Mince Pie on Granite Plates: A New Hampshire Story

The first mince pie I ever saw  sat on a chipped blue plate at the edge of a church supper table in New Hampshire, tucked between apple crisp and plain white rolls. It was dark, almost black at the center, glossy with molasses and spice. Someone beside me whispered, “That’s the real kind,” the way people talk about antiques and rarities.

But long before mince pie became sweet and polite, it was something entirely different—bold, meaty, and tied to survival as much as celebration. The very name tells the story. Mince comes from the Old French mincier, meaning “to chop finely.” The earliest mince pies were not fruit pies at all, but meat pies—minced beef or mutton mixed with dried fruits and spices, baked with sturdy crusts meant to last through winter.

The oldest recorded mince pie recipes, dating back to medieval England, were dense with meaning and ingredients:

• Minced mutton or beef
• Suet (hard animal fat)
• Dried fruits like raisins, currants, and prunes
• Vinegar or wine for preservation
• Honey for sweetness
• Spices such as cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and mace

Those spices were not chosen just for flavor. They were rare, expensive, and deeply symbolic—often said to represent the gifts of the Magi. Early mince pies were sometimes baked in long, coffin-shaped crusts to resemble the manger, making them a food of both faith and fortune.

When English settlers crossed the Atlantic, they brought mince pie with them.  It arrived in New England not as a novelty dessert, but as a practical food for hard seasons. In the rocky soil and long winters of what would become New Hampshire, mince pie made perfect sense. Meat stretched further when mixed with fruit and fat. Sugar came from molasses instead of refined cane. Apples—abundant and easy to store—slowly replaced some of the dried fruit. Apple cider, brandy or rum from coastal trade replaced other types of liquor. The pie adapted, as people always do.

By the 1700s and 1800s, mince pie had become a winter institution across New Hampshire. It appeared at barn raisings, after Sunday services, and most faithfully at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Every household guarded its own version. Some were heavier on beef. Some swore by venison. Others leaned toward sweetness and spice, slowly nudging the pie toward the dessert we recognize today.

In small New Hampshire towns, mince pie became a measure of identity. To achieve their singular pie, some used cider instead of vinegar, others kept suet in the mix, while still others went fully fruit-only.

By the late 1800s, as refrigeration spread and commercial baking grew, mince pie quietly changed its nature. Meat faded from many recipes. What remained was mincemeat in name only—still finely chopped, still richly spiced, but now mostly apples, raisins, sugar, and brandy. The name stayed because memory stayed. People called it mince pie because their grandmothers had. Because their great-grandfathers had eaten a version that truly did contain meat.  Even today, in New Hampshire kitchens around the holidays, the old arguments return about which ingredients it needs to include.

Mince pie in New Hampshire is not one recipe—it’s a living record of adaptation. It tells the story of English roots, colonial survival, maritime trade, farm harvests, frugality, and quiet celebration during the darkest months of the year. It is a pie that remembers hunger even while it marks abundance.

That little dark pie on the blue plate at the church supper was heavy with more than filling. It carried centuries of chopped meat and chopped fruit, of sacred symbolism and practical cooking, of families who made do with what they had and turned it into tradition.

Mince pie is not flashy. It does not beg for attention the way pumpkin or pecan does. But it endures—especially in New Hampshire—because it belongs to winter itself. To snow at the window. To kitchens that smell of spice and history. To recipes written in slanted handwriting on cards brittle with age.

It is a reminder that the foods we inherit are never just flavors.

They are stories you can taste.

Traditional New Hampshire Mince Pie Recipes

One from the old world, one from the modern table

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Old-Style New Hampshire Mince Pie (With Meat)

This version reflects the 18th–19th century New England tradition, when mince truly meant minced meat mixed with fruit and spice for preservation and richness.

Ingredients (Filling):

• 1½ cups cooked beef or venison, finely minced
• 1 cup beef suet, finely chopped
• 2 cups tart apples, peeled and finely chopped
• 1½ cups raisins
• 1 cup currants or chopped dried cranberries
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ½ cup molasses
• ½ cup apple cider
• ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
• ¼ cup dark rum or brandy
• 1½ teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon cloves
• ½ teaspoon allspice
• ½ teaspoon salt

For the Crust:

• 2½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup cold butter or lard
• 6–8 tablespoons ice water

Instructions:

1. In a large kettle, combine all filling ingredients.
2. Simmer gently for 1½–2 hours, stirring often, until thick and fragrant.
3. Cool completely. (Traditionally, this was aged for several days or even weeks.)
4. Prepare pastry crust and line a 9-inch pie plate.
5. Fill with mincemeat, top with second crust, seal and vent.
6. Bake at 400°F for 15 minutes, then reduce to 350°F and bake another 35–40 minutes.
7. Cool before slicing—this pie sets as it rests.

Flavor Profile: Deep, spicy, rich, and complex—sweet at first bite, savory underneath.

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Modern New Hampshire Mince Pie (Fruit-Only)

This is the 20th-century evolution—no meat, but still heavy with apples, spice, and holiday warmth. This is the version most families recognize today.

Ingredients (Filling):

• 4 cups finely chopped apples
• 2 cups raisins
• 1 cup dried cranberries or currants
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ½ cup molasses
• ½ cup apple cider or apple juice
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• ¼ cup melted butter
• ¼ cup dark rum or brandy (optional but traditional)
• 1½ teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon cloves
• ½ teaspoon allspice
• ½ teaspoon salt

Crust: Same as above (or your favorite double-crust pastry)

Instructions:

1. Combine all filling ingredients in a large saucepan.
2. Simmer for 45–60 minutes until thick and jam-like.
3. Cool slightly.
4. Fill crust, top with second crust, vent.
5. Bake at 375°F for 45–50 minutes.
6. Cool before serving.

Flavor Profile: Sweet, spiced, gently tangy, and intensely aromatic with apple and molasses.

Regarding Mince Pie Being Outlawed

Despite what you read about mince pies were banned in 17th century Massachusetts–that is not completely accurate. There wasn’t a specific law just for mince pie in Massachusetts. Rather, the Puritan government banned the entire celebration of Christmas from 1659 to 1681, which included activities like feasting, baking holiday treats (that they called “idolatrie in a crust”), and avoiding work, with a five-shilling fine for anyone caught.

Besides mince, other types of Christmas pie of that time would have been meat pies, using poultry or game in savory crusts (like Yorkshire style); early forms of pumpkin pie–savory fillings baked inside whole pumpkins; fruitcakes and spiced gingerbread.

If mince pie was never named outright in Puritan law, the question lingers: was it one of the traditions they meant to stamp out? The answer is–quite possibly–but it stood in the company of many other festive foods that carried the same spirit of Christmas.

It’s a small but satisfying comfort to modern New Hampshirites that mince pie and other holiday treats are no longer a punishable offense. Today, the only consequence of baking is a few extra dishes to wash and the possibility of a family argument over whether “real mince” should contain meat. The Puritans may have frowned on holiday indulgence–but history, thankfully, favors dessert.

SEE ALSO:

21 “None Such” mince meat recipes: for winter, spring summer and fall (HathiTrust)