What Is a Mince Pie? Mince Pies and Mincemeat Explained
What is a mince pie? A mince pie is a small, round, sweet pie of English origin, eaten mainly at Christmas. It has a shortcrust pastry case and lid filled with mincemeat, a mix of dried fruit, apple, nuts, spices, a fat such as suet and usually brandy. Despite the name, modern mincemeat doesn't contain meat, although it once did.
At a glance
- Mincemeatdried fruit, apple, spice, fat and brandy
- No meatin modern mincemeat, just the old name
- 1390a "tartes of flesshe" recipe, a possible forerunner
- 60.7gcarbs per 100g in shop mince pies (CoFID)
On this page
The food historian Madeline Shanahan, quoted by Wikipedia, calls the mince pie "one of Christmas's most iconic dishes". But what is a mince pie, exactly, and why is a pie full of fruit named after meat? This guide explains what goes into a mince pie and its mincemeat filling, how the recipe changed from meat to sweet, the truth about the Christmas Day "ban", and what the UK food tables say about carbs and calories.
What is a mince pie?
Wikipedia describes a mince pie as a sweet pie of English origin filled with mincemeat, traditionally served during the Christmas season across much of the English-speaking world. The case is a sweet pastry shell, normally shortcrust, rolled thin and pressed into a mould. It's filled with mincemeat, given a pastry lid (usually shortcrust, sometimes puff pastry), then baked in a moderate to hot oven until browned.
In Britain today a mince pie is usually small, round and made for one person. In North America it tends to be a large pie for sharing, and Wikipedia notes it's known in the United States as either "mince pie" or "mincemeat pie". Mince pies are often served with cream, brandy butter, Cumberland rum butter, ice cream or cheese, and they can be homemade or bought, with the filling made at home or bought by the jar.
A typical homemade batch shows the format. BBC Good Food's mince pie recipe by Paul Hollywood cuts 16 pastry bases with a 10cm round cutter, presses them into muffin trays, adds 1½ tablespoons of mincemeat to each and tops them with 7cm lids. The pies are glazed with beaten egg, sprinkled with sugar and baked for 15 to 20 minutes until golden.
Why is it called a mince pie?
The Oxford English Dictionary, quoted by Wikipedia, traces "mince" to the Anglo-Norman and Old French mincer or mincier, meaning to cut food into small pieces. That's what the filling was: finely chopped ingredients. Over the centuries the pie has also been called a "minched", "minst" or "minced pie", a "shrid" or "shred pie", a "mutton pie" and a "Christmas pie".
What is mincemeat made of?
Modern mincemeat is a sweet, spiced fruit mixture. Wikipedia lists dried fruits, nuts, apples and spices, with either an alcoholic spirit (normally brandy) or vinegar. It also includes a fat, traditionally beef suet, although vegetable alternatives can be used. Wikipedia's mincemeat entry adds that modern recipes often replace the suet with vegetable shortening or other oils, and some use butter.
The dried fruit is usually a mix of vine fruits. A 19th-century recipe reproduced by Wikipedia uses raisins, currants, citron, candied lemon and orange peel, apples, nutmeg, lemon rind and juice, sugar, brandy and suet, alongside lean beef. Our guide to sultanas vs raisins explains how the different dried grapes compare, and our guide to whether mixed spice is the same as allspice covers the warm spices that flavour it.
| Part | Usually |
|---|---|
| Pastry case | Sweet shortcrust |
| Lid | Shortcrust or puff pastry |
| Fruit | Dried fruit and apple |
| Fat | Beef suet or a vegetable fat |
| Flavour | Spices, citrus peel and nuts |
| Spirit | Brandy, or vinegar instead |
Based on Wikipedia's Mince pie and Mincemeat entries. Checked 2 November 2026.
Shop mincemeat is often doctored at home. BBC Good Food's Paul Hollywood recipe starts with a large jar of mincemeat (about 600g) and stirs in two finely chopped satsumas, a finely chopped apple and the zest of a lemon to freshen it up. Wikipedia quotes the food writer Glyn Hughes, who says mincemeat improves if it's stored for at least two weeks before use.
Does mincemeat have meat in it?
Not any more. Wikipedia states that in the 21st century mincemeat doesn't contain meat. The word comes from an older term, "minced meat", meaning finely chopped meat, and Wikipedia's mincemeat entry points out that "meat" was once also a word for food in general.
The meat really was there, though. Historic recipes used neat's tongue (from cattle), beef, mutton, tripe and even fish, and English Heritage notes that Eliza Acton's mincemeat recipe in Modern Cookery for Private Families (1845) still included ox tongue. Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861) gave two mincemeat recipes, one with meat and one without, and English Heritage says later editions kept only the meat-free version.
By the 20th century, according to English Heritage, the only trace of meat in a mince pie was the suet, and even that can be replaced with a vegetarian alternative. A few cooks still make meaty versions: Wikipedia mentions Jane Grigson's 1974 book English Food and a 2014 Tom Kerridge recipe in The Guardian that included minced pork.
A short history of the mince pie
The mince pie's exact origin is debated, but its roots are medieval. English Heritage explains that medieval pie crusts were known as "coffins": a simple flour-and-water pastry used as a cooking vessel and often thrown away once the filling had been eaten. Pies were generally large, but smaller pies called chewets were also made.
The 14th-century cookery book The Forme of Cury has a recipe for "tartes of flesshe" that Wikipedia calls a possible forerunner of the mince pie. Its ingredients were minced pork, figs, raisins, wine, pine kernels, lard, cheese, honey and spices. Gervase Markham's The English Huswife (1615) gave a similar recipe using mutton. Imported spices and dried fruit were expensive, so English Heritage says spiced pies were kept for important feast days such as Easter and Christmas.
English Heritage adds that the pies were often baked in a rectangular shape, which people came to link with the manger, and that pastry figures of the baby Jesus were sometimes placed on top. Other food historians quoted by Wikipedia, including Madeline Shanahan and Laura Mason, say there's little evidence for the crib story or the idea that the spices represent the gifts of the Magi. By the end of the 17th century, English Heritage says, mince pies were made round.
The pie also shrank. Wikipedia says that from the 17th century the mince pie moved towards a small, individual size, and on Christmas Day 1666 Samuel Pepys recorded dining "on some good ribs of beef roasted and mince pies". In the 18th century, cheap sugar from British plantations in the West Indies made mince pies sweeter than they were savoury. Over the 19th century recipes increasingly left out the meat but kept the suet.
Is it illegal to eat mince pies on Christmas Day?
No. The story that eating a mince pie on Christmas Day is against the law in England is a well-known legal myth. BBC News looked into it and reported that, according to the Law Commission, none of the 11 laws left on the statute books after Oliver Cromwell's time relate to mince pies.
The myth has a grain of history behind it. Wikipedia explains that the Puritan Parliament abolished Christmas, Easter and Whitsun as festivals in a 1647 ordinance, but there was no ban on any food. Writing for English Heritage, the food historian Sam Bilton describes the idea that Cromwell banned Christmas and mince pies as a myth, although some 17th-century Puritans did object to "idolatrous" pastry figures on the pies. Christmas celebrations returned with the Restoration in 1660.
Mince pie traditions
With such a long history, the mince pie has collected plenty of folklore. Wikipedia records several customs and superstitions:
- Twelve pies, twelve months. Eating a mince pie on each of the twelve days of Christmas is said to bring a month of happiness in the year ahead.
- Make a wish. Some people make a wish with their first mince pie of the season.
- Don't refuse one. Turning down a mince pie that's offered to you is said to be bad luck, and some say a mince pie should never be cut.
- Rhyming slang. "Mince pies" has been Cockney rhyming slang for "eyes" since the 1850s.
Mince pie carbs and calories
Pastry, dried fruit and sugar mean most of a mince pie's calories come from carbohydrate and fat. The UK's official food composition tables (CoFID) give figures for shop-bought and homemade mince pies, and for mincemeat on its own, all per 100g.
| Per 100g | Carbs | Sugars | kcal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shop mince pies | 60.7g | 35.5g | 377 |
| Homemade pies | 55.5g | 29.0g | 436 |
| Mincemeat | 62.1g | 62.1g | 274 |
CoFID 2021: Mince pies, retail (11-848); Mince pies, homemade, individual (11-1092); Mincemeat (17-765). UK carbohydrate figures don't include fibre. Checked 2 November 2026.
CoFID's mincemeat figures come from 10 samples of the same brand, and all 62.1g of the carbohydrate per 100g is listed as sugars. The same tables list 14.9g fat and 3.8g protein per 100g for shop-bought mince pies, and 23.5g fat for homemade ones. Brandy butter, cream or custard on the side all add to the totals.
If you're cutting carbs
We don't sell mince pies, but we have developed our own keto version. Our keto mince pies recipe uses a press-in almond pastry, bound with psyllium husk powder and xanthan gum, around a spiced Bramley apple, cranberry and brown butter filling sweetened with our Monk Fruit Decoction & Erythritol Sweetener. The recipe makes 12, and each pie has 7.7g carbohydrate, including 4.6g polyols, which gives 3.1g net carbs, with 2.2g sugars and 203 kcal.
If you'd rather make the filling separately, our keto mincemeat recipe combines Bramley apple, fresh and unsweetened dried cranberries, toasted almonds, walnuts, orange zest and warm spices. It's sweetened with our Brown Erythritol & Stevia Blend, a 1kg pouch of erythritol, stevia glycosides and caramel that the product page says you can swap 1:1 for brown sugar. Each heaped tablespoon (about 25g) has 2.8g net carbs, and one jar fills about 25 pies. Unlike a traditional jar, the recipe says to keep it in the fridge and use it within 5 days, or freeze it for up to 3 months.
The pastry relies on two of our baking staples. Psyllium Husk Powder has psyllium husk powder as its only ingredient, with a stated purity of 99%, in 250g or 500g pouches, and it helps nut-flour doughs hold together. Xanthan Gum is an extra-fine xanthan gum powder (E415) in a 150g pouch. Our guide to keto pastry explains how they work, and our keto Christmas guide has more festive bakes.
Product details are as shown on each product page. Free delivery on orders over £30. Last order date for Christmas delivery: 18 December 2026.
Our keto mince pies contain nuts (almonds), eggs and milk (butter), and the keto mincemeat contains nuts (almonds and walnuts), milk and, if you add it, brandy. The Brown Erythritol & Stevia Blend contains erythritol, and its product page notes that excessive consumption may cause a laxative effect. Always check the pack for full allergen information.
Key takeaways
- A mince pie is a small Christmas pie. It's sweet pastry filled with spiced mincemeat.
- Mincemeat is fruit, not meat. Dried fruit, apple, spice, fat and usually brandy.
- The meat went in the 1800s. Only the name, and sometimes beef suet, remains.
- The Christmas Day ban is a myth. No law against mince pies survives.
Frequently asked questions
Are mince pies British?
Yes. Wikipedia describes the mince pie as a sweet pie of English origin, with roots in medieval spiced meat pies such as the 14th-century "tartes of flesshe". English settlers later took the recipe to New England, and mince pies are now eaten at Christmas in much of the English-speaking world, including Australia and New Zealand.
Why do we eat mince pies at Christmas?
The spices and dried fruit were once expensive, so English Heritage says spiced pies were saved for important feast days such as Christmas and Easter. Over time the mince pie became tied to Christmas in particular. Wikipedia says the link with the season probably dates back to the Elizabethan era, and Pepys ate them on Christmas Day 1666.
Is mincemeat vegetarian?
It depends on the fat. Wikipedia says mincemeat traditionally uses beef suet, which isn't vegetarian, although vegetable alternatives can be used. Modern recipes often use vegetable shortening, other oils or butter instead, and versions made with solid vegetable fats can be vegan. Check the label or the recipe to see which fat has been used.
What do Americans call mince pies?
Wikipedia says they're called either "mince pie" or "mincemeat pie" in the United States. The American version tends to be one large pie for sharing rather than small individual pies. After English settlers took the recipe to New England, it became part of Thanksgiving dinner as well as Christmas, though it was never as popular as in the UK.
What temperature do you bake mince pies at?
It depends on the pastry. BBC Good Food's Paul Hollywood recipe bakes shortcrust mince pies at 220C (200C fan, gas 7) for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown. Almond pastry colours more quickly, so our keto mince pies bake at 180C (160C fan, gas 4) for 18 to 20 minutes, with a check at 15 minutes.
Sources
- Wikipedia. Mince pie (description, size, serving, US names, word origin, old names, history, the 1647 ordinance, folklore and traditions) and Mincemeat (ingredients, fats, word origin and a 19th-century recipe). Checked 2 November 2026.
- English Heritage. Meat to sweet: A history of the mince pie by Sam Bilton (medieval coffins and chewets, feast days, the manger shape, the Cromwell myth, Acton and Beeton, suet). Checked 2 November 2026.
- BBC News. Illegal mince pies and other UK legal legends (the Law Commission on the Christmas Day myth). Checked 2 November 2026.
- BBC Good Food. Mince pies by Paul Hollywood (cutter sizes, filling, oven temperature and baking time). Checked 2 November 2026.
- Public Health England / Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. Composition of foods integrated dataset (CoFID) 2021 (codes 11-848, 11-1092 and 17-765). Checked 2 November 2026.
- Groovy Keto recipes and product pages: keto mince pies, keto mincemeat, Brown Erythritol & Stevia Blend, Psyllium Husk Powder and Xanthan Gum (ingredients, nutrition, pack sizes, storage and allergens). Checked 2 November 2026.
