After several weeks of snow, this Scot, at least, appreciates our ancestor’s need for festivities to bring cheer to the unrelenting cold and wet. This December brings a number of opportunities to celebrate from Al-Hijra, the Muslim New Year on the 9th, the Jewish celebration of Hanukka, from the 2nd to the 9th, Ashura, a Muslim day of fasting, on the 16th, the Pagan festival of Yule on the 21st, and the Christian festival of Christmas on the 25th. Every festival- well ok, every festival that doesn’t involve fasting- needs some good food, so in that spirit, here are some recipes taken from nineteenth century cookbooks to get us in the mood.
Jennie June’s American Cookbook, first published in 1866, unusually provided a chapter on Jewish recipes, provided by a ‘Jewish housekeeper in New York’. Her ‘purim fritters’- a dish that resembles what the British call ‘French toast’ are sure to provide a festive breakfast or warm evening snack.
Purim Fritters (from page 320)
Take a loaf of baker’s bread, cut off the crust and cut in slices of one half inch thick; put them in a dish and soak them in cold milk, but not so long as to allow them to mash; when soaked, take them out and drain them. Beat eight eggs very thick, and pour a little of the egg over each slice of bread, so as to penetrate them; then take each slice of bread and dip it into the eggs that are beaten, and fry a light brown colour, in rendered butter, from which the salt has been extracted; when this is done sprinkle over the fritters a little powdered cinnamon, and serve with a syrup made of white sugar.
Frederick Bishop’s The Illustrated London Cookery Book provides us not only with fascinating illustrations of kitchen tools and interesting meals, but recipes for all occasions. This included a recipe for mincemeat, ‘borrowed’ from Jane Strickland- the Victorian’s Christmas guru- who published Christmas Holiday’s, or A New Way of Spending Them,- advice for all the family (pets included!) on how to celebrate Christmas.
Mincemeat for Christmas pie.- Miss Jane Strickland’s Receipt, From “the Home Circle” (from page 245)
Mince pies are truly English. We find several recipes for them in King Richard II.’s cookery book,- a curious volume, reprinted from the original document in the last century, but compiled by that unfortunate monarch’s French man-cook. The recipes would surprise Monsieur Soyer, though the work of a countryman of his own. Gobbet pies- for that was the name by which the modern mince pie was then known- were of several kinds: one for Lent was composed of fish and chopped seere (eggs); one for Christmas, with the addition of almonds, is much the same as the excellent one now presented to the readers of the “Home Circle”. Take equal quantities of finely shred and chopped beef suet: cold roast beef, well roasted; currants, washed, dried and picked; and raisins stoned and chopped; and apples, pared, cored and chopped fine. Mix all these prepared ingredients well together, and sweeten with good moist Jamaica sugar to taste; grate off with loaf sugar the peel of two lemons, and grate in two nutmegs. Having well mingled all these materials together, add to them in the proportion of your mince-meat, thus- If you have two pounds of everything- namely, meat, suet, currents, raisins and apples, and not quite two pounds of sugar, pour over the mixture a pint of rum, or French brandy, and half a pint of raisin wine. If on conscientious principles the spirits are disliked, raisin wine, of a fine quality, or Lisbon must be added; but the spirits will keep it three months. Fill a jar with your mince-meat, cram down as hard as possible, and cover with a close fitting lid, tied down with brown paper. In mixing the wines and spirits, let the ingredients all receive their part, but be careful whenever you take out your meat, to cram down that in the jar with a spoon, and cover close. Line your tin dishes, which must be greased or buttered inside, either with puff paste made of equal weight of butter and flour, or with a family paste made with beef or hog’s lard and a little fresh butter; fill with mince meat heaped up in the middle of your tin dish, cut slices of candied orange, lemon and citrus peel, and put on your meat, cover in with paste; mark prettily with a knife, and bake in a quick oven; heat them for table- for which the tin dishes give a facility, turn into a hot dish and serve. These pies are very convenient things, as they are quite good at a fortnight old, as the warming them makes them quite new again. Mince pies are at best not very digestible, therefore persons of delicate habit will be wise to relinquish them altogether. In giving this old English dainty to children great caution should be observed- in fact, none of the condiments prepared for Christmas fare are particularly wholesome, but the turkey and roast beef. It was formerly the custom in England for married couples to keep the anniversaries of their wedding days, and on those occasions, as many small mince pies were placed on one dish, on the table, as the host and hostess had been married years.
Check out the cookbooks for more ideas. Happy Holidays!
Now the weather is improving and pipes are thawing, Katie Barclay’s washing machine is working for the first time in three weeks (yes, she owns that much underwear). She’s off to get in the festive spirit by doing several loads of laundry.
