12 Days Of Beef Dripping Recipes: Day 2

We have teamed with James Whelan Butchers to bring you the 12 Days of Beef Dripping Recipes. Yesterday we gave you the recipe for Sticky roast parsnips, Chantenay carrots, glazed sprouts  & apples. Over 12 days we will bring you scrumptious recipes to get your tastebuds tingling just in time for Christmas….Enjoy!

12 Days Of Beef Dripping Recipes, Day 2: Mince Pies

Mince pies:

Ingredients:

• 60 chilled James Whelan Butchers beef dripping
• 65 g butter
• 90 g caster sugar
• 1 large egg
• 250 g plain flour
• 1 tbsp of ice cold water

Method:

To make the pastry:

1. Place butter, cold lard (beef dripping) and sugar in a food processor and blitz until combined add the egg and blitz for a further 30 secs.
2. Add in the flour and pulse for a few secs until just combined, and just starts to come together, add a little water if the dough appears a little dry.
3. Knead the dough gently on a floured surface into a disc and then wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 mins.

Myrtle Allen’s Ballymaloe Homemade Mincemeat
Ingredients – Makes 3.2kg (7lb) approx 8-9 pots

• 2 cooking apples
• 2 organic lemons
• 900g (2lbs) Barbados sugar (soft, dark brown sugar)
• 450g (1lb) beef suet
• 450 (1lb) sultanas
• 224 (8oz) currants
• 110g (4oz) candied citrus peel
• 70ml (2.5fl oz) Irish whiskey
• 2 tbsp Seville orange marmalade
• pinch of salt

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180c/350f/gas mark 4
2. Core and bake whole apples in the preheated oven for 30 minutes approx. Allow to cool. When they are soft, remove the skin and pips and mash the flesh into a pulp.
3. Grate the rind from the lemons on the finest part of the stainless steel grater, squeeze out the juice and stir into the pulp
4. Grate the rind from the lemons on the finest part of a stainless steel grater, squeeze out the juice and stir into the pulp. Add the other ingredients one by one, and as they are added, mix everything thoroughly. Put into sterilized jars, cover and leave to mature for two weeks before using. This mincemeat will keep for two to three years in a cool, airy place.

 

Awarded the Great Taste Golden Fork award and named Supreme Champion at this year’s prestigious awards in London, James Whelan Beef Dripping is produced in Clonmel by Pat Whelan, a fifth generation butcher, and made from the purest suet from grass fed Irish Angus and Hereford beef, and wrapped simply in white waxed paper. These magical creamy ingots transform roast vegetables, crisp potatoes into delicious roasters and make the most perfectly golden fish and chips. The product stays fresh for up to six months, simply stored in a cool dark place.

In the words of Pat Whelan, “It’s the taste of my childhood, our Beef Dripping is nutrient rich, high in omega-3 acids, clean, pure and carries great flavour, whether for frying a steak, roasting potatoes, or spread onto good bread like lardo.” Just a spoonful of this once forgotten favourite can form part of a balanced diet and impart a rich savoury note into all manner of dishes, from roast potatoes and shortcrust pastry to the effortless indulgence of dripping on toast with a pinch of salt. 

The Beef Dripping,priced €3.99, is available  online at www.jameswhelanbutchers.com and from James Whelan Butchers at Clonmel, Tipperary, Avoca Food Market, Monkstown and Avoca, Rathcoole.