Thinking about Christmas dinner this year I have decided to go for a traditional piece of gammon. Mrs Beeton is a good source for this:
811. INGREDIENTS – Ham, water, glaze or raspings.
Mode.—In choosing a ham, ascertain that it is perfectly sweet, by running a sharp knife into it, close to the bone; and if, when the knife is withdrawn, it has an agreeable smell, the ham is good; if, on the contrary, the blade has a greasy appearance and offensive smell, the ham is bad. If it has been long hung, and is very dry and salt, let it remain in soak for 24 hours, changing the water frequently. This length of time is only necessary in the case of its being very hard; from 8 to 12 hours would be sufficient for a Yorkshire or Westmoreland ham. Wash it thoroughly clean, and trim away from the under-side, all the rusty and smoked parts, which would spoil the appearance. Put it into a boiling-pot, with sufficient cold water to cover it; bring it gradually to boil, and as the scum rises, carefully remove it. Keep it simmering very gently until tender, and be careful that it does not stop boiling, nor boil too quickly. When done, take it out of the pot, strip off the skin, and sprinkle over it a few fine bread-raspings, put a frill of cut paper round the knuckle, and serve.
If to be eaten cold, let the ham remain in the water until nearly cold: by this method the juices are kept in, and it will be found infinitely superior to one taken out of the water hot; it should, however, be borne in mind that the ham must not remain in the saucepan all night. When the skin is removed, sprinkle over bread-raspings, or, if wanted particularly nice, glaze it. Place a paper frill round the knuckle, and garnish with parsley or cut vegetable flowers.
HOW TO BOIL A HAM TO GIVE IT AN EXCELLENT FLAVOUR.
812. INGREDIENTS – Vinegar and water, 2 heads of celery, 2 turnips, 3 onions, a large bunch of savory herbs.
Mode.—Prepare the ham as in the preceding recipe, and let it soak for a few hours in vinegar and water. Put it on in cold water, and when it boils, add the vegetables and herbs. Simmer very gently until tender, take it out, strip off the skin, cover with bread-raspings, and put a paper ruche or frill round the knuckle.
So bearing this in mind I had a trial last weekend which involved a small piece of gammon (for a table of three). Glazing looks great and is actually not too difficult.
So after preparing my gammon and strip the skin off leaving as much fat as I could, scored it in the traditional diamond shape and them inserted a clove into the centre of each diamond shape…I have to be honest here, I wasn’t that hopeful!
I mixed Spanish Lavender Honey, Sherry Vinegar, Demerara Sugar and Madeira, heated and then simmered for a few minutes, poured over half, roasted for 15 minutes and then added the rest spooning over frequently as it cooks.
The gammon cooked well but fell over in the pan but the result tasted great and didn’t look to bad.
A tradition that has passed down my family line from way back is a Victorian Era breakfast we have always used on a Christmas Day.
Scrambled eggs with smoked salmon is a wonderful way to start the Christmas day. So for two you need:
4 eggs, free range 4 tbsp milk, or a little cream mixed with milk 15 g butter 75 g smoked salmon, chopped 1 tsp of Parsley
So whisk the eggs, milk and season well with pepper for about 10 seconds to blend everything together. Melt the butter into a saucepan and add the egg mixture. Make sure you stir continuously with a wooden spoon over a low heat until the mixture looks scrambled but is still soft and creamy. Then place the egg in top of the smoked salmon add some wholemeal bread and butter and enjoy.
You cannot have a Christmas dinner without the blessed sprout.
Sprouts despite their bad press are a wonderful vegetable, Brussels sprouts are from the family that includes cabbage, collard greens, broccoli, kale, and kohlrabi; they are cruciferous.
They also contain good amounts of vitamin A, vitamin C, folic acid and dietary fibre and possibly protect against colon cancer because they contain sinigrin.
So a good sprout is simple to cook and here’s Mrs Beeton to tell us how:
Well not Jelly as we know it but Jelly in the sense of a fruit preserve.
Jelly is a clear or translucent fruit spread made from sweetened fruit (or vegetable) juice and set using naturally occurring pectin.
Chutney, Confit, Conserves, Fruit butter, Fruit curd, Fruit spread, Jam, Jelly and Marmalade, all of these come under the general title of ‘Fruit Preserves’.
So here ‘s my masterclass on making a Christmas preserve with images!
Christmas Apple and Cinnamon Jelly Ingredients: 3lb 30oz cooking apples diced, thinly paired rind of 1 lemon, 2in piece of ginger root crushed, 8in cinnamon stick, roughly broken plus extra if you wish, 1lb 2oz white granulated sugar per pint of juice.
Method: Put the apples and 1 & 3/4 pints of water in a large preserving pan. Add lemon ring, ginger and cinnamon. Bring to boil, then cover pan and simmer for an hour or so until the apples are pulpy and squidgy. Spoon mixture into a jelly bag and allow top drip for about 6 hours.
Measure the juice and weigh out the correct amount of sugar. Add the sugar and bring the mixture to a slow boil stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat to a rolling boil, then take any scum (white in colour).
Wash your jars and lids in warm soapy water then sterilise for about 20 minutes in the over on gas mark 4. Then add the mixture with use of a funnel, seal and label…a voila!
The Victorians enjoyed their preserves and here some examples:
PEACH JELLY Take fine juicy free-stone peaches, and pare and quarter them. Scald them in a very little water, drain and mash them, and squeeze the juice through a jelly-bag. To every pint of juice allow a pound of *loaf-sugar, and a few of the peach-kernels. Having broken up the kernels and boiled them by themselves for a quarter of an hour in just as much water as will cover them, strain off the kernel-water, and add it to the juice. Mix the juice with the sugar, and when it is melted, boil them together fifteen minutes, till it becomes a thick jelly. Skim it well when it boils. Try the jelly by taking a little in a spoon and holding it in the open air to see if it congeals. If you find, that after sufficient boiling, it still continues thin, you can make it congeal by stirring in an ounce or more of isinglass, dissolved and strained. When the jelly is done, put it into tumblers, and lay on the top double tissue paper cut exactly to fit the inside of the glass ; pressing it down with your fingers.
You may make plum jelly in the same manner, allowing a pound and a half of sugar to a pint of juice. Directions For Cookery Being A System Of The Art 1837
*A sugarloaf was the traditional form in which refined sugar was produced and sold until the late 19th century when granulated and cube sugars were introduced.
RASPBERRY JAM Take fine raspberries that are perfectly ripe. Weigh them, and to each pound of fruit allow three quarters of a pound of fine loaf-sugar. Mash the raspberries, and break up the sugar. Then mix them together, and put them into a preserving kettle over a good fire. Stir them frequently and skim them. The jam will be done in half an hour. Put it warm into glasses, and lay on the top a white paper cut exactly to fit the inside, and dipped in brandy. Then tie on another cover of very thick white paper. Make blackberry jam in the same manner. Directions For Cookery Being A System Of The Art 1837
Apple Jam Ingredients: 3lbs 30z cooking apples, 2lbs 2oz sugar, 2 lemons, juice and grated zest
Peel the apples, core and slice them very thin, and be particular that they are all the same sort. Put them into a jar, stand this in a saucepan of boiling water, and let the apples stew until quite tender. Put the apples into a preserving-pan, crush the sugar to small lumps, and add it, with the grated lemon-rind and juice, to the apples. Simmer these for 30 minutes, reckoning from the time the jam begins to simmer properly; remove the scum as it rises, and when the jam is done, put it into pots for use. Mrs Beetons Book of Household Management 1861
Stuffing is an essential accompaniment for any Christmas dinner and of course stuffing comes in a multitude of flavours.
The history of stuffing is somewhat sketchy but appears to been around since at least roman times as the earliest recorded is in the Roman cookbook, Apicius’ “De Re Coquinaria” which appears to contain recipes for stuffed chicken, hare, pig, and yes…dormouse – excuse me if I don’t!
The majority stuffings here seem to consist of vegetables, herbs and spices, nuts, and spelt* and frequently contain chopped liver, brains, and offal (any other meaty bits left over)
*Spelt is a wheat and was a staple in parts of Europe from the Bronze Age to medieval times, but it now survives as a relict crop in Central Europe and northern Spain and has found a new market as a health food.
Anyway stuffing is basically forced into animals cavities before baking and my favourite is homemade Sage and Onion which is from Mrs Beeton, you can find it here
Here is Ruth Goodman with some top suggestion for Turkey and Stuffing.
The humble mince pie has had a rather hard time of it. This tiny little Christmas delicacy has been associated with Catholic idolatry and was actually banned by the puritans during the English Civil War…and it’s only a pie!
I always wondered why it was called a ‘mince’ pie, mince for me has always been meat, minced beef for instance…most confusing for my young self. According to Gervase Markham (which is way back in 1615) you would use ‘Mutton, and cut the best of the flesh from the bone, and parboyl it well then put to it three pound of the best Mutton suet & shred it very small’ and ‘Salt Cloves and Mace’ with ‘good store of Currants, great Raisins and Prunes clean washed and picked a few Dates sliced, and some Orange-pils sliced’.
But to return to our present, well Victorian present…er…past we turn again to Mrs Beeton.
Puff-paste
INGREDIENTS – Good puff-paste No. 1205, mincemeat No. 1309.
Mode.—Make some good puff-paste by recipe No. 1205; roll it out to the thickness of about 1/4 inch, and line some good-sized pattypans with it; fill them with mincemeat, cover with the paste, and cut it off all round close to the edge of the tin. Put the pies into a brisk oven, to draw the paste up, and bake for 25 minutes, or longer, should the pies be very large; brush them over with the white of an egg, beaten with the blade of a knife to a stiff froth; sprinkle over pounded sugar, and put them into the oven for a minute or two, to dry the egg; dish the pies on a white d’oyley, and serve hot. They may be merely sprinkled with pounded sugar instead of being glazed, when that mode is preferred. To re-warm them, put the pies on the pattypans, and let them remain in the oven for 10 minutes or 1/4 hour, and they will be almost as good as if freshly made.
Mince Meat Recipe:
INGREDIENTS – 2 lbs. of raisins, 3 lbs. of currants, 1–1/2 lb. of lean beef, 3 lbs. of beef suet, 2 lbs. of moist sugar, 2 oz. of citron, 2 oz. of candied lemon-peel, 2 oz. of candied orange-peel, 1 small nutmeg, 1 pottle of apples, the rind of 2 lemons, the juice of 1, 1/2 pint of brandy.
Mode.—Stone and cut the raisins once or twice across, but do not chop them; wash, dry, and pick the currants free from stalks and grit, and mince the beef and suet, taking care that the latter is chopped very fine; slice the citron and candied peel, grate the nutmeg, and pare, core, and mince the apples; mince the lemon-peel, strain the juice, and when all the ingredients are thus prepared, mix them well together, adding the brandy when the other things are well blended; press the whole into a jar, carefully exclude the air, and the mincemeat will be ready for use in a fortnight. Mrs beeton’s book of household management 1861
or from Cassell’s Dictionary of cookery you can take you pick of several recipes.
Mincemeat, Old fashioned. Take a pound of beef, a pound of apples, two pounds of suet, two pounds of sugar, two pounds of currants, one pound of candied lemon or orange peel, a quarter of a pound of citron, and an ounce of fine spices; mix all these together, with half an ounce of salt, and the rinds of six lemons shred fine. See that the ingredients are thoroughly incorporated, and add brandy or wine according to taste.”
Mincemeat Royal. To an ounce of clarified butter add the yolks of four eggs, and beat in two table-spoonfuls of pounded sugar, with the grated rind and strained jice of a large lemon. Mix these ingredients with half a large lemon. Mix these ingredients with half a pound of rich mincemeat, without beef, and nearly fill the patty-pans with the mixture. Put them into a moderately quick oven to set. Ice them with the whites of the eggs, previously beaten to snow, with a quarter of a pound of pounded laof sugar, and place them in the oven again until they are of a nice rich brown.”
Mincemeat and Mince Pies. Take four pounds of raisins stoned, and four pounds of currants, washed lean, four pounds of apples, six pounds of suet, and half a fresh ox-tongue boiled, half a pound of candied orange-peel, ditto lemon, and a quarter of a pound of citron, all chopped; the juice of three oranges and three lemons, with the peel of two grated; half a pound of moist sugar, two glasses of brandy, two of sherry, one nutmeg grated, a spoonful of pounded cinnamon, and half an ounce of salt. Mix all these well together, put the whole into jars, and keep them tied over the bladder. A little of this mixture baked in tart-pans with puff-paste forms mince pies.
Or peel, core, and chop finely a pound of sound russet apples, wash and pick a pound of raisins, and let both these be chopped small. Then take away the skin and gristle from a pound of roast beef, and carefully pick a pound of beef-suet; chop these well together. Cut into small pieces three quarters of a pound of mixed candied orange, citron, and lemon-peel; let all these be well stirred together in a large pan. Beat or grind into powder a nutmeg, half an ounce of ginger, and a quarter of an ounce of cloves, the same of allspice and coriander-seeds; add half an ounce of salt, and put these into the pan, mixing them thoroughly. Grate the rinds of three lemons, and squeeze the juice over half a pound of fine Lisbon sugar, mixed with the lemon-peel; pour over this two gills of brandy and half a pint of sherry. Let these ingredients be well stirred, then cover the pan with a slate; and when bout to use the mincemeat take it from the bottom of the pan.
Or, to make mince pies without meat, carefully prepare, as before directed, a pound an a half of fresh beef-suet, and chop it as small as possible; stone and chop a pound and a half of Smyrna raisins; well wash and dry on a coarse with two pounds of currants; peel, core, and cut small three pounds of russet apples; add a quarter of an ounce of mixed cinnamon and mace in powder, four cloves powdered, a pound an a half of powdered sugar, a tea-spoonful of salt, the juice of a lemon and its peel finely grated, and a table-spoonful of mixed candied fruit cut very small. Let all the above be well mixed together, and remain in the pan a few days. When you are about to make mince pies, throw a gill of brandy and the same of port wine into the pan, and stir together the mince. Line the required number of patty-pans with properly-made paste; fill from the bottom of the pan; cover, and bake quickly.” Cassell’s Dictionary of Cookery 1883
Have you seen the Mock Turtle yet?” “No” said Alice. “I don’t even know what a Mock Turtle is” “It’s the thing a Mock Turtle Soup is made from” said the Queen
Soup was an essential part of the Victorian Meal, and the Victorians tended to eat most things.
Mock Turtle Soup was a standard for the rather well to do but having to remove the brain from a calf’s skull just doesn’t do it for me but I don’t think Victorians were that squeamish
So what do we need?
Well according to the world-renowned Mrs Beeton we need:
*1/2 a calf’s head 1/4 lb. of butter 1/4 lb. of lean ham 2 tablespoonfuls of minced parsley a little minced lemon thyme sweet marjoram basil 2 onions a few chopped mushrooms 2 shallots 2 tablespoonfuls of flour 1/4 bottle of Madeira or sherry *force-meat balls cayenne salt and mace to taste the juice of 1 lemon and 1 Seville orange 1 dessert-spoonful of pounded sugar *3 quarts of best stock, No. 104.
*The calf’s head you may be able to get from a good local butcher but I doubt if you are likely to get it in Tesco or Waitrose!
*Force-meat balls I always took to be stuffing but they are really more like falafel. Here’s a recipe from Michael Willis from his 1831 publication Cookery made easy: being a complete system of domestic management, uniting Elegance with Economy.
*Best Stock 104.
Ingredients: 4 lbs. of shin of beef 4 lbs. of knuckle of veal 3/4 lb. of good lean ham any poultry trimmings 3 small onions 3 small carrots 3 turnips (the latter should be omitted in summer, lest they ferment), 1 head of celery a few chopped mushrooms 1 tomato a bunch of savoury herbs, not forgetting parsley; 1–1/2 oz. of salt, 12 white peppercorns, 6 cloves, 3 small blades of mace, 4 quarts of water.
I have made this in a slightly different form and cooked it for only 2 hours and the result was a really wonderful tasting stock or it can be used as a table gravy.
Best Stock 104 instruction – Line a delicately clean stewpan with the ham cut in thin broad slices, carefully trimming off all its rusty fat; cut up the beef and veal in pieces about 3 inches square, and lay them on Continue reading →
Goose at Christmas was certainly a traditional fayre for the Victorian era although many people did have Chicken as well as Turkey:
“What’s to-day?” cried Scrooge, calling downward to a boy in Sunday clothes, who perhaps had loitered in to look about him. “Eh?” returned the boy, with all his might of wonder. “What’s to-day, my fine fellow?” said Scrooge. “To-day?” replied the boy. “Why, Christmas Day.” “It’s Christmas Day!” said Scrooge to himself. “I haven’t missed it. The Spirits have done it all in one night. They can do anything they like. Of course they can. Of course they can. Hallo, my fine fellow!” “Hallo!” returned the boy. “Do you know the Poulterer’s, in the next street but one, at the corner?” Scrooge inquired. “I should hope I did,” replied the lad. “An intelligent boy!” said Scrooge. “A remarkable boy! Do you know whether they’ve sold the prize Turkey that was hanging up there — Not the little prize Turkey: the big one?” “What, the one as big as me?” returned the boy. “What a delightful boy!” said Scrooge. “It’s a pleasure to talk to him. Yes, my buck.” “It’s hanging there now,” replied the boy. “Is it?” said Scrooge. “Go and buy it.” “Walk-er!” exclaimed the boy. “No, no,” said Scrooge, “I am in earnest. Go and buy it, and tell them to bring it here, that I may give them the direction where to take it. Come back with the man, and I’ll give you a shilling. Come back with him in less than five minutes and I’ll give you half-a-crown.” From Stave 5: The End of It – A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
But back to the goose. Now if you are going to cook goose it’s worth remembering that the fat content of goose is higher than poultry and most other game birds, however it is comparable to or maybe even less than many cuts of beef or lamb. It is also a good source of protein and iron so there is some balance.
Mrs Beeton was advising that turkey was best boiled and served with celery sauce as it was apt to be dry and stringy. But our best bet is find local butcher explain exactly what you want and they are sure to help…my butcher is excellent. So here is a recipe for a Goose Pie from ‘Directions for Cookery; being A System of the Art in It’s Various Branches by Miss Leslie (Author of ‘Seventy-five receipts)’ published in 1837.
These pies are always made with a standing crust. Put into a sauce-pan one pound of butter cut up, and a pint and a half of water ; stir it while it is melting, and let it come to a boil. Then skim off whatever milk or impurity may rise to the top. Have ready four pounds of flour sifted into Continue reading →
So three 1850 menu’s, it’s give us something to think about as start to consider what we’ll cook for Christmas Day Dinner. Here’s a recipe to start us off.
A TEMPERANCE PLUM PUDDING
Take a pound of the best raisins, and cut them in half, after removing the seeds. Or use sultana raisins that have no seeds. Pick, and wash clean, a pound of currants, and dry them before the fire, spread out on a large flat dish.
Cut into slips half a pound of citron. Then mix together, on the same dish, the currants, the raisins, and the citron, and dredge them thickly with flour to prevent their sinking or clodding in the pudding; tumbling them about with your hands till they are all over well covered with the flour. Mince very fine a pound of beef suet.
Mix a pint of West India molasses with a pint of rich milk. Sift into a pan a pound of flour. In another pan beat eight eggs very light. Stir the beaten eggs, gradually, into the mixed molasses and milk ; alternately with the flour, and half a pound of sugar, (which should previously be crushed smooth by roiling it with a rolling-pin,) a little at a time of each. Then add, by degrees, the fruit and the suet, a little of each alternately.
Beat and stir the whole very hard, till all the ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Take a large clean square cloth of coarse strong linen, dip it in boiling water, shake it, spread it out in a large pan, and dredge it with flour to prevent the pudding from sticking to it when boiled. Then pour the pudding-mixture into the cloth ; leave room for it to swell, and tie it firmly, plastering up the tying-place with a bit of coarse dough made of flour and water. Have ready a large pot full of water, and boiling hard. Put in the pudding, and boil it well from six to eight hours. Less than six will not be sufficient, and eight hours will not be too long. Turn it several times while boiling, and keep at hand a kettle of hot water to replenish the pot as it boils away. Do not take it up till immediately before it is wanted on the table. Then dip it for a moment into cold water, untie the cloth, and turn out the pudding. Serve it up with a sauce-boat of sweetened cream, seasoned with nutmeg; or with butter and sugar beaten together till light and white, and flavoured with lemon. What is left of the pudding may be tied up in a cloth and boiled again next day for an hour or more. It will be equally as nice as on the first day. This is a much better way of re-cooking than to slice and fry it.
This pudding may be made with sifted yellow Indian meal, instead of wheat flour.
1859 and The Modern Cook has a wonderful somewhat challenging recipe for a Christmas Pie.
The book makes claim to some very good credentials so off we go.
‘First, bone a turkey, a goose, a brace of young pheasants, four partridges, four woodcocks, a dozen snipes, four grouse, and four widgeons (These are freshwater duck of Eurasia and northern Africa related to mallards and teals) then boil and trim a small York ham and two tongues.
Season and garnish the inside of the fore-named game and poultry with long fillets of fat bacon and tongue, and French truffles ; each must be carefully sewn up with a needle and small twine, so as to prevent the force-meat from escaping while they are being baked.
The Christmas Pie
When the whole of these are ready, line two round or oval braising- pans with thin layers of fat bacon, and after the birds have been arranged therein in neat order, and covered in with layers of bacon and buttered paper, put the lids on, and set them in the oven to bake rather slowly, for about four hours: then withdraw them, and allow them to cool.
While the foregoing is in progress, prepare some highly-seasoned aspic-jelly with the carcasses of the Game and poultry, to which add six calves-feet, and the usual complement of vegetables, &c, and when done, let it be clarified: one-half should be reduced previously to its being poured into the pie when it is baked. Make about sixteen pounds of hot-water paste (No. 1251)
1251. HOT-WATER PASTE, FOR RAISED PIES.
Ingredients:—One pound of flour, four ounces of butter, a teaspoonful of salt, about a gill and a half of hot water.
Place the flour on the pastry-table, spread it out with the back of the hand, so as to form a well or hollow in the centre, into this put the salt. Next, put the butter and water into a stew pan over the fire, and when they are sufficiently heated, so that one can just bear the finger in, pour them both gradually in upon the flour, and mix them quickly together with the hand, taking particular care to knead the whole firmly, and at once, into a compact paste: then press this smoothly together in a napkin, and afterward keep it covered up in a stew pan in a warm place till used.
and use it to raise a pie of sufficient dimensions to admit of its holding the game and poultry prepared for the purpose, for making which follow the directions contained in the foregoing article. The inside of the pie must first be lined with thin layers of fat bacon’ over which spread a coating of well-seasoned force-meat of fat livers (No. 247)
248. FORCE-MEAT OF LIVER AND HAM, FOR RAISED PIES.
Take the whole or part of a light-coloured calf’s liver, or several fat livers of any kind of poultry, if to be obtained. If calf’s liver be used, cut it into rather small square pieces, and, if time permit, steep them in cold spring water, in order to extract the blood, so that the force-meat may be whiter. Take the pieces of liver out of the water, and place them upon a clean rubber to drain the water from them. Meanwhile cut some fat ham or bacon (in equal proportion to the liver) into square pieces, put them into a sauté-pan on a brisk fire to fry, after which add the pieces of liver, and fry the whole of a light brown colour; season with cayenne pepper and salt, and a little prepared aromatic spice (No. 1250)
1250. AROMATIC-SPICES, FOR SEASONING.
Take of nutmegs and mace, one ounce each ; of cloves and white pepper-corns, two ounces each ; of sweet-basil, marjoram, and thyme, one ounce each, and half an ounce of bay-leaves : these herbs should be previously dried for the purpose : roughly pound the spices, then place the whole of the above ingredients between two sheets of strong white paper, and after the sides have been twisted or folded over tightly, so as to prevent as much as possible the evaporation of the volatile properties of the herbs and spices, place them on a baking sheet in the skreen to become perfectly dry ; they must then be pounded quickly, sifted through a fine hair-sieve, corked up tightly in a dry bottle, and kept for use.
some chopped mushrooms, parsley, and three shallots. After this, take the pieces of liver and ham out of the pan, lay them on a chopping-board, and Continue reading →