Mince pies are a festive favourite, but some people have been missing out on the treat for years due to a common misconception. So, what exactly is in a mince pie?
You can practically feel Christmas knocking on the door when mince pies start popping up in the shops. Sinking your teeth into that buttery, flaky crust packed with sweet, spiced filling is nothing short of a festive ritual.
But let’s be honest – the name’s a proper head-scratcher. Mince usually means savoury fare like a hearty spag bol or a warming cottage pie, not something you’d fancy for pudding, right?
Well, here’s the kicker: mince pies don’t actually have mince in them. Whilst most people know this, it turns out plenty have been giving the seasonal staple a wide berth purely down to the bewildering moniker, reports the Mirror.
TikTok user Laura Parker shared a clip admitting she’d been avoiding them for years, convinced they’d taste of beef. The footage shows Laura happily munching away on a sweet treat, captioning her revelation: “On my fifth mince pie because I’m making up for all the years I thought they was beef flavour.”
Her post elaborates: “If I knew from the start it was a sweet treat I would have been unhinged a long time ago.”
One baffled TikToker responded: “WAIT ITS NOT MINCE,” prompting another to clarify: “It’s fruits and currants.” The original commenter replied: “I’m unsure how I feel about that – I must try them now.”
Elsewhere, someone confessed: “I remember where I was when I found out it was mincemeat and not mince meat.” They continued: “I could not figure out why people were so keen to eat a room temperature mini meat pie.”
But others said they’d be keener if they actually did have meat in them.
One person wrote: “I thought they were like… mini shepherd’s pies… I’m so disappointed.”
Another shared a tongue-in-cheek tale, saying: “This is where the darkness in me grew from. I once was a happy child and excited to try mince pies. I loved steak pie so I thought it’d be the same… I was tragically wrong. I will never forget the taste of that day… Mince pies forever traumatise me.”
What is actually in a mince pie?
The filling is actually a fruity mixture, usually featuring raisins, currants, apples, and finely-chopped mixed peel, combined with brandy, sugar, and warming spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. Whilst traditional versions use beef suet – and you’ll still find this in plenty of mince pies nowadays – others opt for meat-free alternatives such as butter or vegetable shortening.
That said, the recipe has changed dramatically over the years, with mince pies once bearing little resemblance to the festive favourites we know and love today.
According to the BBC, the earliest known version of something similar to a mince pie can be traced to 1390, when a cookbook called A Forme of Cury featured a recipe for ‘tartes of flesh’ – which contained pork, hard-boiled eggs, and cheese, combined with spices, saffron, and sugar.
A later recipe from 1615 featured an entire leg of mutton and three pounds of suet, alongside seasonings and fruit. The association of mince pies with Christmas can be traced back to the mid-17th century, as documented in the diaries of writer and politician Samuel Pepys.
Contrary to popular belief, Oliver Cromwell did not attempt to ban mince pies during his governance of England in the mid-1600s, as reported by the BBC. However, he was involved in a failed bid by Parliament to prohibit Christian holy days, including Christmas.
According to the BBC, sweet pies became increasingly prevalent as sugar became more affordable and readily available due to sugarcane plantations in the West Indies. By the Victorian era, they had evolved into the form we recognise today.
