreau (or brandy or rum) and stir well. This also helps to preserve the mincemeat.
• When cool spoon into sterilised jam jars. You should be able to fill 5 one pound jars.
• Each jar of mincemeat should be enough for 12 mince pies so this quantity of mincemeat should make about 60 mince pies.
• Store your mincemeat in a cool place until Christmas or for at least 3 weeks. It will keep for up to a year but in my house it is usually used up by Twelfth Night.

Mincemeat made with Meat

The inclusion of beef suet in mincemeat originates from the traditional mincemeat which would include beef or venison mixed with the dried fruits.

If you would like to make some mincemeat with meat you can find a recipe in ‘Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management‘ first published in 1861. She suggests you make it at the beginning of December.

Mince Pies

Mince pies are my favourite Christmas food so for me Slow Cooker Orange Mincemeat is well worth the effort to make. In fact it’s not hard to make at all – it just takes a bit of time.

Mince pies must be homemade though, using homemade mincemeat of course. If this Christmas you do make your own mincemeat, even if you use ready made pastry for your mince pies, I guarantee that you will never buy your mince pies again!

I use my orange pastry recipe for my mince pies. I only make this pastry at Christmas for mince pies and use my mother’s recipe for rich shortcrust pastry for pies during the rest of the year.

Happy Baking!

Tanya