Why do we call it gingerbread?

"The cakelike consistency of gingerbread bears little resemblance to bread, so it comes as no surprise that gingerbread has no etymological connection with bread. It was originally, in the thirteenth century, gingerbras, a word borrowed from Old French which meant 'preserved ginger'. But by the mid-fourteenth century,...-bread had begun to replace -bras, and it was only a matter of time before sense followed form. One of the earliest known recipes for it, in the early fifteenth-century cookery book Good Cookery, directs that it be made with breadcrumbs boiled in honey with ginger and other spices. This is the lineal ancestor of the modern cakelike gingerbread in which treacle has replaced honey."
---An A-Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 142)

About gingerbread in America

"...most early American cookies were referred to as "cakes," and gingerbread was assumed to be a form of cookie, as in Lebkuchen, a gingerbread cookie made with honey...Of all the Christmas pastries, the gingerbread cookie was one the one most loved by early American children. I suspect that a large part of this popularity hinged on the fact that gingerbread was cheap, easy to make, a small batch would yield many cookies, and that gingerbread dough stood up fairly well under the vagaries of both brick-oven and cook-stove baking. It was pretty hard to ruin it...In American cookery, there are two distinct families of gingerbgread cookies, the honey-based gingerbreads of Middle European origin--mostly Germany--and the molasses shortbreads that developed in England or Scotland, depending upon which historan you wish to believe. The other developed in the late seventeenth century, using molasses as a substitute for honey...The Germans in this coutnry were the best honey cake bakers--they called the cookies Lebkuchen."
---The Christmas Cook, William Woys Weaver [Harper Perennial:New York] 1990(p. 102-4)

About gingerbread shapes

"Gingerbread was ...ornamented by impressing designs within wooden moulds. The moulds were sometimes very large and elaborate and beautifully carved. In England, such confections were bought at fairs and, together with other sweet treats, were known under the collective name of 'fairings'. The habit of shaping gingerbread figures of men and pigs, espcially for Bonfire Night (5 November) survives in Britain."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2nd edition, 2006 (p. 339)

"The first gingerbread man is credited to the court of Queen Elizabeth I, who favored important visitors...with charming gingerbread likenesses of themselves...After the Grimm Brothers' tale of Hansel and Gretel described a house "made of bread," with a roof of cake and windows of barley, German bakeries began offering elaborate gingerbread houses with icing snow on the roofs, along with edible gingerbread Christmas cards and finely detailed molded cookies. Tinsmiths fashioned cookie cutters into all imaginable forms, and every woman wanted one shape that was different from anybody else's...Most of the cookies that hung on nineteenth-century Christmas trees were at least half an inch thick and cut into animal shapes or gingerbread men..."
---"Gingerbread," Karen S. Edwards & Sharon Antle, Americana [magazine], December 1988 (p. 49+)

"For Christmas over a hundred years ago, Pennsylvania German children in Lancaster County helped cut out and decorate foot-high cookies to stand in the front of windows of their stone or brick houses. These cookie people--often gingerbread men and women iced with rows of buttons and big smiles--were a cheerful sight to snow-cold passersby. Figural cookie-making was practiced in Europe at least as far back as the sixteenth century--most of them were made using intaglio molds rather than with cutters."
---300 Years of Kitchen Collectibles, Linda Campbell Franklin, 4th edition [Books Americana:New York] 1998 (p. 183)
Note: this book is an excellent resource for the history of cutters, collector's catalogs & price guides, drawings and descriptions. Good for learning about which shapes were popular in specific time periods.

ABOUT GINGERBREAD HOUSES

According to the some researchers, the first gingerbread houses may have appeared as a result of the popular Grimm's fairy tales. Other food historians postulate that the brothers Grimm were writing about something that already existed. We cannot confirm either claim. Summary here:

"The tradition of baking the sweetly decorated houses began in Germany after the Brothers Grimm published their collection of German fairy tales in the early 1800s. Among the tales was the story of Hansel and Gretel, children left to starve in the forest, who came upon a house made of bread and sugar decorations. The hungry children feasted on its sweet shingles. After the fairy tale was published, German bakers began baking houses of lebkuchen --spicy cakes often containing ginger -- and employed artists and craftsmen to decorate them. The houses became particularly popular during Christmas, a tradition that crossed the ocean with German immigrants. Pennsylvania, where many settled, remains a stronghold for the tradition. It is believed gingerbread was first baked in Europe at the end of the 11 th century, when returning crusaders brought the bread and the spicy root back from the Middle East. Ginger wasn't merely flavorful, it had properties that helped preserve the bread. Not long after it arrived, bakers began to cut the bread into shapes and decorate them with sugar. Gingerbread baking became recognized as a profession. In the 17 th century, only professional gingerbread bakers were allowed to bake the spicy treat in Germany and France. Rules relaxed during Christmas and Easter, when anyone was permitted to bake it. Nuremberg, Germany, became known as the "Gingerbread Capital of the World" in the 1600s when the guild employed master bakers and artisans to create intricate works of art from gingerbread, sometimes using gold leaf to decorate the houses."
"HOLIDAY TRADITION WITH SPICY HISTORY," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 9, 2001, METRO, Pg.N-9

Recipes:
Medieval gingerbread
Victorian gingerbread

This is what the food historians have to say:

"Mincemeat. The modern distinction between mince, minced meat and mincemeat, dried fruit mixed with spices, suet, and often some sort of alcohol arose only gradually. Mincemeat originally meant simply minced meat...and we do not have any unequivocable evidence of its being used in its current sense until the mid-nineteenth century. But in the Middle Ages and into Renaissance times and beyond it was commonplace to spice up or eke out meat with dried fruit, and it seems likely that the earliest mincepies contained a generous measure of such raisins, currants, etc. The reduction in meat content was a slow but steady process (still not complete, of course, for the inculsion of beef suet is a remnant of it). The growing need to draw a lexical distinction between the plain minced meat and mincemeat was signalled around 1850 by the introduction of the term mince for the former."
---An A-Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 214)

"Mince pie in Britain, is a miniature round pie, filled with mincemeat: typically a mixture of dried fruits, chopped nuts and apples, suet, spices, and lemon juice, vinegar, or brandy. Although the filling is called mincemeat, it rarely contains meat nowadays. In North America the pie may be larger, to serve several people. The large size is an innovation, for the original forms were almost always small. The earliest type was a small medieval pastry called a chewette, which contained chopped meat of liver, or fish on fast days, mixed with chopped hard-boiled egg and ginger. This might be baked or fried. It became usual to enrich the filling with dried fruit and other sweet ingredients. Already by the 16th century minced or shred pies, as they were then known, had become a Christmas specialty, which they still are. The beef was sometimes partly or wholly replaced by suet from the mid-17th century onwards, and meat had effectively disappeared from mincemeat' on both sides of the Atlantic in the 19th century."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 507)
[NOTE: here is a recipe for medieval chawettys (chewettes)]

"Mincemeat. Also Mince. A mixture of chopped fruits, spices, suet, and, sometimes meat that is usually baked in a pie crust. The word comes from mincem to chop finely, whose own origins are in the Latin minuere, "to diminish," and once mincemeat referred specifically to a meat that had been minced up, a meaning it has had since the sixteenth century. By the nineteenth century, however, the word referred to a pie of fruit, spices, and suet, only occasionally containing any meat at all. In Colonial America these pies were made in the fall and sometimes frozen throughout winter."
---The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 206)

Culinary evidence supports this information. Compare these recipes:

[1747]
"To make Mince-Pies the best Way
Take three Pounds of Suet shread very fine, and chopped as small as possible, two Pounds of Raisins stoned, and chopped as fine as possible, two Pounds of Currans, nicely picked, washed, rubbed, and dried at the Fire, half a hundred of fine Pippins, pared, cored, and chopped small, half a Pound of fine Sugar pounded fine, a quarter of an Ounce of Mace, a quarter of an Ounce of Cloves, a Pint of Brandy, and half a pint of Sack; put it down close in a Stone-pot, and it will keep good four Months. When you make your Pies, take a little Dish, something bigger than a Soop-plate, lay a very thin Crust all over it, lay a thin Layer of Meat, and then a thin Layer of Cittron cut very thin, then a Layer of Mince meat, and a thin Layer of Orange-peel cut think over that a little Meat; squeeze half the Juice of a fine Sevile Orange, or Lemon, and pour in three Spoonfuls of Red Wine; lay on your Crust, and bake it nicely. These Pies eat finely cold. If you make them in little Patties, mix your Meat and Sweet-meats accordingly: if you chuse Meat in your Pies, parboil a Neat's Tongue, peel it, and chop the Meat as finely as possible, and mix with the rest; or two Pounds of the Inside of a Surloin or Beef Boiled."
---The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, Hannah Glasse, facsimile 1747 edition [Prospect Books:Devon] 1995 (p. 74)
[NOTE: Pippins are apples, Sack is an alcoholic drink, Neat is a type of ox]

[1875?]
"Mincemeat, Old fashioned.
--Take a pound of beef, a pound of apples, two pounds of suet, two pounds of sugar, two pounds of currants, one pound of candied lemon or orange peel, a quarter of a pound of citron, and an ounce of fine spices; mix all these together, with half an ounce of salt, and the rinds of six lemons shred fine. See that the ingredients are thoroughly incorporated, and add brandy or wine according to taste." (p. 424)

"Mincemeat Royal.
--To an ounce of clarified butter add the yolks of four eggs, and beat in two table-spoonfuls of pounded sugar, with the grated rind and strained jice of a large lemon. Mix these ingredients with half a large lemon. Mix these ingredients with half a pound of rich mincemeat, without beef, and nearly fill the patty-pans with the mixture. Put them into a moderately quick oven to set. Ice them with the whites of the eggs, previously beaten to snow, with a quarter of a pound of pounded laof sugar, and place them in the oven again until they are of a nice rich brown." (p. 424)

"Mincemeat and Mince Pies.
--Take four pounds of raisins stoned, and four pounds of currants, washed lean, four pounds of apples, six pounds of suet, and half a fresh ox-tongue boiled, half a pound of candied orange-peel, ditto lemon, and a quarter of a pound of citron, all chopped; the juice of three oranges and three lemons, with the peel of two grated; half a pound of moist sugar, two glasses of brandy, two of sherry, one nutmeg grated, a spoonful of pounded cinnamon, and half an ounce of salt. Mix all these well together, put the whole into jars, and keep them tied over the bladder. A little of this mixture baked in tart-pans with puff-paste forms mince pies.

Or peel, core, and chop finely a pound of sound russet apples, wash and pick a pound of raisins, and let both these be chopped small. Then take away the skin and gristle from a pound of roast beef, and carefully pick a pound of beef-suet; chop these well together. Cut into small pieces three quarters of a pound of mixed candied orange, citron, and lemon-peel; let all these be well stirred together in a large pan. Beat or grind into powder a nutmeg, half an ounce of ginger, and a quarter of an ounce of cloves, the same of allspice and coriander-seeds; add half an ounce of salt, and put these into the pan, mixing them thoroughly. Grate the rinds of three lemons, and squeeze the juice over half a pound of fine Lisbon sugar, mixed with the lemon-peel; pour over this two gills of brandy and half a pint of sherry. Let these ingredients be well stirred, then cover the pan with a slate; and when bout to use the mincemeat take it from the bottom of the pan.

Or, to make mince pies without meat, carefully prepare, as before directed, a pound an a half of fresh beef-suet, and chop it as small as possible; stone and chop a pound and a half of Smyrna raisins; well wash and dry on a coarse with two pounds of currants; peel, core, and cut small three pounds of russet apples; add a quarter of an ounce of mixed cinnamon and mace in powder, four cloves powdered, a pound an a half of powdered sugar, a tea-spoonful of salt, the juice of a lemon and its peel finely grated, and a table-spoonful of mixed candied fruit cut very small. Let all the above be well mixed together, and remain in the pan a few days. When you are about to make mince pies, throw a gill of brandy and the same of port wine into the pan, and stir together the mince. Line the required number of patty-pans with properly-made paste; fill from the bottom of the pan; cover, and bake quickly." (p. 423-4)
Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery [Cassell, Petter, Galpin:London] 1875? (p. 423-425)

American mincemeat and mince pie recipes:

[1796] Minced Pie
[1845] Common Mince Pie

Yorkshire Stand Pie
"Stand pies," or "Standing pies" descend from Medieval tradition of great pies where the crust is employed as the cooking receptical. These extra-thick crusts "stand" by themselves in the oven. They are not eaten. These historic recipes provide keen insight:

"A Yorkshire Christmas-Pye.
First make a good Standing Crust, let the Wall and Bottom be very thick, bone a Turkey, a Goose, a Fowl, a Partridge, and a Pigeon, season them all very well, take half an Ounce of Mace, half an Ounce of Nutmegs, a quarter of an Ounce of Cloves, half and Ounce of black Pepper, all beat fine together, two large Spoonfuls of Salt, mix them together. Open the Fowls, then then Goose, and then the Turkey, which must be large; season them all well first, and lay them in the Crust, so as it will look only like a whole Turkey; then have a hare ready cased, and wiped with a clean Cloth. Cut it to Pieces, that is jointed; season it, and lay it as close as you can on one Side; on the other Side Woodcock, more Game, and what Sort of wild Fowl you can get. Season them well, and lay them close; put at least four Pounds of Butter into the Pye, then lay on your Lid, which must be very a very thick one, and let it be well baked. It must have a very hot Oven, and will take at least four Hours. This Pye will take a Bushel of Flour; in this Chapter you will see how to make it. These Pies are ofent sent to London in a Box as Presents; therefore the Walls must be will built."
---The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, Hannah Glasse c. 1747, facisimile first edition followed by additional recipes from the fifth edition [Prospect Books:Devon] 1995 (p. 73)

"A Standing Crust for Great Pies.
To a Peck of Flour the Yolk of three Eggs, then boil some Water, and put in half a Pound of try'd Suet, and a pound and half of Butter. Skim off the Butter and Suet, and as much of the Liquor as will bake it a light good Crust; work it up well, and roll it out."
---ibid (p. 75)

"Yorkshire Pie. A True Yorkshire pie, such as constitutes a standing dish during the Christmas festivities at the hospitable board of a Yorkshire squire, is simply a raised pie filled with poultry and game of different kinds, put one inside the other and side by side. These pies are sometimes made of a large size; and it is recorded that one of them, which was sent from Sheffield in 1832 as a present to the then Lord Chancellor Brougham, broke down on account of its weight. Yorkshire pies require both skill and patience for their manufacture. They are not common, and are becoming less and less so; nevertheless, when successfully made they form a most excellent dish, and one sure to be hightly appreciated. Turkey, pheasants, ducks, fowls, grouse, snipes, and tongue; any or all of these may enter into their composition. Whatever birds are used should be boned and partially stewed before being put into the pie: the smallest of them should be filled with good, highly-seasoned veal forcemeat; a layer of forcemeat should be placed at the botton of the pie, and all the vacant places filled with the same. A recipe here given for making a moderate-sized pie. Bone a fowl and a goose; fill the fowl with good veal forcemeat, truss it, and sew it up. Truss the goose, and put the two side by side in a stewpan which will just hold them. Pour over them as much stock as will cover them, and let them simmer the fowl inside the goose, truss the latter, and sew it up. Line a pie-mould with some pastry, such as is used for making raised pies, rolled out to a good thickness. Cover the bottom with a layer of forcemeat, lay the goose upon it, pour a little of the liquor in which it was stewed over it, and place round it slices of pigeons, boned hare, tongue, &c. Fill the vacant places with forcemeat, and when the meat is closely packed in the crust put over it a layer of clarified butter. Place the pastry-cover on the top, brush over with egg, ornament it, bind several folds of buttered paper round it, and bake in a well-heated oven. Make a little strong jelly by boiling the bones and trimming with seasoning and spices, and pour this into the pie after it is baked. When the pie is to be served, place it on a dish covered with a napkin, remove the cover whole, and cut the meat in thin slices. The pastry of a pie like this is not made to be eaten but is simply intended as a case in which to preserve and serve the meat. When a skewer will pierce easily to the bottom of the pie in the centre it is done enough. Time to bake the pie, four hours or more."
---Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery with Numerous Illustrations, [Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co.:London] 1875 (p. 1156)

Are there really plums in plum pudding? Find out!
Christmas pudding, Alice Ross
Plum pudding recipes, Godey's Ladies Book, 1860.

When to make the Christmas pudding?
Stir-Up Day is the name traditionally given to the day on which Christmas puddings are made in England.

"Stir-Up Sunday, the last Sunday before Advent, is considered the final day on which one can make the Christmas fruit cakes and puddings that require time to be aged before being served. United Kingdom...The Collect of the Church of England for this Sunday begins, "Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of they faithful people, what they plenteously bring forth the fruit of good works..." This prayer was parodied by the choirboys: "Stir up, we beseech thee, the pudding in the pot. And when we do get nome tonight, we'll eat it up hot." The Christmas pudding is traditionally "stirred up" on this day. All family members must take a hand in the stirring, and a special wooden spoon (in honor of Christ's crib) is used. The stirring must be in a clockwise direction, with eyes shut, while making a secret wish. Source: The Customs and Ceremonies of Britain by Charles Knightly. London:Thames and Hudson, 1986, p. 211."
---The Folklore of World Holidays, Robert H. Griffen and Ann H. Shurgin editors, Second Edition [Gale:Detroit] 1998 (p. 679)

"In England some people still refer to the Sunday before the beginning of Advent as "Stir-Up Sunday"...In past times the words "stir up"...reminded people to begin preparing their Christmas puddings...Children chanted a rhymed verse on that day that mixed the words of the collect with requests for special Christmas fare...Thus, the preparation of the Christmas pudding eventually became associated with this day. Folk beliefs advised each member to take a turn stirring the pudding, and ace that was believed to confer good luck. Another custom encouraged stirrers to move the spoon in clockwise motion, close their eyes, and make a wish."
---Encyclopedia of Christmas and New Year's Celebrations, Tanya Gulevich, 2nd edition [Omnigraphics:Detroit] 2003 (p. 741)

When is Advent?

What about the charms?
The tradition of inserting inedible trinkets into holiday foods is ancient. It descends from pagan rituals for good luck and fortune. The bean inserted into Twelfth Night cake is one such example.

It is difficult to pinpoint the genesis of inserting charms (coins, thimbles, rings) into Christmas pudding. Some sources say it developed in Victorian England; others date the practice to the Stuart period. Like their ancient counterparts, pudding charms were meant to bring luck to their finders. Today, the practice is generally skipped for health and safety reasons. Our survey of 19th century English cookbooks reveals primary sources do not provide instructions for the insertion of coins (Christmas pudding) or beans (Twelfth Night Cake).

"Tradition dictates that six objects be found in the pudding: 2 rings to bring love, a sixpence as a sign of prosperity, a trouser button for the bachelor, a thimble for the spinster, and a little pig who will determine the glutton at the table. The tradition of hiding silver coins in the pudding is a link to earlier days in English and Scottish courts when the leader of the Christmas revels was chosen on Twelfth Night by finding a bean hidden in the pudding."
---WorldWideGourmet

"Another important addition to the mixture is an old coin, which is cooked in the pudding. It will supposedly bring wealth to whoever finds it on their plate on Christmas Day. An old silver sixpence or threepenny bit is the traditional coin, but a thoroughly washed 10p piece will do. Just make sure everyone knows it's there and warn them to look out for it when tucking into the pud. Other traditional additions to the pudding include a ring, supposed to foretell a marriage, and a thimble for a lucky life. If you're worried your guests may swallow them by mistake you could wrap all these lucky charms in little packages of greaseproof paper before stirring them in. (It's probably best to leave them out altogether if small children will be eating the pudding, or just sit them on the side of their plates so they're easy to spot.)"
---BBC News

Australian traditions
Christmas pudding in Australia, Rhiannon Donaldson, University of Sydney

"The "charms" usually a sixpence, sometimes a ring were stirred into the mixture to bring wealth or matrimony to whoever found them in their piece of pudding on Christmas Day. This idea of putting silver charms into the pudding may well relate to an earlier tradition of putting a bean in the Twelfth Night cake...It was the Victorians who added trinkets and put the pud into a pudding basin. They also popularised the cold hard sauces- of creamed unsalted butter, sugar and alcohol. (Cumberland Rum butter or Brandy butter) The hot soft fruity pudding would melt the cold butter sauce giving a splendid taste sensation. A sprig of holly is added as a symbol of everlasting life, and the burning brandy a reminder of the rebirth of the sun."
---ABC News

"When inserting silver coins or other articles in Christmas Pudding for pleasure of children, they must be first boiled thoroughly, dried, and then wrapped tightly in small pieces of grease-proof paper before mixing in, to cleanse and to prevent swallowing."
---The Schauer Australian Cookery Book, eleventh edition [W.R. Smith & Patterson:Brisbane Queensland] 1956 (p. 397)

"Though it might be hot on Christmas day, and some Australians have been known to have Christmas dinner on the beach, there are few who would allow Christmas to pass without hot Christmas pudding. All Christmas puddings are variations of what the English call Plum Pudding, although there are no plums in the mixture. Christmas pudding is a special favorite of both old and young...The kids can hardly contain themselves, because Christmas pudding is always served with small coins hidden inside! (Only silver coins are used, which in Australia are 5, 10, and 20 cent pieces, though the 20 cent pieces are a bit large for this.) Yes, it can be dangerous, and we have known kids who have swallowed the 5 cent pieces (the smallest coin) and had to be rushed to the doctor. But nothihg ever happens, not even a tummy ache. However, if you decide to try you hand at this fun tradition, we suggest that you issue several warnings to your excited guests, adults as well as kids. Also, in the olden days when coins were pure silver (or close to it) the coins were cooked right in the pudding. This is no longer a good idea because the alloys in the coins will leave a nasty taste! Boil the coins separately, then just before serving the pudding, order everyone out of the kitchen, and wedge the coins into the pudding. With a little care, one can hide the coins to they cannot be seen too easily--although the kids are pretty hard to fool. There are a lot of different traditions in families in regard to what to hide in the pudding. We know of one strange family that hid a bone button in the pudding. The person who got it was said to have a poor year next year! So much for good will to all men!"
---Good Food from Australia, Betsy Newman and Graeme Newman [Hippocrene Books:New York] 1997 (p. 200)

Stollen, Aunt Babette's Cookbook: Foreign and Domestic Reciepts for the Household, [Block:Cincinnati] 1889
[NOTE: this is a Jewish cookbook]

Sugarplums belong to the comfit family, a confection traditionally composed of tiny sugar-coated seeds. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word sugarplum thusly: "A small round or oval sweetmeat, made of boiled sugared and variously flavoured and coloured; a comfit." The earliest mention of this particular food is 1668. The term also has another meaning "Something very pleasing or agreeable; esp. when given as a sop or bribe," which dates to 1608. Did you know? According to the food historians, the word plum in Victorian times referred to raisins or dried currants, not plums as we Americans think of them today. Notes from Alice Ross on Christmas Pudding (aka plum pudding).

"Sugarplums were an early form of boiled sweet. Not acutally made from plums...they were nevertheless roughly the size and shape of plums, and often had little wire stalks' for suspending them from. They came in an assortment of colours and flavours, and frequently, like comfits, had an aniseed, caraway seed, etc. at their centre. The term was in vogue from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, but is now remebered largely thanks to the Sugarplum Fairy, a character in Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker ballet (1892.)"
---An A-Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 329)

Visions of sugarplums, Sharon Cohen--history and instructions for making them.

What are comfits?
"Comfit, an archaic English word for an item of confectionery consisting of a seed, or nut coated in several layers of sugar...In England these small, hard sugar sweets were often made with caraway seeds, known for sweetening the breath (hence kissing confits). Up to a dozen coats of syrup were needed before the seeds were satisfactorily encrusted. Comfits were eaten a sweets, and also used in other sweet dishes; for example seed cake was made with caraway comfits rather than loose caraway seeds as in the 19th century. Confectioners as early as the 17th century recognized by varying the proportions of sugar in the syrup they could change the final texture, making pearled comfits or crisp and ragged comfits. The word comfit remained in use in English up until the 20th century: Alice, of Alice in Wonderland, has a box of comfits in her pocket."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 208)

"Comfit making demanded both leisure and special equipment; a ladle, a slice, a basin to heat the sugar suspended from cords over another bowl containing hot coals, and yet another basin in which the seeds, fruits or spices were treated. Molten sugar was ladled over them, and after each application they had to be dried and cooled. Several coats of sugar were needed. Caraways will be fair at twelve coats; and even crisp and ragged comfits, for which the sugar was boiled to a greater height, required eight to ten coats. Fortunately there were professional confectioners in the larger towns. So the gentle woman unequaled to the task of creating her own banqueting fare could purchase it herself, or commission kinsfolk or friends to bring back sweetmeats when they travelled on business."
---Food and Drink in Britain: From the Stone Age to the 19th Century, C. Anne Wilson [Academy Chicago:Chicago] 1991(p. 312)

Recommended reading:
Sugar-Plums and Sherbet: The Prehistory of Sweets, Laura Mason [Prospect Books:Devon] 2004

The cake is a basic yeast-based brioche filled with dried fruits and nuts. The recipe descends from Ancient Arab recipes.The practice of serving this particular cake, often with a prize or bean inside, around Christmas time actually predates Christian times. Ancient Romans served a similar item. The traditional King Cake, as we know it today, was made by Christians throughout most of Europe by the Middle Ages. King cakes were introduced to America by European settlers. In places settled by Spanish missionaires (Mexico, South America, Florida, California), rosca de reyes was served. In the United States, the King Cakes of New Orleans are probably the most well known. About Louisiana King Cakes

"Twelfth-Night Cake. In many countries it was customary to celebrate Ephiphany with a feast on its eve, or Twelfth Night. A central feature of these festivities was a cake in which a bean or token was hidden. He who found it in his piece of cake was named lord of the evening's entertainments and could command guests to do his bidding. In France the cake was known as gateau des rois, or king's cake, in honour of the Wise Men, whose feast Epiphany is; in Louisiana it is "king cake"; in Germany it is Dreikongskuchen; it is the Black Bun in Scotland; in Portugal it is bola-rei; and in Spain it is rosca de reyes."
---The World of Christmas, Gerry Bowler [McClelland & Stewart:Toronto] 2000 (p. 230)

"A long succession of mock kings have ruled over winter holiday merrymaking in Europe. In ancient times they presided over feasts held in honor of the Roman festival of Saturnalia...In the Middle Ages the boy bishop and the Lord of Misrule directed certain Christmas festivities...Twelfth Night celebrations, however, came under the special supervision of another mock ruler: the King of the Bean. In past centuries, the English, French, Spanish, German and Dutch celebrated Twelfth Night, or Epiphany Eve, with a feast. The Twelfth Night cake not only provided dessert, but also helped to facilitate an old custom...While preparing the cake the cook dropped a bean, coin or other small object in to the batter. The man who found the object in his slice of cake was declared "King of the Bean." If a woman received the bean, she became queen and appointed a man as king...The king presided over the rest of the evening's activities...Christmas season mock kings sprouted up regularly in mediveal Europe. Records indicate that in late medieval France thse kings were selected by a kind of edible lottery...In the sixteenth century, ordinary Dutch and German households celebrated Twelfth Night by baking a coin into a cake and acknowledging whoever received the coin in their slice of cake as king of the feast. In the next century, this Twelfth Night custom spread to England, France, and Spain..."
---Encyclopedia of Christmas and New Year's Celebrations, Tanya Gulevich [Omnigraphics:Detroit] 2nd edition, 2003 (p. 404-5)

"King cake. A brioche-style cake made during the Louisiana carnival season, beginning in January and ending at Mardi Gras...By tradition the cake contains a red bean (sometimes covered in gold or silver lear) or a figurine of the baby Jesus. It is sold widely throughout Louisiana...the person who finds the bean or figurine is prmosed good luck. There are various stories as the the origins of ther cake, though most in some way derive from the legend of the Three Kings visiting the infant Jesus in Bethlehem, as described in the New Testament. In the first half of the sixteenth century France commemorated Kings' Day--the twelfth day after Christmas--with a "Twelfth Night cake." A century later King Louis XIV took part in such a feast at which gateau des Rois ("Kings' cake") contained a hidden bean or creamic figure, as it does to this day. Before the Civil War American King cakes often contained gold, diamonds, or valuable instead of beans; after the war, with the end of gala Creole balls in Louisiana, peas, beans, pecans, and coins were used, and in 1871 the tradition of choosing the queen of the Mardi Gras was determined by who drew the prize in the cake...The colors of purple (for justice), green (for faith). And gold (for power) that traditionally tint the cake's icing first appeared in 1872 after the Rex Krewe, a Mardi Gras parade organization, chose those colors to celebrate that year's festival."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 175)

King Cakes, Mardi Gras Unmasked

Historic recipes

[1874]
Twelfth Cake:--A twelfth cake, or any important cake, if made at home, will require care, attention, and good materials. If these are given, and the following recipe attended to, the result can scarcely fail to be satisfactory, and a considerable saving may be effected, compared considerable saving may be effected, compared with what the same cake would have cost if bought at a confectioner's. Before beginning to mix the cake all the ingredients would be prepared, the flour dried and sifted, the currants washed. Dried, and picked, the nutmegs grated, the spices pounded, the candied fruit cut into thin slices, the almonds bruised with orange-flour or rose water, but not to a paste, the sugar sifted, and the eggs thoroughly whisked, yolks and whites separately. Care should be taken to make the cake and to keep the furit in a warm place, and, unless the weather is very warm, to whisk the eggs in a pan set in another containing hot water. To make the cake, pug two pounds of fresh butter into a large bowl, then add two pounds of powdered sugar, a large nutmeg grated, and a quarter of an ounce each of powdered sinnamon, powdered mace, powdered ginger, and powdered allspice. Beat the mixture for ten minutes, add gradually twenty eggs, and beat the cake for twenty minutes. Work in two pounds of flour, four pounds of currants, half a pound of bruised almonds, half a pound each of candied citron, and, last of all, a claret-glassful of brandy, and beat the cake lightly with doubled paper well buttered, pour in the mixture, and be careful that it does no more than three-parts fill it, that there may be room for the cake to rise. Cover the top with paper, set the tin on an inverted plate in the oven to keep it from burning at the bottom, and bake in a slow but well-heated oven. When it is nearly cold, cover it as smoothly as possible with sugar-icing three quarters of an inch thick...Ornament with fancy articles of any kind, with a high ornament in the centre; these may frequently be hired of the the confectioner. In order to ascertain whether the cake is done enough, plunge a bright knife into the centre of it, and if it comes out bright and clear the cake is done. A cake of this description will, if properly made, and kept in a cool dry place, keep for twelve months. If cut too soon it will crumble and fall into pieces. It will be at it its best when it has been kept four months."
---Cassell's Dictonary of Cookery with Numerous Illustrations, [Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co.:London] 1874? (p. 1023)
[NOTE: This book also contains recipe for "Twelfth Cake (another way) and Twelfth Cake, Lady Caroline Lamb's. Neither of these make reference to a bean, charm or other trinket being baked into the cake.]

[1901]
"Twelfth Night or King's Cake [complete recipe & notes]
Gateau de Roi.
2 Pounds of the Best Flour.
12 Eggs.
1 cup of Sugar.
1 Pound of the Best Butter.
1/2 Ounce of Salt.
Candies to Decorate.
This is a Creole Cake whose history is the history of the famous New Orleans carnivals celebrated in song and stories. The "King's Cake," or "Gateaux de Roi," is inseparably connected with the origin of our now world-famous carnival balls. In fact, they owe their origin to the old Creole custom of choosing a king and queen on King's Day, or Twelfth Night. In old Creole New Orleans, after the inauguration of the Spanish domination and the amalgamation of the French settlers and the Spanish into that peculiarly chivalrous and romantic race, the Lousiana Creole, the French prettily adapted many of the customs of their Spanish relatives and vice versa. Among these was the traditional Spanish celebration of King's Day, "Le Jour des Rois," as the Creoles always term the day. King's Day falls on January 6, or the twelfth day after Christmas, and commemorates the visit of the three Wise Men of the East to the lowly Bethlehem manger. This day is even in our time still the Spanish Christmas, when gifts are presented in commemoration of the King's gifts. With the Creoles it became "Le Petit Noel," or Little Christmas, and, adopting the Spanish custom, there were always grand balls on Twelfth Night: a king and a queen were chosen, and there were constant rounds of festivities, night after night, till the dawn of Ash Wednesday. From January 6, or King's Day, to Mardi Gras Day became the accepted carnival season. Each week a new king and queen were chosen, and no royal rulers ever reigned more happily than did these kings and queens of a week.

"The method of first choosing the king was by cutting the "King's Cake." This famous "Gateau de Roi" was made of Brioche Batter...It was an inmense cake, shaped round like a great ring, and decorated with bonbons, dragees, caramels, etc. When Twelfth Night arrived there was always a flutter in old Creole New Orelans. Generally some grand mansion was chosen for the first ball, an das the evening progressed, wehn the clock struck twelve, the guests were all invited to be seated around the spacious dining-room, where the "King's Cake" was brought in. Now, hidden away or often as not a magnificent jeweled ring. The cake was cut into as many slices as there were guests, the smiling cavaliers and the lovely Creole maidens ranged around, each of the latter cherishing the wistful hope that she might find the bean, each of the former hoping likewise that he might have the pleasure of choosing as his queen some lovely girl who held his heart. The cake, after being cut, was covered with a large linen napkin, so that no one might have the opportunity of seeing if the dainty morsel had been cut near the ring or bean, for often the knife went very, very near, and the dexterious maniuplator, with a smile, had to remove it an inch further from the mark. But it was generally so imbedded in the cake that it was impossible to detect the least trace. Champage was passed with the King's Cake, for was it not a royal dish? Suddenly there would be a little flutter. Some one had found the ring or bean, and all gathered around to congratulate the fortunate finder. If a man, he was hailed as the first king of the season, and so, if it were a lady, she was saluted as the queen. If the finder of the bean were a lady, she simply chose her king by presenting him with a bouquet of violets, which was always provided wiih the cake. If a gentleman found the ring or bean, the crowned king would hold it up, and announce that the lady with whom he would make the round of the parlor or "le tour du salon" would be his queen. Then he would take his stand near the mantel, the music would strike up, and the beautiful promenade around the room would begin, the gentlemen offering their arms to the ladies, the latter laughingly complying with the old custom of passing before the king while he chose his queen. No doubt there was much secret vexation among those bonny girls as they passed on and on, the king seemingly unable to make a choice. Suddenly he advanced, and, taking the flower form the lapel of his coat, he presented it to the lady, and, if it happened to be a ring in the cake, often as not it was a magnificent diamond, to, that he presented to her. Then offering his arm, he led the promenade, making as he said, "le tour du salon" with her, and then pausing beneath the chandeliers, he would raise his hand, the music would cease, and the king would proclaim: "Mes sujets, voice votre reine! Receves ses commandments!" Then followed and ovation of smiles, congratulations and homage, as though she were indeed a queen succeding to her born rights. And the honors of that night clung to her ever after, amid sunshine and clouds in the old French Quarter.

"The prettiest old-time courtesies were connects with the round of balls that followed. These balls were always given at the home of the queen. The king, whether he found the bean or was simply whose by the lady who had found it, was expected to bear the entire expense of the ball of which he was the king, and to provide the next King's Cake. He as also expected, before the end of the week, to make his queen some beautiful jewels form the king were the only ones that the Creole mother ever allowed her daughters to accept from any gentleman. In this custom of presenting the queen of the week with jewels may be distinctly traced the present custom of our Carnival kings in presenting the queens with jewels.

"And so, week after week, the festivities continued: a King's Cake was cut, a new king and queen was chosen, and this continued till ther grand culminating ball of Mardi Gras night.
"A pretty superstition was also connected the King's Cake. The lucky finder of the pecan, or bean, or ring, which was hidden within was henceforth to be favored by fortune. The queen cut the bean in two, and gave half of it to her king, and or, if a gentleman found it. The lucky bean was faithfully preserved as a talisman, and in many an old Creole family a little shriveled amulet which was found in the Gateau de Roi on Twelfth Night.

"To make the cake, take a pound and a half of the above-mentioned quality of flour, and put it in a woodedn bread trough. Make a hole in the center of the flour, and put in a slf ounce of yeast, dissolved in a little warm water. Add milk or tepid water to make the dough, usuing milk if oyu want it to be very rich and delicate, and water if you have not the milk. Knead and mix the flour with one hand, while adding the milk or water with the other. Make a dough that is neither too stiff nor too soft, and when perfectly smooth set the dough to rise in a moderately warm place, covering with a cloth. Remember that if you use milk to make the dough it must be scalded, that is, must be heated to the boiling point, and then allowed to grow tepid. Let the dough rise for five or six hours, and, when increased to twice its bulk, take it and add the reserved half pound of flour, into which you have sifted the salt. Add six eggs, beaten very light with the sugar and butter, and mix all well together, kneading lightly with your hands, and adding more eggs if the dough is a little stiff. The knead the dough by turning it over on itself three times, and set to rise again for an hour or three-quarters of an hour. Cover with a cloth. At the end of this time take it up and work again lightly, and then form into a great ring, leaving of course, a hole in the center. Pat gently and flatten a little. Have ready a baking pan, with a buttered sheet of paper in it, and set the central roll in the middle. Cover the pan with a clean, stiff cloth, and set the cake to rise for an hour longer. When well risen, set in an oven a few degrees cooler than used for baking bread; let bake for an hour and a half; if medium, one hour, and if very small, a half hour. Glace the Brioche lightly with a beaten egg, spread lightly over the top before placing in the oven. Decorate with daragees, caramels, etc."
---The Picayune's Creole Cook Book, Second edition, facsimile 1901 reprint [Dover Publications:New York] 1971 (p. 313-5)

• NorthPole
• Christmas cookies around the world (with recipes)

  MEDIEVAL EUROPEAN CHRISTMAS
  What people ate for Christmas in Medieval times depended greatly upon who they were (peasants, merchants, nuns, lords, kings) and where they lived (England? France? Germany? Spain?). One must also consider the fact that some Christian holidays were celebrated in much longer periods than a single day. The Christmas season officially extends until Twelfth Night. This was another grand meal with its own unique traditions. Today some cultures still celebrate Twelfth night by serving a King Cake.

  MEDIEVAL ENGLISH CHRISTMAS FOODS & CUSTOMS

  "At Christmas it was frequently the custom for each [peasant] tenant to give to the lord a hen (partly as payment for being allowed to keep poultry), or sometimes grain which was brewed into ale...At Christmas also the lord was expected to give his tenants a meal, for example, bread, cheese, pottage and two dishes of meat. The tenant might be directed to bring his own plate, mug and napkin if he wished there to be a cloth on the table, and a faggot of brushwood to cook his food, unless he wished to have it raw. Sometimes the custom said explicitly that the lord had to give a Christmas meal because the tenant had given him the food. In at least one instance the value of the food to be provided by the lord was to be the same value as that given by the tenant. The role of the lord in this case appears to have been merely to organize the village Christmas dinner. The value of the dinner was not always so finely balanced as this however: sometimes the lord gained, sometimes the tenant. These customs were maintained for several centuries, lasting in some cases after the end of the manorial system when compulsory work had been commuted into the paying of rent."
  ---Food and Feast in Medieval England, P.W. Hammond [Wren's Park:Gloucestershire] 1993 (p. 36)

  "Almonds and raisins were also bought at Christmas, perhaps for a Christmas pudding. Apart from this there is no sign that they [the gentry] celebrated Christmas by eating anything very different from their normal diet. This is presumably not due to their religious status, since this did not inhibit other ecclesiastical establishments. For example, in 1289 Richard de Swinfield, the Bishop of Hereford, spent Christmas at his manor of Prestbury, near Gloucester. The day before Christams was kept as a fast, but a considerable amount of fish, herrings, conger eels and codlings were eaten, together with a salmon costing 5s. 8d. (28p, quite a high price). A dozen cups, 300 dishes, 150 large plates and 200 small plates were obtained for the occasion. There were a number of guests--at least fifteen judging by the number of extra horses in the stable for the next two days. On the following day (Christmas Day) even more food was consumed. Over three days they ate no less than 1 boar, 2 complete carcasses and 3 quarters of beef, 2 calves, 4 does, 4 pigs, about 60 fowls (hens or possibly capons), 8 partridges and 2 geese, as well as bread and cheese. The amount of ale served was not recorded, but ten sextaries (about 40 gallons) of red wine and one of white were consumed. This is a fairly modest amount for about 70 people. On such occasions the wine was sometimes only served to the bishop and the most important guests. The amount of food was also considerable and (as the editor of the account suggests), probably a large amount was give to the poor, or perhaps to the manor tenants. Spices, such as ginger, cloves and cinnamon, saffron and mustard were also purchased. They did not need to buy very much pepper since 1/2 lb of pepper cloves formed part of their original endowment. Spices always formed part of the diet of the gentry and magnate households, presumably because they liked the flavour these gave to food."
  ---ibid (p. 65)

  "Arthurian Christmas feasts swell the pages of medieval literature. One medieval romance begins in the midst of Christmas revelry at Camelot, where King Arthur, his Knights of the Round Table and their ladies are celebrating for 15 days, "with all the food and mirth that men knew how to devise." Merriment notwithstanding, the medieval feast was often an occasion for great pomp and ceremony. At 10 A.M. on Christmas Day, to the sound of clarion trumpets, the marshal would usher guests into the castle's great hall, seating them at long tables according to the established order of precedence. A bowl of spiced, scented water was circulated for the hand-washing ceremony, and a Latin grace chanted in unison. Then the trumpets blared again, this time to announce the arrival of servers as they entered the hall balancing steaming platters of spit-roasted haunches, gilded fowl and enourmous crusty pies. Medieval feasts were traditionally served in three courses. Each course included a soup, followed by a wide range of baked, roasted and boiled dishes, and finally an elaborate sotelty, a lifelike (often edible) scene sculpted in colored marzipan or dough. One 15th-century English menu suggests bringing each of the three courses to a close with a sotelty depicting a successive phase of the Christmas story...The bounty of medieval feasts is legendary. One early historian noted that in 1398, King Richard II "kept his Christmas at Liechfield, where he spent [used] in the Christmas time 200 tunns of wine, and 2000 oxen with their appurtenances."
  ---Christmas Feasts from History, Lorna J. Sass [Irena Chalmers Cookbooks:New York] 1981 (p. 23-4)
  [NOTE: This book contains sample modernized recipes.]

  About Christmas pudding

  MEDIEVAL ITALIAN CHRISTMAS FOOD AND CUSTOMS

  "The distinction between normal days and feast day can be noted in every kitchen...feast days were observed in different ways and with varying degrees of frequency. For certain religions holidays, the menu was ritualized. Lasagne at Christmas...when Messire Sozzo Bandinelli assembed a brilliant court at Siena to celebrate his son Francesco's accession to knighthood on Christams Day 1326, the festivities were to last the whole preceding week, with tournaments, exchanges of gifts, and banquets. The record contains the menus of three meat banquets (...with 600 on Christmas Day), and one for a day of abstinence (120 guests on Wednesday, Christmas Eve). Days of penitence did not require forswearing banquets; it was enough to replace meat with fish. Morever, as in othe literary texts, the chronicler mentions on y th dishes reflecting festivity, abundance, and knightly courtesy--in a word, the meat and fish dishes--from among all the foods appearing on the banquet tables. At Siena in that December of 1326, the number of courses, as they appear in the chronicler's simplified version, varied from three to five (on the great day itself). At all the the meat banquets, boiled veal, roast capon, and game meats were served; for the Christmas feast the vast quantity and variety of game are described in detail. Each day's menu is distinguished by a particular dish: ravioli and ambrogino di polli...for the Tuesday, blancmange for Christmas Day; pastelli on the Thursday. The banquets always ended with candied pears served with treggea (sugared almonds), and were always preceded and followed by confetti: sugarcoated whole spices. The meatless Christmas Eve menu was no less gala, with four courses. First, following the confetti, came marinated tench and plates of chickpeas to the table, then roast eels, and finally a compote with treggea, followed by the unvarying candied pears and confetti."
  ---The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy, Odile Redon et al [Univeristy of Chicago Press:Chicago] 1998 (p. 6-7)

  TRADITIONAL MEDIEVAL GERMAN CHRISTMAS FOODS: gingerbread & lebkuchen

  RECOMMENDED WEB SITES
  

  • Christmas feasts/Boke of Gode Cookery
  • Feast for Christmas Revel (with recipes)
  • About Medieval Christmas

  "Food and drink played important roles in Christmas celebrations during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Christmas festivities often ended with a Twelfth Night banquet on the sixth of January, and the Christmas season was the time when the yeomanry and apprentices demanded finer quality bread and ale than they ordinarily received. This tradition, called "wassailing," provided an important opportunity for the gentry to demonstrate their hospitality. As Thomas Tusser counseled his readers, "At Christmas be merye, & thankful withall/& feast thy poore neighbors ye gret with ye small." Religious aspects of keeping Christmas changed during the seventeenth century, although many social customs like wassailing remained intact. Josiah King's book mocks those who would suppress Christmas. The Puritan jury members are all mean, among them Mr. Eat-alone, Mr. Hoord-corne, and Mr. Cold-kitchin, and they are replaced by Mr. Warm-gut, Mr. Neighbour-hood, and Mr. Open-house, who acquit Father Christmas. Brawn, made from force-fed boar meat and served with mustard sauce, is traditionally associated with Christmas in England. The plot of A Christmas messe involves a battle between the forces of King Brawn and King Beef for the place of first setting at the Christmas meal. The cook resolves the debate, and Brawn, assisted by Mustard, is sent in first, followed by Queen Mincepie. This play may well have been performed at a Cambridge college as an after-dinner lesson in debating. December's good cheer for Thomas Tusser's family included brawn pudding along with freshly killed beef, mutton, pork, veal, goose, capon, and turkey. Apples, cheese, and nuts with jolly carols end the "christmas husbandly fare." Tusser's plea for year-round hospitality makes sense in a world where fresh food was available only seasonally and enough to eat depended on a good harvest." SOURCE: Folger Library

  "The greatest of the feasts celebrated was Christmas. This, of course, covered twelve days, but unlike the modern Christmas the celebrations did not begin until Christmas Day itself. Advent was mostly a time of fasting, and as Advent only ended after mass on Christmas Day, the festivities could not begin before then. The two most celebrated days of Christmas were New Year and the final day of celebration, Twelfth Night...There was...a definate purpose to the Tudor Christmas. At a time when society was very strictly organized, Christmas acted as a kind of pressure-release valve, a time when everyhthing was turned on its head. There were different days when certain sections of society were allowed an unusual degree of freedom. Children, for example, had their day on 6 December, St. Nicholas Day...Christmas, then as now, had a variety of dishes associated with it. The first was the boar's head, which formed the centrepiece of the Christmas Day meal. It was garnished with rosemary and bay and evidently was presented to the diners with some style, as told by the many boar's head caorls which still exist...Thomas Tusser in Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry suggests a number of dishes, that, lower down society, the housewife should provide for her guests at Christmas. He mentions mutton, pork, veal souse (pickled pig's feet and ears), brawn, cheese and apples, although none of these items was connected especially with Christmas; they were all associated with feasting generally. He also talks of serving turkey, but only as a part of oa list of other luxurious items that the housewife should provide. It deos not seem to be the centrepiece in the way that the boar's head was in grander circles. One important item associated with Twelfth Night was the Twelfth cake. This was a fruitcake into which an object or objects might be baked, These might be a coin, or coins, or a dried bean and pea, The idea was that whoever found the item in their piece of cake became the King of the Bean or Queen of the Pea. They would then become host and hostess for the evening's entertainments...Another tradition associated with Chrsitmas was that of wassailing. This was the remains of old fertility rites, when a toast would be drunk to fruit trees in the hope of making them produce a good crop in the following year. Whatever its origins, it was certainly an opportunity for plenty of drinking...The wassail cup might be of cider, ale, or some spiced ale such as lambswool, a kind of spiced beer whcih was served warm. Wassailing was a part of Christmas for everyone, from the highest to the lowest."
  ---Food and Feast in Tudor England, Alison Sim [Sutton Publishing:Phoenix Mill] 1997 (p. 113-115)

  "A Christmas-day dinner menu at Ingatestone included: "six boiled and 3 roast pieces of beef, a neck of mutton, a loin and breast of pork, a goose, 4 coneys [rabbits] and 8 warden pies [pear pies colored with saffrom]." For supper "5 joints of mutton, a neck of pork, 2 coneys, a woodcock and a venison pasty" were served. This was a modest menu..."
  ---Dining with William Shakespeare, Madge Lorwin [Atheneum:New York] 1076 (p. 157)

  Gervase Markham's English Housewife, originally published in 1615 , contains extensive details on the "Ordering of great fasts and proportion of expense." [191]. These passages are often quoted in late Elizabethan/17th century books when it comes to Christmas feasts. Too much to paraphrase, and not yet online. This book is readily available in paperback. Our copy is edited by Michael R. Best, Mcgill-Queen's University Press ISBN 0773511032. Your librarian will be happy to help you obtain a copy or you can purchase online.

  More Web sources. ...includes links to living history museums/groups recreating period meals. You might consider contacting them for additional suggestions.

  BAROQUE GERMAN CHRISTMAS
  We are finding plenty of information regarding traditional German Christmas foods (including references to 17th century holiday customs) but no solid print/online leads with regards to authentic period cuisine. Many of German's traditional Christmas foods date to the Medieval ages. Certainly, Baroque-era celebrants would have eaten these foods. Notes here:

  • Traditional German Christmas foods (with recipes, in English)
  • Lebkuchen (gingerbread) from Nurenberg
    
  • Candy canes
  • Stollen

  Christmas markets

  If you are a music student and you have to make something for class? We suggest gingerbread. Period correct, easy to make and delicious! If you need information on the traditional Christmas foods of a particular country please let us know. We are happy to help.

  VICTORIAN ENGLISH CHRISTMAS
  When we think of this period, we often fondly recall the Christmas feast described in Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol The Cratchit family lovingly shared plump roast goose, oyster stuffing, mincemeat, Christmas (aka plum) pudding and Wassail. Is this what everyone ate? Likely not. England's Industrial Revolution created great social divisions based on economic station. As was traditional, people celebrated Christmas with the very best meal they could afford. This does not mean they all ate the same foods. Tables set in wealthy houses differed greatly from those enjoyed by the middle class professionals, laboring folk, or workhouse poor. Have you ever wondered why the centerpiece of Bob Cratchit's holiday meal was a Christmas goose? How could they afford oyster stuffing?

  Most of the "classic" Victorian menus and recipes printed in Victorian Christmas books, magazines, and Web sites are dated 1860-1900. If you want to recreate and 1840s meal, as was served in the Cratchit household in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, the hard part will be finding authentic menus from that decade. Two of the best primary sources for this project are Alexis Soyer's Shilling Cookery for the People, published in London in 1854 and Charles Elme Francatelli's A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes, [1861]. These books were written for the working and middle classes, not the wealthy people with servants. The recipes are economical and fairly plain, which means these foods were probably the similar to those eaten by the Cratchits. Soyer's book contains a chapter titled "Soyer's New Christmas Receipts." Unfortunately, there are no suggested menus in these sources. Facsimile editions of these cookbooks were recently reissued by Pryor Publications [Kent, England]. Your librarian can help you find a copies.

  For most K-12 projects, simple Victorian-era menus and recipes are probably *good enough* to give your class a taste of the Dickens' era. You will have to make other adjustments anyhow...like omitting brandy from your Christmas pudding and Madeira from your Wassail. Some popular Victorian items may present new experiences to your students...oysters, for example. Does your budget permit such extravagance? A goose perfect, but turkey is okay too. Skip the pheasant. We suggest hot chocolate as your beverage. It was relatively new and very chic. Cider works well too.

  Sample menu: [1899]
  Her Majesty's Dinner

  If you need recipes we recommend these books:

  1. The Charles Dickens Cookbook, Brenda Marshall [Personal Library:Toronto] 1980
     ---no menus, but plenty of recipes adapted for modern kitchens. All foods in this book are cited to by Mr. Dickens in his works, exerpts provided.
  2. Christmas Feasts from History, Lorna Sass [Metropolitan Museum of Art:New York] 1981 (p. 69-81)
     ---very simple menu suggests: oyster loaves, roast stuffed goose [and vegetables of your choosine, suplerlative mincemeat, mince pies royal, Christmas pudding with punch sauce, & shrub.
  3. Victorian Christmas Book, Antony and Peter Miall [Pantheon:New York] 1978

  Recommended reading (food history & holiday customs)
  

  • A Book of Christmas, William Sansom
  • The Christmas Cook: Three Centuries of American Yuletide Sweets/William Woys Weaver
  • Christmas Customs and Traditions: Their History and Significance/Clement A. Miles
  • Christmas Feasts From History/Lorna J. Sass
  • Oxford Companion to Food/Alan Davidson
  • Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America/Andrew F. Smith editor
  • Victorian Christmas Book/Antony and Peter Miall
  • The World of Christmas/Gerry Bowler

  
  

  Do you have a traditional family food that needs research?
  Let us know.
  We are happy to track down food origins, historic recipes and anything else you might need.
  Happy holidays!

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  About these notes: Food history can be a complicated topic. These notes are not meant to be a comprehensive treatment of the subject, but a summary of salient points supported with culinary evidence. If you need more information we suggest you start by asking your librarian to help you find the books and articles cited in these notes. Article databases are good for locating current recipes, consumer trends, and new products.
  Have questions? Ask!

  About culinary research & about copyright.
  Research conducted by Lynne Olver, editor The Food Timeline. About this site.

  ---

  http://www.foodtimeline.org/christmasfood.html
  © Lynne Olver 2002
  16 December 2007