Top five exciting jars of mincemeat

Mincemeat: perhaps the most essential Christmas ingredient. If you haven’t the time to make your own, then we recommend purchasing one of our five favourite, slightly unusual jars.

Duerr’s dark chocolate

We’ve already decided that chocolate and mincemeat go very well together (Paul A Young’s chocolate brownie mince pie came second in our recent mince pie taste test), so what better to fill your pies with than Duerr’s luxury mincemeat with dark chocolate? As well as the obvious, it also contains apples, candied orange, candied lemon peel, and cinnamon.

Based in Manchester, Duerr’s is the oldest family-owned jam maker in England and has been making preserves for 132 years – so we’ve every confidence that this mincemeat is a tried-and-tested winner.

Price: around £1.68 for 411g

Other info: suitable for veggies; available from Tesco and ocado.com

ASDA Extra Special whisky and orange

Developed by the good people at Leiths School of Food and Wine, this fancy number from ASDA’s ‘Extra Special’ range makes the most of festive citrus and spice. It’s a particularly warming mincemeat, and is far more orangey than any other we’ve tried – so if you like citrus, it’s definitely the jar for you. It’s also high in booze (blended Scotch whisky, to be exact) so is bound to kick-start the Christmas holidays off.

Other exciting ingredients include glacé cherries, treacle, nutmeg and orange oil.

Price: £1.89 for 411g

Other info: suitable for veggies

Infinity foods, organic and no added sugar

There’s no denying that mincemeat is super sweet… most of us are OK with that (hey, it’s Christmas), but for those who don’t sport such a sweet tooth, try Infinity’s no added sugar organic offering.

It’s also free from gluten, and suitable for vegans; plus it’s made from naturally sweet organic fruits. The ingredients list is far shorter than most shop-bought mincemeats: just raisins, sultanas, currants, apple juice, oranges, lemons, dried apples, mixed spice, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and sunflower oil. Even the oil is organic!

Price: £3.85 for 400g

Other info: suitable for veggies; available online

Thursday Cottage, handmade

Thursday Cottage began life in a Somerset kitchen in 1963, and still sticks to its commitment of only making small batches of preserves, and always by hand. In their line of 120 different curds, jams, marmalades and fruit coulis is a jar of mincemeat, which promises to be one of the richest and fruitiest you’ve ever tried.

Again, the ingredients list is satisfyingly short, with an emphasis on apples, citrus peel and brandy. One customer, who reviewed the product here, said of it recently: “Very delicious, and so nice to see that sugar is not the first ingredient.”

Price: around £2.79 for 312g

Other info: suitable for veggies; find your local stockist here, or order online

Waitrose, cranberry and port

Port isn’t usually the booze of choice for mincemeat, which is why this jar caught our attention. It’s been developed by Waitrose especially for Christmas 2013 and comes studded with chunks of cranberry for an extra festive feel.

It’s also far more colourful than your average supermarket mincemeat, and contains Waitrose’s own special spice blend: ginger purée, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves. There’s a focus on apple too, and a lot of lemon and orange peel is chucked in for good measure.

Price: £2.50 for 410g

Other info: suitable for veggies; available from Waitrose only

There’s still time to make your own…

You’ve still got just enough time to make your own mincemeat from scratch – a month will be long enough to allow the flavours to mature.

We’ve got two cracking recipes to choose from – Miranda Gore Brown’s appley mincemeat, made with a great big slosh of brandy and plenty of spices (it’s a video recipe, so you can cook along with her); or a richer, zestier alternative from Connie Allfrey.

Which mincemeat are you banking on this Christmas? Or do you have plans to make your own? Share your thoughts in the comments box below

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