I've made pie an number of times with the bottled commercial mincemeat and about 50% chopped apples. That's real good, but ..
. I was trying to remember what there was special in Aunt Alene's. @chefsdreams and @so lucky made me think that it might have been coffee but that wasn't it. I do find a UK recipe using coffee but no, I don't think so (altho that should go well with bacon, and why not? !)
People put rum or brandy in mincemeat but I can't imagine my aunt with her 3 kids doing that, even after they were empty-nesters. What I think she did was put red wine in her canned mincemeat. It was real good ... and, that coffee recipe uses shmaltz instead of tallow. Surely, chicken fat has to be a little more healthy than beef tallow - but, I don't really know. Gotta tell you, Uncle Henry didn't make it to 60 and #2 husband Ben, wasn't a deerhunter ... but, she outlived him, too.
steve, you and i grew up in a similar way. my mother's sister and her husband (aunt louise and uncle bill) managed about 3/4 of their dining requirements by hunting and fishing. the other quarter, i think, was mostly beer
there were lots of times we'd pull up their drive to find a deer hanging from the rafters in the garage. remember when you used to be able to do that? if i tried that today, they'd have the sheriff and the game warden knocking on my door before i got into the kitchen..