According to a 1685 edition of The Accomplist Cook, Robert May, (Prospect Books: Devon,) pages unnumbered, early Christmas meals consisted of mainly flesh, fish and fowl.
Medieval Christmas Celebrations
For example, the bill of fare for a 1685 Christmas Day feast held at a military mess in England consisted of: oysters followed by a collar of brawn. Brawn is the fleshy, part of the muscle. Next came a steaming bowl of broth made from stewing the bones of mutton.
The list went on to include; roast swan, a pottage of caponets, (small capons) bran roast geese, a breast of veal stoffado, a chine of beef, a boiled partridge, jegote of mutton with anchovy sauce, a made dish of sweetbread, a made dish of chicken in puff pastry, a haunch of roast venison, a roast turkey stuffed with cloves, two large capons and a kid with pudding in his belly.
The “kid with pudding in his belly,” was probably a baby goat with blood pudding or some other delicacy roasted in the stomach cavity. Blood pudding is made from the blood of an animal mixed with oatmeal, spices, suet and beaten egg whites for thickening. Wrapped in a sausage casing, it can be boiled or fried.
The Largest Christmas Dinner
Medieval feasts were also known for their excesses. According to Lorna Sass in her book, To The King’s Taste, (St. Martins Press), the Duke of Lancaster held one of the largest feasts on September 23, 1387, in honor of King Richard II.
It started with 13 oxen lying in salt and two fresh oxen. It ended with 12 bushels of apples, 11,000 eggs and 12 gallons of cream. Of course, casks of wine and ale flowed liberally. The feasting went on for days and was accompanied by strolling musicians and jesters.
Mincemeat pie has become a traditional Christmas dessert and in the early days, it actually contained meat. The Buckeye Cookery written by Estelle Woods Wilcox in 1777 calls for, “scraggy beef, a neck piece will do.” Suit, raisins, currents, apples, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, sugar and salt and pepper were added. The whole thing was boiled down in cider or grape juice.
The meat or fowl prepared for Christmas dinner usually depended on tradition or availability. Feasting on geese has long been a tradition in the Old World, as is clear from ancient mythology.
Early settlers to North America had an abundance of wild turkeys to feast on. ---Nectar and Ambrosia: An Encyclopedia of Food in World Mythology, Tamra Andrews [ABC-CLIO: Santa Barbara CA] 2000 (p. 105-6).
Acadian Christmas Dinners
Christmas dinners for the Acadian people of Nova Scotia, Canada included a variety of indigenous fish and meats such as: venison, moose, caribou, salmon, lobster, wildcat, raccoon and beaver, a delicate meat which reportedly tastes like mutton.
Acadians also prepared tourtieres, fricot (chicken stew) and rapier, which is a sort of meat pie layered with vegetables and meat. The top layer consists of grated, raw potatoes dotted with butter and criss-crossed with strips of bacon.
Meals were also served with lots of bread and pork and beans. Desserts included sugar pie, bread pudding and sweet dumplings.
Christmas dinner menus may have changed over the years to accommodate customs, ethnicities, and traditions, but the Christmas season continues to be a time of specialty dishes and memorable feasting.
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