2

I have this recipe for mincemeat* cheesecake, but it is a refrigerated recipe so it won't be cooked. Will the suet in the mincemeat even be edible?

Edit: so I made a fundamental mistake, the mincemeat in the jars is cooked and not raw.

mincemeat in the uk is a mixture of apples, dried fruit, brandy and suet*. here is a bbc recipe for making it https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/traditional-mincemeat
**suet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suet

WendyG
  • 587
  • 3
  • 12
  • 1
    Often store bought versions use vegetable suet. Suet is just fat, and fat doesn't need to be cooked. – GdD Nov 09 '22 at 10:56
  • good point but wouldn't that still be a little chunk of fat that is designed to melt into the surrounding food – WendyG Nov 09 '22 at 10:57
  • You might want to link the cheesecake recipe as well, but I don't think it's absolutely necessary – Chris H Nov 09 '22 at 11:06
  • 1
    it is a printed recipe from our local supermarket's christmas magazine – WendyG Nov 09 '22 at 11:12
  • 1
    It seems to be a bit trendy - Sainsbury's have a baked one, and Asda only chilled, but both start with whole mince pies, making the base from the pastry. – Chris H Nov 09 '22 at 13:17
  • 1
    this is booths (up north thinks it's waitrose) it is standard biscuit base with cream and cream cheese – WendyG Nov 09 '22 at 14:45
  • 1
    When I'm up north I'm normally too scruffy for booths! I'm also not cooking properly as I'm normally on cycling trips when I get north of about Gloucester. – Chris H Nov 09 '22 at 20:05

1 Answers1

4

In general mincemeat has already been cooked and the suet distributed. The recipe you link just happens not to on the assumption that it will be cooked later, and it doesn't keep nearly as well as most recipes, because the apple isn't cooked.

I used to make this Delia Smith recipe which gently cooks it, then you have to stir as it cools. I used to make a batch every other year, that's how well it keeps. It's also far better than bought mincemeat (I used to buy the pastry but make the mincemeat for my mince pies. The other way round is far more common but my hands are too hot to make good pastry.)

Commercial versions do sometimes have visible bits of suet despite being cooked (probably because stirring during cooling isn't possible when it's packed hot). If starting with such a commercial jar, or the recipe you linked, I suggest warming it through, then stirring a few times as it cools, before using the cooled mincemeat in your cheesecake.

Another option if you were making mincemeat specifically to stir into a cheesecake would be to simply omit the suet. Although it's a decent fraction of the ingredients, you wouldn't miss it in a cheesecake. If the mincemeat is used in a layer, the suet might be needed to stick it together, then (assuming a biscuit base) you could spread it on the base before it's fully cooled.

Chris H
  • 44,113
  • 2
  • 92
  • 151
  • yeah the commercial jars do have visible chunks in them so i thought it was raw suet, and as I always use if for mince pies, i had never thought about it. – WendyG Nov 09 '22 at 11:14
  • Also, I can't prove it quickly but I think the pelleted suet you buy has been rendered, i.e. cooked during manufacture. But for eating quality you'd still want to even out the fat. – Chris H Nov 09 '22 at 11:23
  • A simple solution if you can't find mincemeat without suet would be to heat the mincemeat until the suet melts, then cool it. – GdD Nov 09 '22 at 12:41
  • 1
    @GdD 3rd paragraph, note the need to stir a few times during cooling, or it all ends up on top. – Chris H Nov 09 '22 at 13:13
  • 1
    I heated the mincemeat up and stirred it, so mixing the suet around, the resulting cheescake was a bit greasy, so a homemade mincemeat without the suet is a great idea. – WendyG Nov 14 '22 at 14:47
  • @WendyG that sounds like a good plan. The fat content in commercial seems quite variable as well – Chris H Nov 14 '22 at 15:47