Old Fashioned Green Tomato Mincemeat

"Owing to strong family ties to the United Kingdom, little mincemeat pies are a cherished Christmas tradition in our home. Consequently, we have rather strong views about what mincemeat ""should"" taste like: spicy, sticky, and sweet (and occasionally, depending on who makes it, slightly alcoholic). So having made our bias clear, in our opinion this is more of a pickle than a pie filling. We found its brash, sour flavor surprising, but pleasant. It was merely ok with whipped cream (our usual mincemeat garnish), but scrumptious with cheese!I would use it as a condiment with salads, cold meats, and deli cheeses. I am giving this recipe four stars because although it's not at all what we were expecting, it allowed us to use up all of our end-of-season green tomatoes before we lost them to the frost! And because it so easy to prepare, and does make a fine mincemeat (or chutney, depending on your tastes). We wanted a sweeter flavor for our pies, so I made the following alterations: I did not add the cloves, as I intended to store much of the finished mincemeat in the freezer. I will probably add just a pinch of ground cloves just before baking, along with a bit of butter. I do not like candied peel (we're used to British-style dried peel), so I peeled one orange and one lemon, washed the peels, and finely chopped them in the food processor. We juiced the fresh lemon for the lemon juice called for in the recipe. We were a little short on the lemon juice, so we put in a bit of the juice from the orange to make up the difference. This worked out really well - very yummy. I added another whole quart of finely chopped apples (sweet apples, this time. We had some Royal Gala on hand, so we used those). I added another cup of brown sugar, and 1/2 cup of granulated sugar. The mixture was a bit juicy (perhaps because I used a food processor?), so I let it simmer for a long time - over two hours. After adding sweet apples and more sugar, it was just right for our Christmas pies. I happened to be making pancakes just as the adjusted, sweet mincemeat was ready, so we had pancakes topped with mincemeat and whipped cream for supper, and they were glorious! The whole family had a lot of fun preparing this and experimenting with flavors, and it was a great way to use our green tomatoes!"