Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

Free the beef of fat and skin, and chop it very fine. Chop the apples rather coarse ; they should be fineflavored and tart. Put all the ingredients, except the cider, wine, brandy, and lemons, into a large bowl. Grate the yellow rind of the lemons, and squeeze the juice of the fruit upon the mixture. Mix all thoroughly, and then add the cider. Put the mince-meat into a porcelain kettle, and heat very slowly to the boiling-point; then remove from the fire, and add the wine and brandy. Put into stone jars, and keep until needed. It is well to try the mince-meat by putting a spoonful of it in a small piece of paste and baking it, for the flavor is developed in baking. Tastes differ in regard to seasoning ; and while some persons may not think the quantities in this receipt are sufficient, others may think that the flavor is even too strong. If there be objection to brandy or wine, use, instead, an extra pint and a half of cider. Mince-meat improves with keeping. It should be made at least a fortnight before it is baked in pies, and the pies should be baked for an hour. * Plain Mince-meat. Cover four pounds of a round of beef with boiling water, and let it simmer for five hours ; then let it cool in the water, and when it is cold, free it of fat and chop quite fine, but not to a powder. There should be a generous quart of the chopped meat. Add to it three quarts of pared and chopped apples, a pint of fine-chopped suet, a quart of stoned and chopped raisins, a quart of English currants, a quart of molasses, three pints of sugar, half a cupful of ground cinnamon, a table-spoonful of cloves, two of allspice, two of mace, six grated nutmegs, half a cupful of salt, and some citron, if you choose. Mix these ingredients thoroughly with the hands, and then add three quarts of good cider. Let the mincemeat stand over night, and in the morning, after heating it slowly to the boiling-point, and simmering for one hour, turn it into stone jars and set it in a cool, dry place. If you like you may add wine or brandy when you put the mince-meat away or when making the pies, but it is nice without either. It is an improvement, however, to put a quart of stoned raisins into the mixture at the time it is scalded. This mince-meat will keep for three months in ordinary stone jars, even if there be no brandy or wine. The crust for the pies should be either puff paste or rich chopped paste. The upper crust should be very thick, and the pies should bake for an hour. Mince pies are always better if baked several days before they are served. * Cheap Mince-meat. The materials are : one cupful of chopped cooked meat, two of chopped apple, a half-cupful of chopped raisins, half a cupful of currants, one cupful of cider, half a cupful of molasses, one cupful of the water in which the meat was boiled, two teaspoonfuls of salt, one of cinnamon, one of allspice, a half-teaspoonful of clove, and a half-teaspoonful of nutmeg. The cider may be omitted and the juice and rind of a lemon used instead. Mix all together, and then heat to the boiling-point.