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BS: CHRISMAS PAST
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Subject: CHRISMAS PAST From: nutty Date: 10 Dec 01 - 01:29 PM When I look around the shops and supermarkets of today - loaded with food from exotic places, I think of the gems that thrilled me in the past and wondered if anyone out there would give their right arm for an old fashioned Christmas party. Do you remember ......... Meat paste sandwiches Jelly and blancmangec Fairy cakes Butterfly buns Iced buns with hundreds and thousands on top ....... or silver balls ......... or sugar strands Jam tarts .... with home made jam and lemon curd Those were my favourites ...... how about you?????? |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: Kim C Date: 10 Dec 01 - 01:38 PM I'm not familiar with some of those things... but a few years ago, when I was president of my ladies' reenacting group, I put out a challenge at Christmas for everyone to do something they had never done before, that their 19th-century counterpart would have done at holiday time. I made a plum pudding from scratch, complete with hard sauce. I surprised myself at my own success. I didn't know what was going to happen. This year will be my third plum pudding. :-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: Gareth Date: 10 Dec 01 - 01:43 PM Aaaahh! Culinary nostalgia. Gareth |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: MMario Date: 10 Dec 01 - 01:57 PM okay - what are fairy cakes and butterfly buns? |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: Morticia Date: 10 Dec 01 - 02:57 PM Fairy cakes are small sponge cakes which have the top sliced off and a dollop of icing into which you set the two halves of the top....like fairy wings, I guess. I suspect butterfly buns may be something similar but I'm not familiar with the term.Nutty, you can keep your meat paste sandwiches ( barf) but I'll raise you Gentlemans Relish on hot toast........ |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: Pseudolus Date: 10 Dec 01 - 03:07 PM In my family it wasn't so much what but when. Every year, we would get a visit from my uncle singing a rousing version of "Christmas is Coming...". He only lived a block away. He would be delivering a batch of fresh home-made Kielbasa (Polish Sausage) which was a Christmas staple at our house. I also had an aunt a block away and we would all walk to her house to sample some Christmas baking. This was around 10:00 - 11:00 PM Christmas Eve. She always did her baking Christmas eve night, sometimes all through the night, she was and still is amazing! Homemade Krushchicki (probably spelled that wrong), Pierogi and Polish Bread. We'd sing Christmas Carols going from house to house, eating homemade whatever and having a blast. My memories of Christmas are among the sweetest gifts my parents ever gave me. Few if any are about gifts and gift-giving but of the get-togethers and the laughter and of course the food! I don't know if this was the intent of the thread, I might have creeped a bit, but it sure brought a smile to my face this afternoon......thanks! Frank |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: CarolC Date: 10 Dec 01 - 03:46 PM What's Gentleman's Relish? (I'm almost afraid to ask.) |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: DougR Date: 10 Dec 01 - 04:13 PM And what is a meat paste sandwich? DougR |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: Joe Offer Date: 10 Dec 01 - 04:13 PM Frank, you're making me very hungry. I'm marrying a wonderful Polish woman January 12. She keeps telling me of all the wonderful traditional food she had when she was growing up. Now she's a chiropractor and an organic vegetarian, and most of those wonderful old dishes don't get near her table. She makes great borscht, though. -Joe Offer- |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: artbrooks Date: 10 Dec 01 - 04:22 PM DougR: can you say "liverwurst"? |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 10 Dec 01 - 04:52 PM Don't other people still go in for all those things?
Paper chains, as opposed to the ones made out of glittery stuff. (And here is a song about paper chains)
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: weepiper Date: 10 Dec 01 - 04:55 PM Gentleman's Relish also called Patum Peperium is a sandwich spread made of anchovies (and butter?) with a peppery not particularly fishy taste. Bit like Marmite. |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: Kim C Date: 10 Dec 01 - 04:57 PM My ex-boyfriend's mother used to make this German liver-loaf concoction called pritt. (I don't know if that's the right way to spell it or not.) She'd make this loaf, slice it up, fry it, and put pancake syrup on it. She said it was the only way she could get the boys to eat liver. I went home with him one Christmas... his mom was a great cook, and I like liver, but I never could decide about the pritt. The old story is in my family, that a great-grandmother had thrown out a perfectly good fruitcake, in front of several drooling children, because she thought the little green fruits in it were "pizen." I regret that my family situation growing up did not produce any especially happy memories. However, I'm making up for that now. I heard it's never too late to have a happy childhood. :-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: GUEST,Wyrdsister Date: 10 Dec 01 - 05:54 PM It's interesting and not a little horrifying what's happened to our holidays in the last 200 years or so (the most recent 50 being the most grievous offenders!), and not only in regard to food. This whole holiday thing has gotten completely out of hand! In the Middle Ages (I am admittedly a mediaevalist---get your pillows ready), a holiday usually had some religious connotation--a saint's day, an ancient pre-christian earth-based occasion tarted up for the Church, etc., but the upshot of the deal was that you didn't have to work---hurrah! So you could play games, play music, dance, eat & drink a bit more and (if you were lucky)a bit better than usual, but there wasn't this hideous commercial build-up we're subjected to nowadays. It's interesting to consider that as recently as the 1840s, Christmas still wasn't really such a major event in the calendar (another nice pre-christian term!), but the marriage of V & A, the resulting importation of various Teutonic traditions and the publication of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" were amongst the factors contributing to it becoming Such A Big Deal. But even the Cratchits just wanted a nice meal and a bit of hot gin (blecchh!) punch and some familial togetherness to feel they'd had a merry Christmas and that God had blessed them, every one. Then came the Christmas cards..... My own mother, growing up in 1940s Warwickshire (admittedly in wartime, but still...) remembers fresh oranges as being amongst the greatest treats of Christmastime! It is indeed high time we make the effort to re-institute culinary traditions into our holidays, before we're all eating whatever Walt Disney & Co. deem appropriate for our "holiday feast" as dictated by Mickey Mouse and the advertising mascots of Toys R Us.....! |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: Pseudolus Date: 10 Dec 01 - 10:59 PM Hey Joe, Lots of good Polish stuff out there that should not offend a vegetarian at all...Babka, Krushchicki, Polish Rye bread.....it's all there!! Oh, and by the way, congratulations on the upcoming happy day for both of you!!!! Frank |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: CarolC Date: 10 Dec 01 - 11:41 PM Thanks weepiper.
One of the most wonderful Christmas foods I've ever eaten was something I was introduced to by a family of people who were second and third generation Dutch/Americans.
It was made with almond paste and some other things (like maybe flour and eggs), and baked into bars that somewhat resembled fudge brownies in texture (but not in taste). They had a delicious subtle almond flavor, were slightly chewy, and just about melted in the mouth. I've always been very sorry I never got the recipe. If there are any people here of Dutch ancestry who know how to make these almond bars, could you please steer me in the direction of a good recipe? |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: GUEST,Jock Morris @ work in Edinburgh Date: 11 Dec 01 - 08:32 AM CarolC, sounds like marzipan to me; used this side of the pond to cover the Christmas fruit cake before decorating with royal icing. Scott |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: MMario Date: 11 Dec 01 - 10:48 AM carol - I've been searching - I'm sure Ive seen recipes for this - I know I've eaten them! |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: Morticia Date: 11 Dec 01 - 10:57 AM Meat paste sandwiches are ( and don't read any further if you are at all squeamish)....made from potted meat paste, which purports to be of various flavours...beef, chicken etc.etc. Worryingly they are all of the same consistency ( that of mud), the same colour ( that of pale mud)and much the same taste ( you've guessed it). Heaven alone knows what bit of the animal, should an animal actually be involved, is used to make meat paste but my father always used to say it was ( forgive the vulgarity) "lips and arseholes"....and I suspect he was right. |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: The_one_and_only_Dai Date: 11 Dec 01 - 11:03 AM I'd like to point out that an empire was built on Rhondda coal and Shippham's Meat Paste. |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: MMario Date: 11 Dec 01 - 11:08 AM aha!
ALMOND BLONDIES |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler Date: 11 Dec 01 - 11:13 AM Each year a scientist in Germany that my wife supplies with information sends her a thank you in the form of stollen (I think) cake which is so hard (it may be the time in the post!)it is like eating plasterboard (drywall). Believe me, I've tried! RtS (as a war baby I hate wasting food but this is just inedible!) |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: CharlieA Date: 11 Dec 01 - 11:20 AM My Grans christmas pudding, cornish clotted cream and brandy butter. and mums mince pies with the above acoutrements. the women in my family (inc me) love to cook and produce the most wonderfull xmas meals. one day my graan will let me and mum do the cooking but till then i'm just a skivvy and they cook. Cxxx |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: Bert Date: 11 Dec 01 - 11:23 AM Nutty, You forgot the Mince Pies and Sausage Rolls. I always used to prefer the fish paste myself. You don't see it very often here in the USA so I'll make my own. Half white fish and half smoked fish mashed up with butter, add salt and white pepper to taste. It's much better than the bought stuff. Put a dollup on a cracker and top it with a cocktail shrimp. Don't make them too soon before the party though or the crackers will go soggy. And home made jam tarts, mmmmmm. I make them, but I can't find those shallow jam tart tins over here. All we can get are muffin pans which are too deep. |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: Morticia Date: 11 Dec 01 - 11:37 AM Bert, give me your address and I'll send you some. |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 11 Dec 01 - 11:59 AM Or of course there's fishpaste. Excellent stuff.
And all kinds of pickles.
High Tea. |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: gnu Date: 11 Dec 01 - 01:18 PM Candy... Humbugs. The brown hard candy with the white stripes. I carry them around with me every year at this time and offer them to people who tell me to have a Merry Christmas. Get's the message across without being impolite.
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: Kim C Date: 11 Dec 01 - 01:31 PM Meat paste sounds an awful lot like deviled ham. Not so good to eat every day, but great for camping trips. :-) MMario, thanks for that recipe! I love marzipan!!!! It looks easy enough, too. I may just give it a try. |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: Bert Date: 11 Dec 01 - 01:50 PM Thanks, Morty, I've sent you a PM. |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: Sorcha Date: 11 Dec 01 - 02:06 PM My Grandma's chicken and noodles.........and her dressing/stuffing. I keep trying, but mine will never taste like hers..... |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: brid widder Date: 11 Dec 01 - 02:36 PM The meal I remember most and the one that is still my favourite christmas meal was the one we had on Boxing day...cold roast pork and bubble and squeak...with home made pickles... but whatever happened to tangerines???not satsumas clementines...mandarins...no it was always tangerines ...nice thread this... |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: Kim C Date: 11 Dec 01 - 05:01 PM My mom, who is only just shy of 70, said that oranges were a Really Big Deal to get at Christmas. And she grew up in Kentucky! In the Little House on the Prairie books, they talk about how it was remarkably grand to get a tin cup, and orange, AND a penny! I keep threatening one year to give everyone in my family a tin cup, an orange, and a penny. It was a good idea until I saw the price of a really good authentic tin cup! ;-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: CarolC Date: 11 Dec 01 - 05:15 PM Thanks Jock Morris. I think marzipan is just the almond paste that's been molded into fruit shapes and painted. These bars are different.
M M A R I O ! You have my undying gratitude for ever and ever and ever and ever!!!!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: GUEST,Hungry in US Date: 11 Dec 01 - 05:35 PM My family is from Devon and Devon Cream on Toast with jam is best. Also Hard Cider and those fabulous Sausage Rolls that someone else mentioned. Yum! I think it is Schtollen which is great when my mother-in-law makes it, but I wouldn't eat it after a day. |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: Kim C Date: 12 Dec 01 - 10:08 AM Sausage rolls? Do tell. |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: The_one_and_only_Dai Date: 12 Dec 01 - 10:33 AM A savoury pastry: you get short or puff pastry, roll it out to a suitable thickness, and lay a sausage-thickness of sausagemeat down the middle, roll up, cut into lengths of about 4 inches, and bake. Yum. Good hot or cold, but never on Aunty Ethel's picnics... (subspecies: 'cocktail sausage roll', about 1 inch long, designed to be bite-sized. Mmany generations of British men brought up on ritual how-many-can-you-get-in-your-gob game) |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: GUEST,MMario Date: 12 Dec 01 - 10:38 AM In my family there had better well be a tangerine or orange in the toe of the stocking. or ELSE! |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: Bert Date: 12 Dec 01 - 10:40 AM Sausage rolls...http://www.hwatson.force9.co.uk/cookbook/recipes/starters/sausagerolls.htm Doesn't have to be puff pastry, can be short or rough puff. |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: CharlieA Date: 12 Dec 01 - 10:46 AM tho I don't reccomend them with cream - save it for the mince pies and chrissy Puddin. (has to be cornish clotted cream tho). Cxxx |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler Date: 12 Dec 01 - 10:52 AM When I was a student (in the dark ages) I used to work in a bakery in the holidays. One of my jobs was sausage rolls. We used to roll out a 12 foot strip of pastry, pipe the long 12 foot of sausage meat into it, roll it up and then cut it to size using a piece of wood for a template. Watching my mother make hers individually by hand, I (cocky dbrevil) ventured to tell her the "right" way to do them. NOT a smart move. My ear was red for days! RtS |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: AliUK Date: 13 Dec 01 - 12:48 AM One of the things that i miss out here is the christmas dinner. Though we have turkey there's no yorkshire pu, no real bacon ( only some horrible stuff that's all fat and no meat and called american bacon) no stuffing or sausage meat. No christmas pud and no crackers so we can all sit around with stupid hats feeling like berks. Then there's no Brandy snaps just to fill up the holes that are left after the christmas pud with fresh cream. Also the brazilians have there meal ( turkey hsmoked ham etc.) on christmas eve and not on christmas day, we have it around 11pm and then everybody opens there prezzies. |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: Kim C Date: 13 Dec 01 - 10:25 AM Sausage rolls sound like what we call Pigs in Blankets. Sometimes you take a sausage link and roll it up in a pancake, other times you roll it up in a little croissant. I never met a sausage I didn't like. Must be my German ancestry. ;-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: The_one_and_only_Dai Date: 13 Dec 01 - 10:32 AM Ah, Kim, pigs in blankets are sausages rolled in bacon. And sausage rolls are made with skinless sausage meat... Now, Poor Knights, there's a delicacy... |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: MMario Date: 13 Dec 01 - 11:04 AM so - what is a poor knight? (yeesh - it's like pulling teeth around here!) I might want to make some for the tavern |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: The_one_and_only_Dai Date: 13 Dec 01 - 11:29 AM you dip slices of bread into a sweetened egg custard, fry them, and dredge them in sugar and cinnamon. OR: you dip slices of bread into a peppery egg custard with grated cheese, and fry them. |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: Mrrzy Date: 13 Dec 01 - 11:31 AM Mom actually still makes, every year, tons and tons of little marzipan things (fruit, animals, etc) all in different either appropriate (if she's doing it) or inappropriate (if her grandkids help) colors, little cups, little plastic leaves on the fruit, etc. And chocolate orange peel, and daiquiri balls, and brandy balls, and those cookies with candied fruit on top (red and green, whatever there is; one year it was candied tomatoes and lotus leaves, but it's still yummy). Florentines, with dark chocolate bottoms. And probably a few I'm not remembering, like the hazelnut ones. We have her superb chocolate mousse at Thanksgiving. For $mas we always have rocket crumple (recipe already posted somewhere) and her gulyás leves (goulash soup) but she doesn't make it quite the way she used to, I think she buys premade, preformed nokedli (the kind of pasta things that go in) instead of making the dough herself and making the nokedli from that, and uses I think something like hot dogs instead of the Hungarian kólbász, but it's still worth several helpings. The sister who's been hosting $mas for the last nigh-unto 20 years also makes a kickass spaghetti, and I take the smoked turkey I get from the firm up and we eat that on Boxing Day, when the extended family come, and she bakes breads (chocolate zucchini, banana nut) which we graze on in between meals. Not to mention the coffee, tons and tons of coffee. Yum. |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: LR Mole Date: 13 Dec 01 - 11:58 AM We'd be so wildly excited, with anticipation (and greed, I suppose) we wouldn't want to eat, which was good because the grownups would be busy.Thus,grilled ham and cheddar sandwiches,if someone who knew how the stove worked was in charge, or bologna and American cheese with mayo on whitebread if not (not one single iota of food value in the latter. Wish I had one now). |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: Morticia Date: 13 Dec 01 - 12:17 PM Mrrzy, would your mother adopt me? |
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Subject: RE: BS: CHRISMAS PAST From: JudeL Date: 14 Dec 01 - 05:12 AM Brid, I love the boxing day bubble & squeak, especially when mum makes her special beetroot, (its pickled in raspberry jelly). The combination of acid vinegar and sweet jelly with beetroot from the garden, makes me hungry just thinking about it. Jude |