Food
Traditions of Christmas Carols
Each holiday the air is filled with the refrains of
well loved Christmas carols. They
set the mood and tell of food. But
just what are some of those more obscure dishes and drinks?
Let’s look first at a heady drink that was used to toast to good
health: wassail. According
to the Journal of Antiques and Collectibles, this potable is said to
have originated in the fifth-century legend of the beautiful Saxon
Rowena who wished a toast of good health to the English king.
The words of the toast? “Wass-Hael”
in Saxon or “Ves Heill” in Norse.
It was an adaptation of a drink originated by the Ancient Romans
who used spices and wine for their hypocras.
Italy
is very good at growing grapes for wine.
England
, however, is not, making wine expensive. So, in the Middle Ages only
the rich enjoyed such a libation made with wine.
To make a version of wassail available to more of the English
population, their excellent ale was substituted for the wine in the
special wassail bowl. Considering
the high alcohol content of this spiced drink, it is interesting to note
that in the Christmas carol “Here We Come a-Wassailing” it is the
children of the neighbors who come to the door begging for it.
Children beg for their cups to be filled from the wassail bowl,
and other carolers demand figgy pudding. Yes, Virginia, there really is
a figgy pudding. Rather than
having the creamy consistency we think of when we hear the word
“pudding,” figgy pudding more resembles a flavorful, moist, dense
cake. Although first
concocted in the 1400s, it didn’t become a popular Christmas dessert
until the Victorian Era in
England
. It can be found as late as
the 1800s in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
Figs, prunes, raisins, sultanas, other dried fruit, and brandy
make this a type of fruitcake that will actually be eaten and enjoyed.
It’s best served with hard sauce or a dollop of real whipped
cream and a dash of brandy. If
you wish to try this Christmas carol favorite, you can make it by using
the recipes that follows. It
is available online at the Vermont Country Store:
www.vermontcountrystore.com Or,
if you’d prefer to serve a less sung about but just as tasty Christmas
pudding, B. Finicky’s in
Grand Junction
has them this holiday season. They
even have brandy butter to top it off. “Now bring us some figgy
pudding,
And bring some out here.”
For those of us who prefer to sit in front of a cozy fire rather
than caroling in the snow, there are chestnuts to be roasted.
Legend has it that
Mount
Olympus
, home of the ancient Greek gods, had chestnuts in abundance.
Today, they are a traditional Christmas treat in
Italy
as well as
America
. After peeling away the
nuts’ hard brown shells and bitter inner skin, they can be enjoyed
roasted, boiled, pureed, preserved, or candied.
Fresh chestnuts are available from September through February.
When buying the nuts, look for firm, plump ones without shell
blemishes. If you’d like
to roast your own, chestnuts can be found at the local grocery stores.
B. Finicky’s has them already roasted.
Speaking of roasting, turkey shows up a few times in carols. So
does pumpkin pie. Could the
songs have been reaching for a rhyme rather than ritual?
The Christmas menus of the early 1900s in
America
feature not turkey but roast beef, goose, and suckling pig. In fact,
when in 1917 a prominent New York hotel restaurant featured roast turkey
on its holiday dinner menu it made headlines.
Pumpkin pie is also not as ubiquitous as the songs would have us
believe. Mince meat pie,
plum pudding, and fruit cake were just as common for dessert. By 1927
familiar Christmas fare begins to appear more often as illustrated by a
Christmas menu for that year from the Naval ship the U.S.S. Case.
The fare included turkey, giblet gravy, mashed potatoes and yams.
For a flavorful turkey on your table, brine it before roasting
and don’t use a cooking bag. The
bag steams the turkey rather than roasting it, making the skin gray
rather than golden, and deprives the meat and subsequent gravy of the
rich flavors that are imparted by roasting.
Christmas foods have changed over time.
Seasonality of fruits and vegetables is less of an issue now. We
have increased availability of food and spices from around the world.
These factors and lifestyle changes of Americans have contributed
to the additions and alterations of the once traditional Christmas
dinner. No matter what fare graces your table this year, be it old
tradition or new, it is the warmth of the gathering that makes the meal.
Lambs Wool Wassail
Adapted from About.com
Cook’s note: This is a traditional
wassail that was served on the Yule.
It is so named because the foam in the wassail bowl caused by the
ale resembles lambs wool. Its
roots run deep in
England
where it may have been enjoyed by the Druids.
INGREDIENTS:
