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Mince Pies on the Summit Charcoal Grill
- Thread starter Norton
- Start date
Kevin L (NKY)
TVWBB Diamond Member
Link worked I have never had mince pies but I love your imagination. I have done blueberry cup cakes on my grill when our oven died.
Timothy F. Lewis
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
Those would have made my mother very very happy!
Darrel Williams
TVWBB Super Fan
This is interesting. I have never had mince meat, but it is fruit and nuts, right? Not actually meat? I'm not sure.
I would think that the pastry would absorb lots of smoke flavor, which I would find unpleasant. Maybe it's because my kettles are usually very crusty with old meat drippings, so they smoke a lot. I find that smokiness tolerable for pizza crust, but for sweet pies it would seem off to me.
Is your summit cleaner because a) you clean it more, b) because its brand new, or c) the summit has superior design that makes the drippings clean up easier?
"Mincemeat is a mixture of chopped dried fruit, distilled spirits and spices, and sometimes beef suet, beef, or venison. Originally, mincemeat always contained meat. Many modern recipes contain beef suet, though vegetable shortening is sometimes used in its place."
I tend to use Robertsons, their product description is:
An essential ingredient in mince pies and Christmas cake, Robertsons Traditional Mince Meat contains a mouth-watering mixture of dried fruit and spices.
The product owes its name to the original mince meat recipe, where mixed fruit and spices were added to chopped meat. Despite retaining the label of mince meat, the modern version contains no meat, and is suitable for vegetarians.
Robertsons Traditional Mince Meat also contains no artificial colours or flavours and is gluten free.
Most popular with customers in France, Italy, United States of America (USA), Greece, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Austria and Denmark, but you can buy Robertsons Classic Mincemeat for delivery worldwide.
One of our Robertsons branded products.
Ingredients
Sugar, Apples (26%), Vine Fruit (26%) (Sultanas, Raisins, Currants with Glazing Agent (Palm Oil, Sunflower Oil)), Candied Mixed Peel (4%) (Glucose-Fructose Syrup, Orange Peel, Sugar, Lemon Peel, Citric Acid), Vegetable Suet (Palm Oil, Sunflower Oil, Rice Flour), Treacle, Acetic Acid, Mixed Spices (0.3%) (Cinnamon, Coriander, Dill, Fennel, Cloves, Ginger, Nutmeg, Cassia), Citric Acid, Antioxidant (Ascorbic Acid).
My Summit is new, so no residue from previous cooks etc. If I found the Charcoal Grill to taint the pastries etc I would use my Summit 670 gasser which burns clean.
I'm new to Charcoal, but like the gasser, can't you run it really hot to burn the residue off then perhaps do a deep clean?
Buy a jar, maturing it yourself could be an option, but I neither have the time nor patience to troubleshoot the perfect recipe...
I have made my own shortcrust Pastry, but I have to say that puff Pastry just takes Mince Pies to a whole other level...lol.
For the puff pastry ones I used:
2 rolls of Jus-Roll pastry (for speed & simplicity)
Half a jar (200g) Robertsons Mincemeat
1 Egg (egg white only)
5g granulated sugar
Rolled out the Pastry
Cut with cookie cutter
Scored each with a smaller cookie cutter
Put a teaspoon of mincemeat within the scored section
Brush egg white around outside of the scoring
Place a cut Pastry circle on top of the one with mincemeat
Pinch around the pie (I used a fork to seal the two halves & stop the mincemeat bubbling out during the cook)
Sprinkle the granulated sugar over the pies
Place in a pie dish or non stick pan
Set the grill for indirect grilling
Put a foil pan on the grill (to raise the Pastry tray off the grill)
Place in the Grill once it's reached 200 degrees C
Bake for ~15 minutes until golden brown
Remove & place on a wire rack to cool (or you'll burn your mouth...lol)
Making the Pastry from scratch adds another dimension for sure, but for ease & almost guaranteed perfect results...pre made is a cinch!
David Peel
New member
I've been using an old Margueritte Patten recipe that works out well
110g Mixed citrus crystallised peel
1 Medium cooking apple
110g Beef suet
450g Mixed dried fruit (mix of raisins, golden raisins(sultanas), currants)
110g light brown sugar
1 tsp fresh grated lemon peel
2 tbsps lemon juice
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp ground cimmamon
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
4 tbsps brandy, whisky or rum(dark)
Just mix all ingredients and your ready to go. Its best kept for a while to let the flavours mature. I usually pressure can but probably best to keep in fridge and use
The main problem as you've probably guessed is this is a UK based recipe so many of the ingredients are difficult to find. In Britain you could just go and buy mixed candied peel, mixed spice off the shelf as well as an off the shelf version of suet usually a vegetarian palm oil based product (Atora) although they probably still make the original beef one as well.
These are my recommendations for how to source make these difficult to purchase items
Beef suet
I usually get the butcher at the market (Stater bros) to special order it, they should know what it means, another word for it is kidney fat. Very cheap and good to have around, grate it like cheese and store in freezer for later use. Good for steamed suet puddings as well
Candied mixed peel
Just peel a bunch of different citrus, cut peel up into small strips and cook slowly in a saturated sugar syrup, then when almost starting to crsytallise place on a kitchen towel to dry and crystallise
Mixed spice
1 tbsp Allspice
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp ground mace
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground ginger
cooking apple i use granny smiths in the UK it would be Bramleys
The upshot of this is that whilst a hassle to make all the individual things you will actually end up with a better product. Much of the stuff in the UK to make this (dried fruit, peel) probably is sourced from California anyway and i find the stuff here is of better quality. Mixed spice is great for hot cross buns and other spiced cakes as well so good to have around.
You could subsitute butter for the suet and not really notice the difference but suet is a great product to use
Also could avoid all this and find ready made robertsons mincemeat in Cost plus imports and also in my local supermarket (Stater bros) which seems to have a small british foods section or any of the british import food stores which are common in southern california at least.
I prefer sweet shortcrust pastry for the casings
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