Mince Meat Pie: Where do you stand?

At my very first radio station we did a promotional tie-in one year with Hormel, for which they provided us several cases of Spam products to give away on-air.

Not one person called to win. Ever.

Not.

One.

And the contest ran all summer long.

Everyone at the station - dj's, ae's, pd's, traffic - ended up getting armloads of the stuff as our Christmas "bonus" that year.

I can tell you that as bad as Spam is, Spam LITE is even worse. I'd sooner eat 2-week old leftover warm bacon sushi.

And to think I didn't believe it was possible to sully mincemeat pie....

I like Spam. Several cans are always at hand in my cupboards.

I started a Spam contest at the Albuquerque Press Club in the early 90s that caught on and is still running. Both private parties and restaurants participated. Now it's also an annual event at the NM State Fair. BTW, I was also a judge for the Spamalot Broadway Show, which came here. Entrants brought their Spam dishes to the local Albertson's grocery store for me to judge. FWIW, I have several trophies, myself, for winning Spam contests.

One can only hope that someday you'll see the light and embrace Spam, that wondrous concoction of pork shoulder and ham that feeds our troops and peoples around the world.

Is Spam somehow associated with the great FSM, perhaps?

An outreach program from Hawaii, maybe?

Is Spam somehow associated with the great FSM, perhaps?

An outreach program from Hawaii, maybe?

Nope, its associations are quite different, as this clip decisively demonstrates.

Mark Lipton

Spam is loosely connected with the Church of the FSM. The union is celebrated when his noodlyness is accompanied by Spam meatballs.

I loved mince meat pie as a child but haven't eaten it in years. (Of course as a child I loved most pies, and still do...)

Is Spam somehow associated with the great FSM, perhaps?

An outreach program from Hawaii, maybe?

Nope, its associations are quite different, as this clip decisively demonstrates.

Mark Lipton

So it wasn't African Sparrows then?

Never had Mince Meat Pie...but considering I am not a big fan of sweets, really dislike fruitcake and pecan pie, I doubt it would be something I would love. I should just try it sometime, though.

While I personally loathe the stuff, my tradition loving spouse adores it. Stacy (so my mincement loving friends tell me) makes stunning mincemeat the old fashioned way (from a recipe in a cookbook that is 100 years old!). He seems to enjoy making it almost as much as he does eating it!

yuck

R

Mince pies are among the good things of Christmas! A single mince pie with a good cup of hot coffee, maybe with a glass of brandy or whisky, is a genuine pleasure. Provided of course it is a good mince pie. Not too sweet; and with good buttery shortcrust pastry. We bought a dozen from the local bakery and we are rationing ourselves carefully.

Recently, I read a suggestion about taking the top off the mince pies, adding a scoop of hard-frozen ice cream, covering it with meringue and browning it in the oven, a la bombe alaska. Can't think where I read that. Might have been on Jeremy Oliver's web site... or maybe not. I don't think I'd bother with the complication, mince pies work on their own, no stuffing round.

We were invited to our British friends' lovely home on Christmas and she did a traditional English Christmas, complete with bread sauce, figgy pudding and mince pies. It was my first time trying any of those things. I was quite surprised to find that I enjoyed the mince pie. It's probably not something I would seek out, but it was very nice and buttery. The figgy pudding is definitely not my cup of tea, however.

I make my own mincemeat from dried fruit (not meat) and soak it in a cup of Meyer's dark rum and a cup of apple cider. There's too much for just one pie so this year I combined some with a lemon cake mix and baked it in mini-bundt cake pans. Served the mini-bundt mincemeat cakes with warm rum and eggnog sauce. Friends said they liked it.............

I like it so long as it is made with venison mincemeat. There is an outfit in Maine that produces an excellent pie filling of such.

Recently, I read a suggestion about taking the top off the mince pies, adding a scoop of hard-frozen ice cream, covering it with meringue and browning it in the oven, a la bombe alaska.

I just had a Baked Alaska yesterday evening that was sitting on walnut sweet bread. It was very good. Maybe it's worth a shot on mince?

Maybe it's worth a shot on mince?

Even though I said before that I wouldn't bother with the complication myself, anything is worth a shot. Try it and see.