Mince-pies Exceedingly Good

MOST of us love a mince-pie at Christmas, and a fair few of us will be baking our own, but as a Christmas tradition they can be a lot of work, especially if you have a large family and lots of friends.

Now imagine having to make 35 million of them. That’s enough mince-pies laid out in a line to stretch from London to Rome (1,243 miles) and still have almost two million mincepies (80 miles) left over!

That’s the amount that the biggest mince-pie manufacturer in the world – Mr Kipling Cakes, now owned by Premier Foods – made last year at their factory in Carlton, near Barnsley in South Yorkshire.

They sold nearly six million boxes over the festive season, making 43,000 pies a minute.

Their mince-pies are the biggest-selling boxed-cake product at Christmas, and on top of that they make Yule logs and other Christmas fancies.

It all sounds a bit like Santa and his elves, so I spoke to them to find out how it’s done.

Mr Kipling have been making Christmas mincepies at the site in the hills for over 40 years, with their first-ever pie manufactured on April 1, 1975. Last year they employed over 300 additional helpers to assist their 800-strong workforce during the peak Christmas season, and production continued 24 hours a day.

They also make all their own mincemeat (7,000 tonnes last year) and pastry.

The mincemeat alone contains a mountain of ingredients from all over the world: spices from Asia and Africa, orange oil from Brazil, and dried sultanas and raisins from America, Turkey and Greece.

Other ingredients come from closer to home, like the flour, sugar, treacle, apple and butter, all of which are blended to a secret recipe.

But as tradition dictates that a Christmas mince-pie should contain the three spices cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, as a reminder of the three gifts given to the infant Jesus, it is likely that these are included.

Every day two full lorry-loads of flour and sugar arrive to be added to the huge blocks of butter in a giant mixing bowl, strangely similar to the one we use at home, to make the light dough for the bases. This is then shaped by machine, ready to be filled with the spicy, fruity mincemeat.

A surprising amount of the production is done manually, with ingredients added by hand into steamy vats by well-practised bakers.

Ingredients include apricot jam, candied peel, treacle and even vinegar for sharpness. Everything is being constantly stirred to prevent sticking and burning. This is the smell of Christmas!

The mincemeat is left to infuse for 48 hours, by

Dianne Boardman visits the world’s biggest manufacturer of this much-loved festive treat.