Grammy Lindman's Mincemeat

My grandmother made mincemeat from the necks of deer taken by the cousins in my family who did hunt. Sadly, I did not hunt until I was in my 20's. My grandparents and both of my aunts were all expert hunters. My dad, however was all city boy, even though he grew up in Veazie, Maine. He had no interests outside of fast cars and girls growing up. By the time I came along Grampy was dead and Grammy was in no shape to be toting a 30-30 through the swamps in search of dinner. My dad's side of the family were not very close to me, seeing me only few times a year. We always got together on Thanksgiving. It smelled like heaven. Cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, turkey, squash, all mixed to create a perfume never surpassed by anything whipped up by the cosmetic industry. The neck was usually donated by cousin Bruce. If you want to give this a try, I have to warn you, you'll wnat to clear your schedule for an entire day. you'll also want to have a pie crust prepared or some cookie dough all ready to turn into mincemeat cookies when it's done. By the way, I don't ever call it venison. If you can't say what it really is, you have no business eating it.
Makes roughly 12-14 quarts
20 Cups apples cored. peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
4 pounds raisins
1 deer neck, boiled and ground (about 5 lbs deer meat)
1-1/2 cups broth from cooking meat
1 gallon apple cider
4 pounds brown sugar
3 cups molasses
1-1/2 tablespoons powdered clove
1-1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
salt to taste
you may also throw in 1/2 pound citron, but my aunt never did, and I don't believe gram ever did either
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Cook slowly 2 hours
My aunt says that she uses oleo in hers and that gram used suet in hers but I never put either in mine