Would the Tudor idea of Christmas food suit our modern tastes ? The Tudor Christmas fayre was different from the modern Christmas.
Ingredients
1 cup of broad beans
1 chopped onion
spices; ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon
seasoning to taste
grease ( oil ) or butter
Method
Cook the beans in water until they nearly burst and set to cool.
Meanwhile fry the onions and spices together
Add the cooled beans and stir in seasoning to taste
Frumenty or Furmity was a traditional food eaten in midwinter and Spring. It was often eaten with venison and is wheat or barley grain based.
Ingredients
1 cup of cracked wheat or barley
2 cups of water
1 chopped onion
1 cup of almond milk
2 egg yolks
pinch of salt and saffron
Tudor method
Boil water and add wheat or barley grains and onion.
Return to boil and simmer for 15 mins
Add beaten eggs and milk and stir until absorbed. Serve hot with meat and sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.
This was served with game-birds such as pheasant and grouse in the houses of the wealthy. It is easy enough to serve up today. There are no quantities.
Orange Sauce
Ingredients
marmalade
red wine
water
Tudor method
Melt the marmalade with a little water and a glass of red wine. Add spices of choice and serve immediately.
These are similar to macaroons in texture.
Ingredients
8 ozs flour
4 ozs of fine sugar
pinch of salt
1 tsp of anniseeds
2 eggs
1 tsp rosewater .
Tudor method
Mix flour sugar and salt.
Add aniseeds, eggs and rosewater and mix.
Work the dough into strips and shape into plaited strips or knots
Cook for about 15 mins until lightly coloured.
Marchpane or marzipan was a very popular food in the 16th Century and these strips were formed to look like ham or bacon strips and very popular.
Ingredients
8 ozs ground almonds
4 ozs fine sugar
2tbsp rose water
red food colouring
Tudor method
MIx the almonds and sugar with rosewater to form a stiff paste
Split into two and add some beetroot juice ( red dye to half and mix it in.)
roll the paste out and split each colour into four rectangles
layer them alternatively and then cut thin slices to look like strips of bacon.
Ingredients
1/2 pt red wine
5 ozs honey
4 ozs sugar
lemon juice
cinnamon
ginger
pears
Tudor method
Put wine, honey, sugar, lemon juice and spices into a pan and boil.
Peel the pears and put them in the liquid mixture. Cook until they are just soft.
Put them in a dish and cover with syrup. Serve hot or cold.
Wassail was an ale or apple based drink given to visitors. The name derives from the Saxon Waes Hael meaning "be well "
A piece of warm bread was placed in the base of the cup of the most important person and hence the expression of raising a "toast " to someone.
Wassailing was heavily linked to the apple harvest festival.
This is my favourite wassail recipe. Brandy can be added to give extra warmth and taste.
Ingredients
6 apples peeled and sliced
8 tbsps. of sugar
4 pts of apple juice, ale or cider
nutmeg, cinnamon , cloves and ginger to season
(brandy added if desired )
Tudor method
Bring the apples, sugar, juice and spices to the boil and then simmer for 20 minutes.
Switch off and leave to soak over night. Next day strain through a sieve or muslin cloth.
Add brandy if desired and reheat.
In 1551 Henry V111's son, King Edward V1 by Jane Seymour, passed a law that everybody had to walk to church on Christmas Day when they went to church. This law has never been repealed and is still the law today.
I can't see any police officer enforcing it though!
Mince Pie ban
That British Christmas favourite, the mince pie was banned in England when the English executed their king and England was a Republic in the 17th C. The very act of eating a mince pie on Christmas Day was illegal in England.
Festive celebrations, including mince pies and Christmas puddings, were banned in England as part of the governments puritanical regime .
The ban ended when Charles II became king and the monarchy was restored in 1660.
These are just a few of many recipes. I tried to choose some unknown and some similar to what we might have.
Happy and Holy Christmas to you and your family.
Comments
VeronicaJul 15, 2017
The bread was placed there as an offering to the pagan gods for a good harvest so was given to the most important person
DerdriuMarrinerJul 15, 2017
frankbeswickDec 3, 2016
VeronicaDec 3, 2016
frankbeswickDec 3, 2016
VeronicaDec 3, 2016
Is it still illegal for Brits to eat mince pies on Christmas Day?
This is quite true. Enjoy.
VeronicaSep 16, 2016
VeronicaDec 18, 2015
frankbeswickDec 17, 2015
There were no potato chips, but people still had chips made from parsnips, and people in the Celtic realms [Scotland, Ireland, Wales and parts of Western England], used a potato substitute,Silverweed, which you could easily use in the same ways as potatoes. Sadly,in Ireland people replaced silverweed with potato, which should have been an extra rather than a replacement, and the famine ensued when the potato crop failed. Had they backed up with silverweed starvation would not have happened. Silverweed was used in the British Isles for many generations before potato came to our shores.
Pizza is not unhealthy,it is Italian peasant food and is really just bread with some sauce. I love it, especially when it has pepperoni or chorizzo.
VeronicaDec 17, 2015
I will happily combine what I enjoy of both food traditions. The Wassail was delicious. I think Frank has written a book on Olde English drinks ? You would have enjoyed the Wassail I had last Sunday at Little Moreton Hall .
frankbeswickDec 16, 2015
VeronicaDec 16, 2015
blackspanielgalleryDec 16, 2015
VeronicaDec 14, 2015
Indeed Advent fasting was certainly never as important as Lent fasting but it was still there and hence the lead up to a Christmas meal . Enterprising cooks could always find ways round it as needed be.
frankbeswickDec 14, 2015
Holly, box and laurel are all trees that will be found on the edges of woodlands or in clearings. So Tudor folk need not have delved deep into the woods to find them. Mistletoe grows either in woods or on solitary trees. Holly was also grown in clumps and hedges. When you find a place with hollin the name it signifies that it was where a clump of holly was grown. This would be for the thornless upper leaves, which make tree hay, animal fodder, very useful in winter when grass was thin. It is not widely known that all thorny/prickly/spiny plants are very nutritious, so their sharp defences are necessary for the preservation of their species. Gorse makes fine fodder when shredded.