Now that we’re in the full Christmas season, I am doing what I do best: eating all the mince pies. But after seeing a Facebook post from an Australian author friend of mine, I realised that there are quite a few misconceptions about one of my favourite treats.

So: why are mince pies called mince pies, when they don’t have any meat in them?

‘Mince’ is the action to cut something into loads of tiny pieces, hence minced beef, minced meat.

What we now call mince pies were actually ‘sweetmeat’ pies. Sweetmeat is a medieval term for stewed fruits. So minced sweetmeat pies became minced sweet pies became mince pies.…which is why people can sometimes get confused now.

We associate ‘mince’ with meat, when it’s just the cutting process.

So now when you dive into some mince pies, you can entertain the whole room with your medieval knowledge!