This 300 year old mince pie recipe was recorded by Jane Blenkinsopp Coulson, who loved in the Jesmond area at the time she compiled the recipe book.

To make Minced Pyes

• Take a Neats Tongue and boil it till the skin come off, and to every pound of meat put to one pound and a half of Suet
• Shred your tongue small and skin your Suet and shred it small then mix them together and shred them again very small then season them with a little Salt, Pepper, good Store of Cinnamon and Nutmeg, a little Cloves and Mace
• To every pound of Meat put to it one pound and a half of Currants, then put in half a pound of Lemon Peel, Orange and Citron cut grossly
• Sweeten it with Sugar lastly put a little Cinnamon on Water, a little Sack and a little Rose water, Shred some Pippins in among them and a little Verjuyce

Unusual words used in the recipe, taken from the Oxford English Dictionary:

– Neat: archaic regional term for a bovine animal; an ox or bullock; a cow or heifer.
– Grossly: coarsely (Now obsolete).
– Sack: general name for a class of white wines formerly imported from Spain and the
– Canaries. (Now obsolete).
– Verjuice: The acid juice of green or unripe grapes, crab-apples, or other sour fruit, expressed and formed into a liquor; formerly much used in cooking.

Read more about the recipe in this press release.

View all recipes in Jane Coulson’s recipe online on CollectionsCaptured.