The Traditional Feast and the Christmas Cake
Australian Women's Weekly
Saturday 9th December 1933
By MARGARET SHEPHERD, instructor to leading hospitals
CHRISTMAS dinner being the royal feast of the year, when all the members of the family, if possible, meet, the house-wife feels it her pleasure and duty to provide a memorable repast, and so carry on the traditions of hospitality and good cheer, which have been handed down through the ages.
With this arresting, up-to-date menu before you, and these unusually fine recipes to guide you, prefaced by helpful suggestions, you can serve a memorable Christmas dinner, as well as cut into a sumptuous cake.
THE time to plan the Christmas dinner is not a day or so beforehand but at least two weeks in advance. Cakes, pudding, and mincemeat can be made, and jottings on paper (not in the head) of the material required.
The housewife should plan and select her foods with care, and bestow on their preparation the thought and artistry due to the occasion.
On Christmas Eve. the poultry can be prepared, the soup made ready for reheating, the salad greens washed and crisped, and jellies made. The result will be a serene and happy hostess ready to enjoy the fun, and good things she has prepared.
The cocktail and festive hors d'oeuvres can be served in the living room. The soup is equally delicious hot or cold — VERY cold.
We have chosen an unusual stuffing for the duck, which is the centre of attraction with its garnish of unpeeled, sliced oranges, dotted with a bright red jelly, and an accompaniment of gravy and vegetables.
This is followed by a salad, which appeals to the eye as well as the palate. Then pudding. Bob Crachitt — if you remember your Dickens — said all there was to say about plum pudding. Jelly, nuts, sweets — the latter we will discuss in next week's issue.
CHRISTMAS CAKE
½lb. raisins
½lb. sultanas
¼lb. currants
2oz. chopped figs
3oz. glace cherries
4oz. mixed peel
3oz. blanched almonds
vanilla essence
pinch salt
1 teaspoon Parisian essence or caramel
5 eggs
¾lb. flour
4 tablespoons brandy
2 tablespoons rum
½ teaspoon mixed spice
ground cinnamon
and grated nutmeg
grated rind of ½ lemon and orange
½lb. butter
½lb. sugar
1 small teaspoon baking powder
Clean the fruits, chop figs, almonds, peel and cherries. Line a cake tin with brown paper, then with two layers of grease-proof paper, keeping the paper 1½ to 2 inches higher than the tin. Beat eggs well together add the brandy and rum. Sift flour, salt and baking powder together. Cream butter and sugar together with the hand; add beaten eggs, brandy, then fruits, alternately with the flour, mixing well all the time. Lastly, add caramel. Mix well and bake in the prepared tin 3 hours in a gradually decreasing heat. When cooked, turn on to a cake rack. Do not remove paper until required. Leave for a few days if possible, before covering with almond paste.
ALMOND PASTE
½lb. almond paste
1lb. icing sugar
sherry
yolks 2 eggs
extra icing for dusting board
Sift icing sugar into a basin, add the almond paste. Mix egg yolks and sherry together; add to icing, mixing well to make firm paste (a little more sherry may be necessary). Turn on to a board dusted with icing sugar, and knead until firm. Then divide into four pieces. Roll three pieces into strips for the sides of cake, brushing the cake with the lightly-beaten egg white before putting the paste on. Mould the joins well together. Cover top with the remainder of the paste, moulding it gently until the cake is evenly covered. Leave for a few days to harden before icing. Keep pieces of almond paste to decorate the top of cake.
SOFT ICING
1¼ lb. icing sugar
boiling water
flavoring
Sift icing sugar well, and add sufficient water to make into a mixture of the right consistency to spread. Add the coloring and flavoring if desired. Heat slightly, and immediately pour over cake. When set, decorate with Royal icing.
ROYAL ICING
1lb. icing sugar
white 2 eggs
¼ teaspoon lemon juice
Rub icing sugar through a sieve. Beat egg whites slightly, add lemon juice, then icing sugar, gradually mixing it well. Continue beating this mixture until it retains its shape. Cover with a damp cloth, and stand aside for a time. Then beat icing again before putting into a forcing bag to decorate.
GINGER COCKTAIL
1 bottle ginger ale
½ cup sugar
¾ cup grapefruit juice
½ cup lemon juice
½ cup water
6 small pieces candied orange peel
Put sugar and water into a saucepan, and bring to the boil. When cold, add fruit juices, ginger ale, crushed ice. Mix well. Serve in cocktail glasses with a piece of candied ginger in each glass.
HOLLY HORS D'OEUVRES
Cut pieces of toasted or stale brown bread into diamond shapes. Spread with anchovy paste, and decorate with leaves cut from gherkins, and the berries from tomatoes or chillies. Put a small border of finely-minced ham and mustard, mixed together, around the edge with a pastry tube, or with the tip of a knife.
MUSHROOM SOUP
½lb. mushrooms
2 pints veal stock
salt, paprika
6 teaspoons cream
whites of 1 or 2 eggs
crushed egg-shells
½lb. gravy beef
1 tablespoon gelatine
and 1 of lemon juice if served cold
Wash mushrooms. Remove stems and peel. Stand heads aside. Put peel and stems into a saucepan with the veal stock, and simmer very gently for three-quarters hour with a lid on saucepan. Strain. Add mushrooms, which have been cut into strips, and cook until tender. Remove mushrooms, and add lightly beaten egg-white and shells to soup; also ½lb. gravy beef, cut into small pieces. Whisk over fire until stock comes to boiling point. Return lid, and stand on the stove for 20 minutes. Pour through a jelly bag (which has previously had 2 cups boiling water poured through it). When clear, return to saucepan, add the mushrooms, and salt to taste. Reheat. One teaspoon of whipped cream topped with paprika is added just before serving. If to be served cold, omit cream, adding 1 tablespoon lemon juice and gelatine dissolved in it.
ROAST DUCK
Choose a young duck (see that the breast-bone is flexible). Cut the skin around the first joint of the legs, and twist off the feet. Stuff the body of bird with the apple-stuffing (recipe on this page). Make a small cut across the front of the bird, and bring the back through the cut. Put a skewer through the thighs and one through the legs from right to left, and fasten the legs to the body of the bird with string. Sprinkle with pepper and salt. Cover well with greased paper. Place on a trivet in a baking dish. Bake in a hot oven for 1½ hours, basting frequently with hot fat. Just before serving, sprinkle with flour, baste, remove the paper and brown. Garnish with thin slices of unpeeled orange, red jelly, and watercress.
APPLE STUFFING
6 cooking apples
¼lb. prunes
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup breadcrumbs
½ teaspoon crushed herbs
2oz. castor sugar
Wash prunes, and soak overnight in cold water. Next day simmer slowly in covered saucepan until soft. Add sugar, and stand 5 minutes longer. Remove from fire, and when cold, stone prunes; cut into quarters. Peel apples and core, then slice into a saucepan, and stew until nearly cooked. Add prunes, and remainder of ingredients.
PEACH SALAD
6 halves of peaches
lemon juice or sherry
3 tablespoons finely-chopped celery
3 tablespoons chopped walnuts
and 6 walnut halves
2 tablespoons salad dressing
peach leaves or lettuce leaves
3 or 4 tablespoons grated yellow cheese
Make the salad dressing, add chopped walnuts, finely chopped celery, and half the grated cheese. Stand aside. Arrange leaves on a plate. Skin and halve peaches; remove the stone and pour a little lemon juice or sherry over them. Place peaches on the leaves, cavity side up. Fill generously with the salad mixture, sprinkle remainder of the grated cheese on top, and garnish with a whole walnut. Chill thoroughly before serving.
CHRISTMAS PUDDING
½lb. butter
¼lb. flour
½lb. sugar (brown)
¼lb. currants
½lb. raisins
¼lb. mixed peel
½ nutmeg (grated)
1 tablespoon rum
½lb. sultanas
5 eggs
½lb. breadcrumbs
pinch salt
2oz. crystallised cherries
2oz. blanched almonds
½ teaspoon mixed spice
2 tablespoons brandy
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Have in readiness a large vessel of boiling water and a greased basin, sprinkled with sugar, cloth to tie over it, and string (or a large pudding cloth sprinkled with flour and sugar). Beat eggs well, add brandy and rum. Cream butter and sugar together, add eggs, etc. Then add sifted flour, salt, cleaned and dried fruits, finely chopped almonds, cherries, spices, all mixed together. Put into the basin or cloth, allowing room to swell, and cook in boiling water for six hours. On Christmas morning boil for three hours before serving with caramel brandy sauce, made as follows:
CARAMEL BRANDY SAUCE
¼ cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons brandy
2 eggs
½ cup cream
Cream butter, add sugar, a little at a time. Then brandy, a teaspoonful at a time. Follow with well-beaten egg yolks and cream. Cook over a vessel of hot water until the mixture thickens. Pour on to the beaten egg whites.
CHERRY JELLY
2lb. cherries
4 cups water
½lb. sugar
2 bay leaves
1 inch cinnamon stick
rind and juice of ½ lemon
2 heaped table- spoons gelatine
2oz. blanched almond
½ cup red wine
Wash 1lb. cherries and put into a saucepan with lemon rind, water, bay leaves, and cinnamon stick. Simmer slowly, with lid on saucepan, until cherries are well stewed. Strain, return to saucepan with sugar. Simmer until sugar is dissolved. Add gelatine, which has been soaking in 2 tablespoons cold water, and the juice of half a lemon. Add few drops cochineal, if necessary. Stand aside until cold. Stone remainder of cherries, and insert a strip of blanched almond in each cavity. When jelly is cold, pour 1½ cups into a wetted mould. When set, add some of the cherries, and pour a little cold jelly on them. Repeat until the cherries and jelly are used. Stand aside to set. Just before serving, turn on to a dish and fill the centre with whipped cream.
BAKED HAM
1 small ham
brown sugar
cloves
1 cup red wine
a clove garlic
Cover ham with cold water, and stand 12 hours. Cover with fresh cold water, and bring to boiling point; boil three hours. Remove skin, place in roasting dish, rub with cut clove of garlic. Cover with brown sugar, and stick with cloves. Roast three-quarters of an hour, baste carefully with wine. Cover with more brown sugar, reduce heat, and cook very gently for a quarter of an hour, without basting. This is a very nice way to cook a ham.
Source: The Traditional Feast and the Christmas Cake (1933, December 9). The Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), p. 39.
No comments