Rob, Don’t Eat It!

My apologies to Steve over at The Sneeze.

This is the week when Americans stuff themselves with all manner of gustatory delights. A traditional item found on our family sideboard at Thanksgiving is the venerable mincemeat pie. This is not really a dish common to people of our ancestry. Rather, its appearance on the Thanksgiving Day menu is due to the fact that my father loves the stuff. As does my oldest brother. In the entire family, they are the only ones I know of who enjoy mincemeat pie. And also because my father’s birthday is November 25th and it’s kind of a birthday treat.

Blah, blah, blah, get on with it, right?

So, every year I get the urge to try a piece. Every year the same thing happens…

Bleeeccchh!

How can something that smells so good, taste so bad? A typical list of ingredients—so they say—includes apples, cranberries, raisins, currants, candied orange peel, brown sugar, rum, brandy, butter, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves. Oh, and there’s probably nuts in there too. More traditional recipes also include suet. You read that right, suet. The stuff you put out for birds in the winter.

However, at our house, the mincemeat comes from a jar; a brown gelatinous mass, that glops into the pie shell inviting unappetizing comparisons. Still, it smells damn good while it’s baking. This year, I have determined to find out what it is about mincemeat that makes me cringe. The results of my research are shocking to say the least!