Christmas is a-coming

[vinner]

Cranberries do make a good sausage when used with any game bird, as well as with venison.

[wheels]

Dave

Glad they were OK.

Will you add rusk/bread, water/other liquid, when you make them into sausage?

Phil

[welsh wizard]

Hi All

Simple Game & Cranberry recipe:

1.1lb Pheasant minced (or any other game single or mixed)
1.1lb Pork minced approx 70/30
3 table spoons of cranberries or if you prefer sultanas roughly chopped
10g salt
2g pepper
10% rusk
10% port

Place fruit in bowl and cover with port and leave to stand overnight if possible.

mix all other ingredients together, throw in fruit and residue port and mix and make as normal.

I put these in sheep skins as they are a very rich sausage....

cheers WW

[saucisson]

Dave

Glad they were OK.

Will you add rusk/bread, water/other liquid, when you make them into sausage?

Phil

There was some suet in the mincemeat, but not much, so I'll add a standard 10% rusk, and maybe some wine (mulled?) for the liquid as I don't think the mincemeat unduly affected the moisture content of the patties. It was Tesco's standard mincemeat with cherries, almonds and brandy (from 2 years ago, oops).

Dave

[wheels]

Sounds a good plan.
Both you and WW are making me hungry!

Phil

[Billy Rhomboid]

I made a big batch of venison mincemeat a couple of weeks back, which is being fed with brandy and rum for a few weeks. Had an experimental test mince pie or two this weekend and it is already pretty good stuff. Recipe here:

http://www.killandcure.net/blog/?p=201

[onewheeler]

The missus has just made some brilliant mince pies. Supermarket mincemeat, but completely transformed by adding a few end of season raspberries.

[JerBear]

I was thinking turkey (dark meat) with dried cranberries and orange zest.

[Billy Rhomboid]

The first batch of venison mincemeat mentioned previously has now matured and soaked up enough alcohol and has been bottled up.

This weekend I made a second batch using bourbon instead of brandy and rum. Sounds a bit untraditional but I saw it in a recipe for mincemeat pie that was supposedly made for Queen Victoria so thought it might be worth a try. Initial impressions are very good indeed. The 'perfumeyness' of bourbon sits well in the context of the sweet mincemeat (and it's got to be better than drinking the stuff). Will feed it another bottle in the next couple of weeks and then do an A/B test between the two at Christmas time.