An American food website published a recipe for mincemeat and apple tart that confused mincemeat for minced meat.
Mincemeat is actually a popular British mixture comprised of chopped dried fruit, suet and sometimes meat.
The recipe which was published on the website was written by renowned British food writer and chef Elaine Lemm. The site added pictures of all the correct ingredients with the notable exception of raw ground beef.
“The miscommunication here was with the freelance photography team tasked with shooting the pie, who was obviously not familiar with the mince term,” a spokesperson for The Spruce told TODAY in an email about the error, which has since been fixed. “We hope everyone can appreciate the humor in the situation!”
Kim Plowright who works in digital media in London was searching recipes for mincemeat tarts because she missed her late mother and clicked on a post from Spruce Eats, which is based in the US, for a mincemeat and apple tart on its site. While scrolling, she noticed photos peeled apples, butter, sugar, pie dough and a bowl of ground beef.
She double-checked the recipe and started thinking what her mother would do if she saw the images of the “beef mince and custard.”
“She was a home economics teacher, trained in the 1950’s, and had Very High Standards about Pastry etc,” Plowright wrote in an email to BuzzFeed News, “so she would have been completely horrified by the mistake. I think that’s one of the reasons I found it so gloriously funny.”
Many people commented and pointed out the mistake three months ago and the “staff didn’t notice” until that day. Several people shared the recipe and made fun of it.
“Utterly obsessed with this american site that has confused mince with mincemeat, and created this abomination,” tweeted British editor Luke Bailey.
“Here’s my theory – the food writer @britishfood sends Spuce Eats [sic] a traditional British recipe. They decide to make it and take photos of it for the article. But they don’t know what mincemeat is, resulting in this unholy horror,” wrote British blogger Tom Coates.
“Ok sorry UK this is on you for calling beef ‘mince’ and fruit ‘mincemeat.’ You’re the ones that said ‘meat’!! Don’t say meat if you don’t mean meat!!!” said Eater staff writer Jaya Saxena.
“This was an unfortunate, if not hilarious, mix-up by one of our photographers during a recent shoot,” the spokerperson told TODAY. “As soon as we were alerted to the mistake, we fixed the photo in the article. We love Mince Pies at The Spruce — here’s a fantastic traditional Mince Pie recipe. We hope this provided a good laugh and a happy holiday season to all!”
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