Christmas mincemeat

• 225 g (8 oz) suet
• 450 g (1

In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries mincemeat appeared regularly on every table - as you might imagine from the name, not as a sweet dish, as it is now, but as a meat course; the mince was made up of mutton and veal seasoned with cinnamon and rosewater, and then mixed with eggs, sugar, orange and lemon peel, currants, dates, prunes and apples or pears.

The filling was