These small, sweet delicacies originate from the
Middle Ages in
Britain. Traditionally associated with
Christmas and the
Christian celebration,
mince pies were baked in small, rectangular
tins, shaped like the
crib that the baby
Jesus slept in. The ingredients included three spices:
cinnamon,
nutmeg and
cloves - to represent the gifts bought by the
three kings.
I've read that these pies originally contained minced meat and were intended as a way of preserving meat for the winter. Perhaps people substituted fruit as a cheaper alternative and that's how the mincemeat we know today came about.
It is thought to be lucky for you to eat a mince pie on each of the twelve days of Christmas, provided that each one is baked by a different person. Presumably this was to lengthen the odds of getting food poisoning!