Savoury Mince

by Richardson Family
(York, England)

This is my families favourite savoury mince recipe and it has a story. My Dad when he was a young boy, made this recipe up. His family had a fruit stall in the village market and every Saturday afternoon, they had to pack it all up and take the produce back to the fruit shop and then trudge home in the cold to make dinner.
Well, this was his most unfavourite chore, so he decided to get out of it. To do this, he offered to cook the Saturday evening meal. His mum was happy about that. So it was from then on.
While they were packing up, Dad first went to the fish and chippie and bought two bobs worth of hot chips and took them home and put them in the oven to keep warm. Then he set to work and made his savoury mince. His Mum was right pleased when she got home. With the hearth fire warming up the kitchen, dinner ready, table set and kettle on for a cuppa.

Dad's Savoury Mince:

Boil spuds and carrots in plenty of water so you can use the stock from them.

Brown mince and transfer to a dish. Fry some onions and when brown add the mince and mix in.

Turn off heat and add about tablespoon gravy mix, bisto or whatever. Plus one oxo cube. And 1-2 tablespoons flour. This is his secret!!! If you use just gravy powder, or just oxo, you can taste their flavour. Using both is much better. The flour you need to thicken it, as using a lot of gravy powder gives a horrible taste and makes it very salty!
Learnt this from trial and error.

Mix in well so that all the dry stuff, flour etc is absorbed so you won’t get lumps. Add the stock you saved from the spuds and carrots, just a little at a time. At first you get a paste, then it thins out, make sure all mix is in the water! Now, keeping a jug of water ready to add, heat gradually, stirring all the time, so it doesn’t form lumps. If it’s getting too thick, or out of control remove from heat or throw in some water!

Keep this up until it is boiling, then cook for at least 20 min, longer if you can. Add in the carrots and some green peas so they cook along with the flour. Add water if it gets too thick, and keep going. You can turn it off and heat up again later, if you want. This also improves the flavour. Just adjust the thickness by reducing – cooking more, or adding water. You can add some spuds if you want, or serve with hot chips.

We also like the leftovers on toast the next day.