By Seren Charrington Hollins
The modern day Christmas dinner may be considered a banquet by those preparing and eating it, but as you begin to contemplate the kitchen spectacle of creating a memorable Christmas lunch; spare a thought for the teams of cooks and servants throughout history that have prepared truly spectacular Christmas feasts of an unimaginable scale and magnitude in the Castles of the rich and influential.
Today there is great emphasis placed on the consumption of good food and drink over the festive period and indeed there are a string of celebrity chefs only too willing to share their tips and recipes to help create the ‘perfect’ Christmas dinner. As we brave the hustle and bustle of the supermarkets to make sure that we have chestnut puree for our stuffing; a turkey big enough to feed a small army and enough advocaat to sedate Aunt Mildred, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. After all, there is so much shopping, planning, and the big debate of how to cook your turkey is looming. Then there is the matter of creating the perfect roast potatoes and trimmings; not to mention how it’s all going to fit in the oven. Just thinking about it is enough to make you reach for the cooking sherry, but during the medieval period festive food was even more of a focus than it is in modern society.
It is not surprising that food was a major part of a medieval Christmas; after all the holiday season came during a period after the crops had been harvested and the start of winter was a time when livestock became expensive to keep alive so the animals would be butchered and their flesh dried or cured, to be consumed during the twelve days of festivities.
A.A. Milne’s popular children’s poem,” King John”, portrays the friendless king on the eve of a lonely Christmas, contemplating a festive day without so much as an orange or walnut, let alone an India rubber ball. Although, this would have certainly been a Christmas that was fitting for the villainous monarch it is historically inaccurate. King John held a Christmas feast in 1213 that records show included 24 hogshead of wine, 200 head of pork, 1,000 hens, 50 lbs of pepper, 2 lbs of saffron, 100 lbs of almonds, along other expensive spices and if that wasn’t enough, the King also sent an order to the Sheriff of Canterbury to supply 10,000 salt eels.
Even at a slightly lower level of wealth the Christmas meal was still elaborate. According to the household expenses roll of Richard de Swinfield, Bishop of Hereford, over three days of Christmas feasting in 1289 he and his guests made their way through one boar, two and three-quarter oxen, two calves, four doves, four pigs, around 60 fowl, eight partridges and two geese. No one kept track of how much beer was drank, but the guests managed to consume 40 gallons of red wine and another four gallons of white, now doesn’t that put the challenge cooking Christmas dinner for your family into perspective?
In the Middle Ages, Christmas did not begin until 25 December and lasted for twelve days with the rest of December being Advent, a period of fasting where the consumption of meat or dairy was not permitted. During advent the wealthy would spend a lot of money on ordering all sorts of fish, including sturgeon as well as lamprey, eels and oysters, to ensure that they did not feel the pinch to their waistline during this period of dietary restraint.
Christmas feasting in the great halls and castles were certainly grand affairs, but many lords also hosted a feast for their tenants and servants, to encourage goodwill and loyalty; affairs that saw plentiful food and merriment without excessive refinery. The Christmas spirit might at least entice a Lord to donate the entrails from the family’s deer known as the ‘umbles’ to his servants. To make the meat go further it was often mixed with other ingredients to make a pie, in this case the poor would be eating ‘umble pie’, an expression we now use to describe someone who has fallen on harder times.
During the Medieval period the kitchens of the wealthy would have been a constant hive of activity; busier than even the biggest and best restaurants of today, for an extensively long menu with copious amounts of food meant a lot of organisation and hard work. The menu was a vegetarian’s worst nightmare with everything from swans, peacocks and spit roast meats adorning the table. During this time goose was one of the commonest and most popular birds to enjoy, indeed there was no turkey to carve for being native to Mexico they had not yet arrived in Britain.
Turkeys are believed to have first been brought to Britain in 1526 by Yorkshire man, William Strickland. The story goes that he acquired six birds from American Indian traders on his travels and sold them for tuppence each in Bristol.
The now commonplace turkey was once considered exotic and certainly a great luxury. Although, Henry VIII was the first English king to enjoy turkey, it was Edward VII that made eating turkey fashionable at Christmas and so it came to replace peacocks on the table in Royal Courts
It wasn’t just in Tudor times that Turkey was a luxury meat, for in 1930 it took a week’s wage to buy a turkey, indeed a turkey for the table was a luxury item up until the 1950’s, when they became more accessible and affordable for the table of the average man.
Whilst we may think we’ve weaved culinary magic by preparing a sumptuous Christmas dinner with all the trimmings and having baked our own Christmas cake the exhortation to ‘eat, drink and be merry’ truly epitomised Christmas in Elizabethan England. A time when feasting was the main feature of the season. In the castles of Britain the Christmas feast was not only about gluttony, but was an opportunity for the host to display their wealth, status and authority. Not only were there as many as twenty-four courses offered at each banquet, but it was expected that the kitchens of castles and great houses would cook far more than was needed for these grand feasts; not only to impress the guests, but for the express purpose of feeding the needy when the night’s merriment had drawn to a close.
A course of sweet delicacies made from sugar often allowed the lady of the house, an opportunity to show off her culinary and artistic skills. Sugar was extremely expensive during this period and was a key ingredient of the elaborate of dishes and the creation of such delicate dishes was seen as a fitting pastime for wealthy ladies.
Sugar subtleties were often designed to amuse guests with their whimsical designs designed to deceive the eye. ‘Collops of bacon’, made from ground almonds and sugar, were a great favourite as under a skilful hand this subletie could look just like bacon. Another sweetmeat was known as ‘leech’, a milk-based sweet made with sugar and rosewater, which was cut into cubes and served plain or gilded, arranged as a chequerboard.
An Elizabethan banqueting table was indeed as much of a feast for the eyes as it was for the stomach with elaborately decorated and gilded marchpane (a type of almond paste the precursor to modern marzipan) figures and ornaments adorning the tables, alongside crystalised fruits, gilded fruits and gingerbreads’ decorated with optimal opulence. Spiced wines and syllabubs were served and no expense was spared on the tables of the great and powerful. Extravagant expenditure was the order of the day.
Jousting and other entertainment would happen throughout the banquet and between food and entertainment an amazing spectacle would take place that deserved an appreciative audience. Medieval and Tudor monarchs made certain their banqueting halls were packed, summoning not only peers who would provide peerless company, but including anyone with whom the king or queen might want to have a “little word”. To be given the opportunity to attend a Christmas feast at the sovereigns request was to be given the opportunity to be part of the posturing, networking, gossip and social mobility of the period. Diplomacy did not take a backseat during the holiday season. English monarchs frequently used their Christmas courts as vehicles for establishing good will with dignitaries from other nations. Henry IV staged an elaborate joust on the tourney grounds at Eltham Palace for Emperor Manuel II of Constantinople in 1400. Whilst his grandfather, Edward III, had extended his great hospitality to two past enemies: King David of Scotland and King John of France.
Despite the important behind-the-scene manoeuvrings and political networking that invariably took place during grand Christmas feasts, most monarchs found time to rejuvenate their spirits during the celebrations. Indeed even with matters of state weighing heavy on her mind, Elizabeth typically enjoyed the Twelve Days of Christmas to their utmost, usually at Whitehall or Hampton Court. For many years, Lord Robert Dudley was in charge of Elizabeth’s holiday entertainment, a task he undertook with great relish; resulting in legendary balls, masquerades, hunts, and theatricals and banquets being staged round-the-clock for the queen and her courtiers.
Today we tend to look forward to pulling a cracker or two, dozing in front of the TV, the Queens speech and indulging in a festive board game; then post Christmas there is shopping to look forward to as we tackle the infamous boxing day sales; having lost quite a few authentic traditions including the burning of a real Yule log and that of boy bishops.
In parts of Western Europe the 28th December often signified the election of boy bishops, a date that marked the feasts of Holy Innocents massacred by King Herod.
Whilst in England the practice can be found dating back to the twelfth century, where boys were elected as bishops in churches or schools. The boy was often dressed up in vestments and would celebrate a mock mass that would include preaching a sermon. Afterwards he would go out in a procession, where he would receive gifts of money and food. Even the English kings would participate in the fun. Edward I had one boy bishop say vespers before him in 1299 and his son Edward II awarded another boy bishop ten shillings in 1316.
The Christmas Bishop had duties to perform: he was expected to marry as many couples as he deemed possible and then the married couples must offer something. The marriages lasted one night – we are left to guess how the happy couples spent their Christmas honeymoon, now imagine if this tradition still existed.
The holidays can be a trying time even for the closest of families, but imagine the tension when a monarch summoned his next-of-kin for a seasonal fireside chat.
It was during a Christmas court at Windsor Castle in 1126 that King Henry I, who had no legitimate male heir, tried to force his barons to accept his daughter Matilda as his successor. It was after this festive chat that the stage was set for the nineteen year long bloody struggle for the throne that ripped England apart after Henry’s death. Ironically, the final resolution to that civil war, the peace treaty between King Stephen and Matilda’s son Henry of Anjou, was ratified on Christmas Day at Westminster in 1153.
As the Christmas dinner looms and you look forward to moist turkey, perfectly roasted ham, juicy goose and crunchy, fluffy roasted potatoes. Succulent pigs in blankets, perfect parsnips; Brussels sprouts with chestnuts, rich gravies and of course mince pies and steamed puddings; you’d be forgiven for thinking that you were a traditionalist. After all, these are all classic Christmas dishes that most people look forward to devouring over the festive period, but the Christmas dinner you’re eating is not as traditional as you think and is certainly not what was gracing the tables of the rich and influential throughout our rich culinary past. Sadly many dishes people used to eat at Christmas have long been forgotten until now that is. Here are four dishes that would have been relished in the Great households of Britain throughout history.
Mince Pies with Real Meat – 1200s
Mince Pies considered a classic at Christmas time, but the recipe has changed considerably. The name mince pie and indeed the filling mincemeat now seems a little obscure as it is simply a dish of spices, alcohol and dried fruits, but the name is perfectly fitting when you consider the dish originally contained minced meat.
The concept of a mince pie dates back as far as the 12th Century with some claiming that they originate from the traditional Roman festival, Saturnalia, in which sweet meat dishes were presented to Roman fathers of the Vatican.
Today’s pies no longer contain meat but the original recipes from which they derive are linked with the crusaders of the 12th century who returned from the Middle East with new ingredients and tales of dishes containing sweet meats with fruits and spices. Through time meat has been phased out of most modern mince pie production but there are still many people who prefer to create the original pies using suet and real meat.
Frumenty – 1300s
Made in a number a ways including ingredients such as almonds, milk, eggs, dried fruits and often using fish and meat frumenty is a dish that dates back to medieval times and has fallen from the grace of our modern Christmas table.
The recipe involves taking cracked wheat and adding it to boiled liquid. This mixture is then covered until all the water is absorbed and the wheat is tender. Eggs and milk are then mixed before being added and stirred into the now softened wheat, dried fruit and spices would then be added and whilst we may think this is a strange traditional Christmas dish it is worth noting that Frumenty is believed to be the precursor of plum pudding.
Wild Boar’s Head – 1500s
The hunting of wild boar goes back as far as Roman times and was popular throughout history as a status symbol as much as a delicacy. The dish would take centre stage on grand banqueting tables and was often served with a black sauce containing wine, cherry syrup, sugar, ginger, pepper, cloves, raisins, almonds and cinnamon, further enhancing flavour and indicating wealth.
A Yorkshire Pie – 1700s
Found in Hannah Glasse’s The Art of Cookery, which was first published in 1747, the Yorkshire pie is not a pie for the faint hearted. The recipe calls for the cook to skin and bone a goose, a turkey, a fowl; a partridge and a pigeon. Then liberally season each bird with mace, nutmeg, cloves, black pepper and salt.
Then birds are then opened down the back and placed inside a thick pie crust, but before the cook could settle down with a well earned cup of tea, the recipe called for some hare, some woodcocks, game and any extra wild fowl available to be added to the pie. Then at least four pounds of butter must be added before laying over a very thick pie lid and baking in a very hot oven for at least 4-hours.
The dish required a lot of meat and preparation which is why it is rarely served today, but sheer decadence of the dish makes it a sad loss to the Christmas table.
Decrying the Christmas season for its decline into crass commercialism has become as much a part of today’s Christmas vernacular as the bidding of “Season’s Greetings”. Longing to rekindle the true meaning of Christmas and to return to a time of authentic meaning and simplicity are wishes uttered by many over the festive period, usually after being stood in a long queue in a department store, being lost in a supermarket or stuck in Christmas traffic; but one can’t help wondering if Christmases past, with their royal excesses and intrigues were really any less commercial? Perhaps not but in their eccentricity and splendour it seems they were much more fun!
