Tis the season…. For Mince Pies!
Sherlock is not eating a biscuit or a cookie in his mum’s kitchen; it’s a mincemeat pie (AKA Mince Pies, for short), and as I just made the first of the season batch of my own I thought I would explain to non-Brits that it has no meat in it (minced or otherwise) these days. Inside the shortcrust pastry tart you will find a well-matured mix of raisins, currants, brown sugar, chopped nuts, suet (can be vegetable or animal product), and all the Christmas spices, which have been allowed to mature in brandy for about two months before use. Nowadays, most people buy it in jars, already made. Or boxes of complete pies ready for the oven, for the really kitchen-challenged. I use a recipe that is ninety years old and still produces better than any store-bought version.
Mummy Holmes and Mrs Hudson will have their own different recipes. You can have them hot or cold. I expect the one he’s eating above is hot, fresh from the oven, and they do have a tendency to crumble, which is why this scene turned into an out-take when he started to laugh about it doing just that, as well having taken too large a mouthful.
This one, however, must have been cold, because he marched into Mrs Hudson’s kitchen and took it from the fridge. I think both Sherlock and Benedict like mince pies!