A story by Marian Fowler from 1960's
Mincemeat recipe
After I shot a deer in the late 1960's, the phrase "Be sure and get the neck" was often said to me by the older Fowler sisters, Helen Fowler Byther and Evelyn Fowler Larlee both from the Norcross region of Maine. The idea was to boil it down until the meat fell off the bones. Discard the bones and grind the meat. Also grind up suet and fruits - fresh apples, lemons, and oranges, and their peels and raisins, currants, and citron. Stir in sweetening of various types - white sugar, brown sugar, molasses. Add juices such as the liquid from boiling the meat or cider or apple juice or grape juice. Stir in generous amounts of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and let the whole thing simmer.
This recipe came from my husband’s grandmother, Kate Fowler, who got it from Myrtie Stearns, who got it from Nip. Oral tradition among the Fowler cooks says that Nip was Myrtie Stearns’s mother and that Myrtie was a friend and contemporary of Kate Jones Fowler.
I was dictated the recipe by either Helen Fowler Byther or Evelyn Fowler Larlee, two of Kate’s daughters and both excellent cooks in their own right.
It was delicious!
