Must remember to read recipes *properly*!

Ha ha - is that in the mincemeat or in you Witzend??

I'd add some more - you can't risk not having enough brandy.

I've got a fabulous recipe for cherries roasted in Maple syrup which I missed read and used Masarla (can never remember how to spell it , but the fortified wine not the spice) and it is absolutely delicious!! Never have got round to trying maple syrup!!

Probably both, Pantglas!
The miss-mix smells utterly gorgeous though!

Ooh I love cherries. That sounds delicious kittylester

Oh dear, but I think you're right to slosh more in later. Such a warming smell!

Talking about reading the recipe properly reminds me of the time I made my very first Christmas cake. We lived abroad,so I bought all the individual ingredients on the list, including the booze, started mixing,swapping bowls to ever-increasing larger ones until eventually my largest saucepan was filled with it.
By this time I'd reached the end of the recipe and read "enough for 16-18 portions"
We were two people, neither of us particularly 'cake' people, it was really just for show and tradition.

Who cooks mincemeat?

There is a family “legend” about my MIL, no mean baker herself, who in the early years of her marriage asked her MIL for her Christmas Cake recipe.
Settling down to make it, she could find no reference to the quantity of flour needed so asked FIL for his opinion. “If my mother says there’s no flour in it, there’s no flour in it” came the confident reply . (Male Broons are a bit like that, even if they nothing about a subject they are so confident, they can sound like experts)
So she sighed and baked the ingredients given. The resultant sticky fruity mess was interesting, but not a cake.
What she asked her MIL next time they saw her, her reply was “Well it should have been obvious from the quantity of fruit, I didn’t think it needed stating”
!

You will have burned off all the alcohol, it will still taste the same, just depends on how much of a boozy effect you need from your cake, as opposed to the champagne, wine, port, sherry, gin, mulled wine, etc that might possibly get consumed over the Christmas period!

Years and years ago, I made some piccalilli, it was from a charity type recipe book (sold locally, typewritten pages).

I thought, “That looks a lot of salt, but it’s what the recipe says”, so, being young and naive, I duly added 12 OUNCES of salt instead of 1/2 ounce.

Result. Totally inedible of course,

Never attempted piccalilli since.

As we have an abundance of grapes and can't give them away I had the bright idea of turning them into raisins. The recipe said put them on oven trays in the oven for several hours at 150C.
At least I thought it said 150C but, as it was an American recipe it must have said 150F.
Three trays of charred cinders were not easy to get rid of as the juice had seeped out, the baking paper had baked on to the trays, the juice was like toffee.
Not my best idea.

I'm sure your mincemeat will be lovely, Witzend, just sloshing some more brandy in.

Delia 'cooks' mincemeat! My mother found that putting it in the oven for a short time stops it fermenting in the jar due to the natural yeasts on the fruit. I have followed the same procedure. I also follow her practice of using grated butter (from the freezer) instead of suet - much better flavour and not the greasy 'mouth-feel'. Home made is much superior to shop bought!

Can someone direct me to the Delia mincemeat recipe that uses butter instead of suet, please? Googling only comes up with suet version. Thanks!

There's no such thing as too much brandy! x

Add more. I always add more brandy if I've had to use shop bought mincemeat.

Agree with Crazygranny, ‘too much brandy’ what is this alien concept?

Slosh away. I would.

My stepDD sent her husband out to buy Marsala, asked where it was in the supermarket, he was told "look in the curry aisle, mate" and when he said that it was kind of wine the response was "she's pulling your leg!"

Me, I cook my own mincemeat, I also use the Delia recipe. I also make my own mince pies. The family can't get enough of them.

There are various versions of this so it must be a good recipe!
Christmas Cake Recipe
Ingredients
1 cup of water
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 cup of brown sugar
lemon juice
4 large eggs
nuts
2 cups of dried fruit
1 bottle Johnnie Walker
Instructions
Sample the Johnnie Walker to check quality.
Take a large bowl, check the whisky again. To be sure it is the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink.
Repeat.
Turn on the electric mixer. Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.
Add one teaspoon of sugar. Beat again.
Make sure the whisky is still OK. Try another cup.
Turn off the mixerer.
Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.
Mix on the turner.
If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers pry it loose with a drewscriver.
Sample the whisky to check for tonsisticity.
Next, sift two cups of salt. Or something. Who giveshz a shit.
Check the whisky. Now sift the lemon juice and strain your nuts.
Add one table.
Add a spoon of sugar, or something. Whatever you can find.
Greash the oven and piss in the fridge.
Turn the cake tin 350 defrees.
Don't forget to beat off the turner.
Throw the bowl through the f**king window.
Check the whisky again and go to bed.

MawB2 ????
Witzend Add some more-No question, that’s the way to go!

Defo add more later- you can't have too much booze in a Christmas cake.
Mind you if things go on as we fear you may have to eat it all yourselves!

My Mum who is 90 makes Delia's Mincemeat every year. She makes so many jars she gives lots away to family and friends. There will be no harm in adding more Brandy, I know she always adds extra anyway.