The Christmas Dinner.
Albeit all human history attests
That happiness for man — the hungry sinner —
Since Eve ate apples, much depends on dinner.
The Christmas Dinner.
Of Englishmen it has been truly said the dinner unlocks the heart, and with equal truth the same may be said of the majority of Australians. We delight in keeping up the sacred festival of Christmas, not only in decorating our churches and houses, and repeating the message of peace and goodwill first hymned by the angelic host at Bethlehem; but we keep up the mystery of the Christmas gifts as thoroughly as we sing our Christmas carols; and we have transferred as a national heritage the home 'bill of fare' for merry Christmas as the proper cheer for Christmas at the Antipodes. What though we garland our family portraits with ferns and lilli-pilli in place of laurels, and replace holly berries with scarlet geraniums — we nevertheless send our plum-pudding to table in a blaze, though the sun may be shedding his hot rays over the parched grass or well-watered flower-beds (instead of struggling through dense clouds to light up the snow-laden landscape of Old England).
To the model Australian matron the Christmas dinner is a subject for deep consideration and anxiety; she longs to keep up the old custom, and yet in minor details she feels that the difference in climate demands some changes, and her care is to provide that the home tradition is maintained with enough expansiveness to meet the circumstances; and as the servant difficulty year by year makes the preparation of the festive meal more and more the work of the mistress of a house, we append a few suggestions in connection with the cooking of Christmas fare. And should any of our fair readers be disposed to think lightly of our plan, we assure them that Dugald Stewart is by no means singular in the belief that cookery and the fine arts are analogous.
That roast goose is indispensable at a Christmas dinner, is as nearly universal as the directions to stuff the goose with sage and onions. This may be tolerable in the depth of an English winter, but in Sydney Christmas weather this is a very objectionable seasoning. The smell is disagreeable, and to many persons the taste is as bad. In place of this we advise our readers to...
In olden times a King of Sweden coming to a towne of his enemies with very little company, his enemies, to slight his forces, did hang out a goose for him to shoote; but perceiving before night that these few soldiers had invaded and set their chief houlde on fire, they demanded of him what his intent was. To whom he replied, "To roast your goose;" hence the origin of the phrase, "Cooking your goose."
That roast goose is indispensable at a Christmas dinner, is as nearly universal as the directions to stuff the goose with sage and onions. This may be tolerable in the depth of an English winter, but in Sydney Christmas weather this is a very objectionable seasoning. The smell is disagreeable, and to many persons the taste is as bad. In place of this we advise our readers to...
Apple and Current Stuffing for a Goose
...take five or six large cooking apples, peel, core, end stew them in a little water or white wine — Riesling or Verdeilho will answer very well — with sugar, a little lemon-peel finely chopped, a pinch of allspice, and a tablespoonful of currants well washed and picked; when the apples are soft, but not in pulp, stir the currants well amongst them, and place the mixture in the body of the goose. The flavour of the bird communicates itself to the stuffing, and the acid of the latter corrects the richness, and no one who eats goose thus prepared will suffer by after reminders thereof. Young children to whom "sage and onions" would be very objectionable may take the fruit-stuffing with safety. Another plan is to...
Potato Stuffing for a Goose
...boil as many potatoes as will fill the body of the bird; then thoroughly mash and beat them with a fork until they are smooth, and almost of the consistency of cream; add salt and freshly-crushed pepper, or a little cayenne, and place within the bird. When the goose is cooked the potatoes will be thoroughly flavoured. Should any one cling to the old fashion...
Traditional Onion and Sage Stuffing for a Goose
...boil a couple of medium-sized onions, straining off the water at least three times when it has reached boiling ; pick, wash, and chop fine a handful of sage leaves; chop the onions when soft, and mix the two with salt and pepper. If the goose is being roasted, place this mixture in a saucer and let the drippings fall upon it for half-an-hour, and serve in a separate tureen. If the goose is being baked wait until it is cooked, pour off a little of the fat into a frying pan, and fry the stuffing for a few minutes.
Ducks roasted with apple stuffing are delicious. The general use of stoves and ovens has nearly superseded roasting in the old fashion, and, with care, cooking may be as well done in a gas stove or in the much-abused "colonial oven;" but there is danger in the national roast beef, the goose, ducks, or turkey catching more or less of each other's flavour, and producing that wretched result of "everything tasting alike" the sage and onions mixture is a great offender in this manner.
A result equal to roasting and without the risk of the particular flavour of any bird being distributed is to place the goose, ducks, or turkey in separate braising or stewpans. For the two first-named...
Roasting a Goose or Duck in a Braising or Stewpan
...put a good layer of lard or fine clear dripping with a quart of good stock, cover the pan with a close fitting lid and steam for two hours or more, according to the size of the birds. When nearly cooked take off the lid and let the liquor reduce until it is a thick gravy; if carefully turned the birds will be well browned, the juices preserved, and the taste excellent. Take the fat from the gravy; should there
not be sufficient for the table, add boiling water and a little maizena mixed in cold water to thicken it.
Turkey is scarcely less a national Christmas dish than goose; for Australia it is more suitable from the greater delicacy of the flesh. The turkey was brought from America where, in the great swamps, flocks of 500 congregate to roost; at sunrise they repair to the dry woods in search of berries and acorns. Turkeys were introduced into France by Jesuits who had been sent as missionaries to the far West, and in many places the turkey is still called a Jesuit. The birds were only gradually acclimatised in Europe and in England, and a hundred years ago scarcely half the number hatched were reared. Here they are the most difficult of the poultry tribe to rear. An old rhyme says:
Turkey roast is turkey lost,Turkey boiled is turkey spoiled ;But turkey braised,The Lord be praised."
A turkey should never be dressed the same day it is killed. The cock-turkeys are the best, and when young their spurs are short and their legs black. A medium-sized bird is generally superior in flavour to a very large one, and is always more tender. Have ready...
Turkey Stuffing
...the livers of three or four fowls or turkeys (these can be bought from the poulterer), wash and mince finely, and fry them in butter, ¼ lb. of bread crumbs, 2oz. of lean ham or bacon, and 2oz. of suet, both finely chopped; rind of half a lemon very finely minced, salt, pepper (white pepper-corns freshly pounded are the best), and a blade of mace; blend the ingredients thoroughly while dry, then add the eggs, well beaten; a small tin of truffles added is much relished by epicures ; place this in the breast, and sew the crop skin well over the back...
To Cook Turkey
... truss the turkey very firmly, and well lard the breast, taking care not to disturb the stuffing (if larding is too troublesome, four tolerably thick slices of ham or bacon laid on the breast will have nearly the same effect on the taste); place the turkey in a braising pan, or if this is not convenient, take the ordinary iron boiler — be sure that the inside is bright and very clean — place a layer of bacon, two carrots, two onions chopped small, sweet herbs, salt, pepper, allspice, and mace, with a pint of good veal stock; cover the lid close and set it on the fire, or inside an oven, to simmer in its own steam for three hours, or longer, until it is done; turn the breast downwards for the second half of the time. If the pot or braising pan is on a stove or fire invert the lid, and fill it with bright coals to supply the top heat for about half-an-hour; then take ¼ lb. of butter in a ladle, and as it melts thoroughly baste the bird.
Formerly bread sauce was served with turkey, but this is now rarely offered. Pork sausage-meat may be used when livers are not available for stuffing, or mixed with the liver. Chestnuts, too, are very much liked in the forcemeat or stewed in brown gravy for sauce. Oyster, egg, or celery sauce may be served with this, or the rich gravy in which the bird has been cooked. If the braise or steaming is well managed, a turkey so cooked is a delicious dish; one spoonful of the gravy "will lap the patient in elysium," and while one drop remains on the tongue each ether sense is eclipsed by the voluptuous thrilling of the lingual nerves.
Fowls cooked in the same manner are very delicate, and so tender that even the oft despised drumstick becomes a savoury morsel. A boned turkey or boned fowls, with spaces well filled with forcemeat of sausage, liver, or veal stuffing, steamed in good veal stock (very slowly, to prevent bursting), allowed to cool in the gravy, which when cold becomes a jelly to be cut in blocks for garnishing, is one of the most esteemed dishes for luncheon or for picnics.
The temperature makes fresh pork very objectionable to many persons in an Australian summer, and the raised pork pies which are among the triumphs of Christmas cookery at home are here almost unknown; sucking-pig, however, finds favour with a certain class, though to ourselves we confess it is most unpalatable. An excellent mode of dressing is to...
To Dress a Sucking-Pig
...rub the skin all over with salad oil, and stuff the pig with onion, sage, and bread crumbs mixed together with egg, pepper, and salt. The pettitoes, liver, and brains are stewed for gravy, and served with the pig. Charles Lamb declares that a young and tender suckling, under a moon old, guiltless as yet of the stye, furnishes the most delicate of all delicacies.
The plum-pudding is so important a part of the Christmas dinner that its preparation is one of the cook's great anxieties. The recipes for making this national dish are very numerous. The following has been tried for more than a quarter of a century, and given unqualified satisfaction...
 |
| Christmas Card Design submitted to John Sands Christmas cards competition, 1881 (Australia) |
Plum Pudding
l ¼ lb. of muscatel raisins
1 ¾ lb. of currants
1 lb. of sultana raisins
2 lb. of finest white moist sugar
2 ½ lb. of breadcrumbs
2 lb. of finely chopped suet
8oz. of mixed candied peel
the rind of two lemons
Stone and cut up the raisins, but do not chop them, pick, wash, and dry the currants, cut into thin slices and then mince the candied peel and the rind of the fresh lemons; mix these well together and add
1oz. of ground nutmeg
1oz. of allspice
½ oz. of pounded bitter almonds
mix these thoroughly
take the yolks of 20 eggs
the whites of 16
beat first separately, strain the yolks, add the whites, stir in
¼ pint of good brandy with
½ pint of sherry or good colonial white wine,
and mix all thoroughly together. Put no moisture to the pudding but that from eggs, brandy, and wine, and do not in chopping the suet use more flour than is necessary to prevent sticking. Have ready three or four earthenware moulds well buttered, fill them with the mixture, and tie each down closely with a stout new pudding cloth well buttered and floured. The quantity given is too large for an ordinary family pudding; but as the dish is a favourite one for New Year's Day and Old Christmas Day, it is well to make a good supply and divide. The puddings will require eight hours' steady boiling; when taken out of the pot they should be at once hung in the air, and a saucer placed under each to catch the drippings. When required for use place in boiling water and boil for two hours. At the moment of serving pour a small wine-glassful of brandy round the pudding, light, and send it to table in a flame.
For additional sauce take a large teaspoonful of maizena, mix with a little cold water, stir over the fire until it thickens, add a dessert spoonful of sugar and ¼ pint of brandy; a few sweet almonds, blanched and cut in slices, stuck over the pudding improve the appearance.
Cold plum-pudding cut in slices and fried in a little butter, and then sprinkled with fine white sugar, is preferred by many persons to boiled pudding. In buying the muscatel raisins it is not necessary to get them in bunches; the loose ones are far cheaper and their flavour is much richer than the ordinary raisin; sultana raisins have no stones, but require careful picking to remove the stalks.
Fresh fruits stewed form an element in Australian Christmas cookery, and are both wholesome and agreeable food; they may be eaten with blancmange, with rice boiled in milk, or with cream. Apricots are just coming in. To prepare them in the best mode...
Stewed Apricots
...cut each in two, take out the stones, crack them, and put the kernels blanched with the fruit; place in a stewpan, with just enough water to cover the fruit, the apricots, kernels, fine white sugar, three or four pieces of cinnamon stick, and simmer gently until soft; take out the fruit, strain the syrup, and add a little maizena to thicken it; when cool, pour the syrup over the fruit. This eaten with cream is delicious.
Devonshire Clouted Cream
To make the celebrated "Devonshire clouted cream," put new milk into a pan one morning and let it stand to the next, then set the pan on a stove or hot hearth, and gradually bring it nearer to the fire; in about 20 minutes bladders will rise to the surface and the cream is done. Move it from the fire before it boils, put in a cool place, and when cold the cream is taken off the surface. Of this dish it has been said:
The gems may be rich and the gems may be rare,But this I solemnly do declare:There is nothing on earth or in poet's attain?So rich and so rare as your Devonshire creams."
Cherries, plums, and gooseberries are nearly as good as strawberries and apricots. Apricots and peaches are frequently prepared by German cooks in the following manner...
German Style Apricots and Peaches
...Choose the finest fruit just ripe with the skin unbroken; place the apricots or peaches in a wide-necked jar, close together but not pressed; take wine vinegar sufficient to fill the jar; place in a stewpan with sugar enough to sweeten the vinegar; add cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice, and boil, stirring it occasionally. Skim, strain, and pour the liquid over the fruit, cover when cool, and in four or five days it will be ready for use.
Mincepies are among the essentials of Christmas cookery. The mincemeat must be made fully a fortnight before it is to be used; for those who dislike the trouble of making the mincemeat some confectioners sell it ready made by the pound, and it can be used in small patty pan pies, or, which for a Christmas dinner is preferable, made on a shallow dish and placed between two layers of fine puff paste.
Soyer's directions for mincemeat are...
Mincemeat for Mincepies
2 ¼ lb. of beef suet, skinned and chopped very fine
2oz. of candied lemon-peel
the same of citron
¾ lb. of apples, cored, peeled, and chopped fine, and put into a large pan with
2 ¼ ld. of currants (well washed and picked)
¾ lb. fine raisins (well stoned and chopped)
1oz. of mixed spice, and
1 lb. of good moist sugar
Mix this well together; then add the juice of
four lemons and
half a pint of brandy
Mix thoroughly, place the mixture in jars, and tie it down ready for use.
There is a notion that a mince pie eaten before Christmas Day brings a happy month in the new year, and that the charm extends to each mince pie from a different supply; and this has made the exchange of these delicacies quite common in Yorkshire and the midland counties of England.
One of the nicest ways of making mince pie for a family dinner is to spread a thin layer of puff-paste on an ordinary dish, large enough to give each person a slice; spread the mincemeat over this, leaving the edge of the paste free; cover the whole with a second layer of puff-paste, and bake.
For supper or picnics mince pies are made in patty-pans; but they are not so good as in the dish.
Oh Boxing Day servants invariably expect a holiday. The comfort of the mistress will be increased if at the feast of the day before she superintends the putting away of the good things. Drumsticks and the carcases of fowls, turkey, and goose are delicious aids to soup, particularly in hot weather, when stock is difficult to manage. We will suppose that the breast of the Christmas turkey has been consumed at dinner, the legs devilled for breakfast, and that paterfamilias exercised his carver's privilege and appropriated those delicate morsels known as the nuts from the middle of the back — that he has carved so scientifically that little is left to be called wing.
The first thing after breakfast let the mistress (the servants being gone for a holiday)...
Imitation Mulligatawny Soup
...cut off the wing-bones, take out merry thought and side bones, and with a small tomahawk chop the bones in pieces, separate the carcase by cutting through the ribs, chop the stump end of the neck and the joints of the back in pieces, and with the hammer end of the tomahawk smash all the small bones, put these in a large stewpan, and add three quarts of water, a tablespoonful of salt, a dozen peppercorns, and the same number of pimento corns ; boil for three hours. Cut up three large onions in thin slices and fry them in butter until a rich brown, take a few thick slices of lean bacon or ham, or pickled pork (cooked) cut into dice, then strain the contents of the pot, rinse the stewpan in hot water and place at the bottom the pieces of bacon and the onion fried (the objectionable odour of the onion is lost in the frying), pour the stock over this and add two tablespoonfuls of rice, boil for an hour, and add a thickening of curry powder and maizena, two parts of curry to one of maizena, stir in for a few minutes, and the result will be an admirable imitation of mulligatawny soup. Should the stock seem too thin, take two teaspoonfuls of essence of meat, dissolve in alittle of the boiling stock, and add to the whole. If the curry flavour is not liked, cut up into very small dice two carrots, two turnips, and two onions; place them in a muslin or net bag, tie and boil with the bones for three hours; when the stock is strained, untie the bag, put the vegetables in the soup, and serve.
The cold roast beef of the festal day will supply the next course. To make this really acceptable a good salad must accompany it. Lettuces make the most popular salad, but cold French beans and cauliflower, respectively, make capital varieties; the only preparation being to cut each vegetable into small pieces, sprinkle with salt and pepper — freshly crushed, not the bought ground pepper — add two or three tablespoonfuls of the finest salad oil, according to the quantity, and one or one and a-half of vinegar. But the favourite salad with those who have have eaten it is a potato salad, suitable at any time, always in season and invaluable for luncheon, Sunday tea, or picnics.
Potato Salad
Take five or six medium-sized potatoes, wash and boil them in the skin until soft, but do not allow them to break; strain and set them to cool, then take off the skin, but not the outer coat of the potato next to the skin. Cut in thin slices into a glass dish — a vegetable dish or salad bowl — putting a little salt and a sprinkle of crushed pepper between each layer. Then add vinegar and oil, twice as much of the latter as of the former and mix well by stirring with two forks. Many persons add a spring onion very finely diced, and consider it a great improvement.
For a picnic a dish known as herring salad, very popular with Germans, becomes equally so among English people....
Herring Salad
Eight or nine potatoes boiled in the skin, a beetroot, three good apples cut into small dice, the rind of half a lemon pared very thin and minced in tiny atoms, pepper crushed. Take three of the pickled white herrings, place them in cold water for an hour, and remove all salt; skin them and bone by cutting the fish down the back and tearing it from the bones, cut into very small pieces, and mix with the vegetables. Add capers, vinegar, and oil to taste. This can be prepared several hours before it is needed; indeed, the salad is all the better for standing, mixed with an occasional stir. A few Dutch anchovies, well washed and boned, and a couple of eggs boiled hard and mixed with the above are improvements.
Claret cup is almost an essential at Australian Christmas festivities. When carefully made it is a delicious drink, but in the majority of cases it is a mixture to be avoided. To give pleasure to those who take it, prepare as follows...
Claret Cup
... Get two or three very green oranges and peel very thinly. Put the rind into a tumbler, half fill it with brandy, and let it stand for some hours. Take a dozen oranges, remove every scrap of the white underneath the rind and the outer skin; with a sharp knife cut off the fruit in little blocks, leaving the core untouched and carefully removing every pip; place these in a punch-bowl, take two breakfast cupfuls of fine white sugar and put to dissolve in a pint of water pour this over the cut orange, add two teaspoonfuls of the brandy from the tumbler, which will now be strongly flavoured with the rind, pour two bottles of good claret and four of soda water with a lump of ice; stir well. The cup can be easily replenished by adding the flavoured brandy, claret, and soda water in corresponding proportions.
An equally refreshing drink may be made from Verdeilho, Reisling, or Hock, with pineapple or peaches sliced in place Of oranges.
Sources:
- The Christmas Dinner. (1883, December 22). The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), p. 1187.
- Christmas Card Design submitted to John Sands Christmas cards competition, 1881; Courtesy: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
No comments