I am preparing bobotie and the recipes call for minced meat. Is that like British mince meat or ground beef.?!
I am preparing bobotie and the recipes call for minced meat. Is that like British mince meat or ground beef.?
Most of the recipes that look like they come from South Africa call for minced meat. Some just call for ground beef. All have dried apricots, apple, raisins, etc.; which are all part of mince meat. So my interpretation has been that they mean ground beef and it is just a difference between RSA English and USA English.
Answers:
"Bobotie" is just the South African version of the Indonesian dish, Bobotok, which is made with minced meat (beef, lamb, mutton OR pork!). In South Africa, it is not unheard of to add bananas or lemons to a bobotie.
In Britain, "minced meat" usually means minced beef (hamburger") and "mincemeat" usually means finely chopped dried fruit. Just to confuse the issue, Victorian "mincemeat" often contained minced meat (hence the name) as the source of fat to hold the fruit together in a pie. Yum!