“Of all that is written, I love only what a pie has written in his own mince.”
A mince pie is a sweet pie of English origin, filled with a mixture of dried fruits and spices called "mincemeat", that is traditionally served during the Christmas season in much of the English-speaking world.
Its ingredients are traceable to the thirteenth century, when returning European crusaders brought with them Middle Eastern recipes containing meats, fruits and spices; these contained the Christian Symbolism of representing the gifts delivered to Jesus by the Biblical Magi.
Mince pies, at Christmastide, were traditionally shaped in an oblong shape, to resemble a manger and were often topped with a depiction of the Christ Child.
