"New Year's Celebrations. Although champage has become de rigeur as midnight strikes, no single food
epitomizes the contemporary New Year's holiday. The menu may be luxurious caviar at a New Year's Eve
bacchanalia or a sobering hoppin' John on New Year's Day. Celebrations marking the inexorable march of
Father Time often involve foods imbued with symbolism, such as in the Pennsylvania Dutch New Year's
tradition of sauerkraut (for wealth) and pork--the pig roots forward into the future, unlike the Christmas
turkey, which buries the past by scratching backward in the dirt. Seventeeth-century Dutch immigrants in
the Hudson River valley welcomed the New Year by "opening the house" to family and friends. The
custom was adapted by English colonists, who used brief, stricly choreographed January 1 social calls for
gentlemen to renew bonds or repair frayed relationships. Ladies remained at home, offering elegantly
arrayed collations laden with cherry bounce, wine, hot punch, and cakes and cookies, often flavored with
the Dutch signatures of caraway, coriander, cardamom, and honey. Embossed New Year's 'cakes," from
the Dutch nieuwjaarskoeken--made by pressing a cookie-like dough into carved wooden boards
decorated with flora and fauna--were a New York specialty throughout the nineteenth century...The New
York custom of open house spread westward in the nineteeth century...In the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries those of French and English backgrounds celebrated the twelve days of Christmas with gifts of
food and festive dinners on January 1...African Americans in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
made one of the most enduring contributions to the modern holiday. Starting in the Carolinas but
extending throughout the South, hoppin' John and greens became traditional New Year's fare, black-eyed
peas bringing luck and the rice (which swelled in the cooking) and greens (like money) bringing prosperity.
In the early twentieth century Japanese Americans adopted the open house tradition, serving glutinous
rice dishes, soups, boiled lobsters (signifying health and happiness), and fish specially prepared to appear
live and swimming."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith [Oxford University Press:New
York] 2004, Volume 2 (p. 189-90)
Colonial American collations
Colonial/Early American cookbooks do not contain suggested menus/bills of fare for New Year's
Collations. What we know about these gatherings is gleaned from primary sources such as
journals, letters, household accounts, and newspaper articles.
"The custom of paying New Year's calls originated in New York, where the Dutch held open
house on New Year's Day and served cherry bounce, olykoeks [doughnuts] steeped in rum,
cookies, and honey cakes. From New York the custom spread throughout the country. On the
first New Year's after his inauguration, George Washington opened his house to the public, and
he continued to receive visitors on New Year's Day throughout the seven years he lived in
Phildadelphia. On January 1, 1791, a senator from Pennsylvania hoted in his diary: "Made the
President the compliments of the season; had a hearty shake of the hand. I was asked to partake
of punch and cakes, but declined...Eventually, it became de rigeur [common social practice] for
those who intended to receive company to list in newspapers the hours they would be "at
home." It was a disastrous practice: parties of young men took to dashing from house to house
for a glass of punch, dropping in at as many of the homes listed in the papers as they could.
Strangers wandered in off the streets, newspapers under their arms, for a free drink and a bit of a
meal. The custom of having an open house on the first day of the year survived the assaults of
the newspaper readers. The traditional cookies and cakes continued to be served, along with hot
toddies, punches, eggnogs, tea, coffee, and chocolate. But public announcements of at-home
hours were dropped at the end of the nineteenth century, and houses were open only to invited
friends."
[New York]
[Maryland]
New Netherland's special cookies
"New Years Cakes were considered a delicacy most peculiar to New York and the Hudson Valley, but we do find professional bakers in many other East Coast
cities advertising these cakes. A baker in Philadelphia advertised in 1840 that he "sells the real New York New Year's Cakes, the genuine Knickerbockers, of all
sizes, from a cartwheel to a levenpenny bit...But how is it that New Years Cakes are also called Knickerbockers? We have already seen this term in connection
with the olie-koecken...Yes, early Americans were sometimes confused about names, but at least this does tell us that people in the 1840s were well aware of the
Dutch origins of this recipe."
"New Year's Cookies. Christmas and New Year's have always called for special recipes, and the Dutch New Year's koekjes, traditionally baked in molds that
produced the design of an eagle or the name of a famous person like Washington, were once among the most ornate. In 1808, Washington Irving's Salmagundi:
Or, The Whim-Whams and Opinions of Launcelot Langstaf, Esq., and Others claimed: "These notable cakes, hight [called] new-year cookies...originally were
impressed one side with the burly countenance of the illustrious Rip [Van Winkle]."
[1796]
[1857]
New Year's Day in New York, 1886
"A general and cordial reception of gentlemen guests upon the first day of the year, by the ladies of almost every household, also
by clergymen, and by gentlemen upon the first New-Year's Day after marriage, is a Knickerbocker custom which prevailed in New York, with scarce any
innovations, until within the last ten years. It was once a day when all gentlemen offered congratulations to each of their lady
acquaintences, and even employes of a gentleman were permitted to pay their respects, and to eat and drink with the ladies of
the household. Hospitalities were then lavishly offered and as lavishly received. This custom began when the city was small, but
it has now quite outgrown those possibilities which the original usages of the day could compass without difficulty. Beside, there
came a time when this excessive social freedom was proportionate to our over-large liberties, therefore, our hospitalities were
narrowed down to a lady's own circle of acquaintences. Even this boundary in many instances widened to so extended a
circumference that not a few of our kindliest and most hospitable of ladies have been compelled either to close their doors upon
this day of hand-shaking, eating, and drinking, or else to issue cards of welcome to as many of their gentlemen acquaintences
as they can entertain in a single day. Not many ladies in New York are, however, placed upon such heights of popularity as to
make this limitation a genuine necessity, and others may choose to receive congratulations upon New-Year's-Day only from relatives
and intimate friends...ladies who recieve in a general way whoever choose to call upon them are now almost certain that the
old-time crowds which thronged all open doors a decade ago will no longer intrude upon those from who they are uncertain even
of a recognition...to be considered a man of to-day, he must be well-bred and unobtrusive, even during this gala season...
Those who entertain elaborately upon New-Year's-Day sometimes send out cards of invitation...They are handsomely engraved...
Many gentlemen, even among those who take wine ordinarily, refuse it upon this day,
because they do not like to accept it at the hand of one lady and refuse it from that of another. Again, many ladies, form whose
daily tables the glitter of wine-glasses is never absent, do not supply this drink to their guests upon this day, because it
is dangerous for their acquaintences to partake of varied vintages, the more specially while passing in and out of over-heated
drawing rooms. Delicacies, coffeee, chocolate, tea, and bouillon, are supplied in their places, whether the wines be withheld by
kindly considerateness, or through conscientious scruples."
About culinary research & about copyright.
Many Colonial-era Americans greeted the New Year with collations, informal social gatherings
often held in "open" houses. This custom originated in New Netherlands (New York) and
quickly became popular in other parts of the country. Food and drink served reflected the
pocketbook of the host as well as the location of the home. Some concentrated on desserts and
light snacks; others offered elaborate and complicated menus.
---American Heritage Cookbook and Illustrated History of American Eating & Drinking,
American Heritage:New York] 1964 (p. 392)
"New Year's Eve was especially noisy, with the firing of guns to bring in the New Year.
Ordinances in both the Netherlands and New Netherland eventually prohibited such behavior.
The special treat for New Year's Day in the Netherlands was nieuwjaarskoeken (thick crisp
waters), which originated in the eastern part of the country and adjoining parts of Germany.
These wafers were made in a special wafer iron. The oblong or round long-handleed irons, made
by blacksmiths, created imprints of a religious or secular nature on the wafers. Wafer irons were
often given as a wedding gift, even in this country. Enourmous quantities of wafers were
prepared on New Year's Day. The were consumed by family, servants, and guests distributed to
children, who went from house to house singing New Year songs, while collecting their share of
treats along the way. There is ample evidence in diaries and letters that Dutch Americans
continued the custom of visiting each other on New Year's Day. In New Netherland...the
nieuwjaarskoeken were molded in wooden cake-boards, instead of wafer irons...The American
New Year's cake is a combination of two Dutch pastries brought here by the early settlers, the
nieuwjaarskoeken described above and spiced, chewy, honey cakes formed in a wooden mold or
cake-board. It was in the late eighteenth century that this homemade pastry prepared in heirloom
wafer irons by the Dutch, changed to a mostly store-bought product purchased by the
population at large."
---Matters of Taste: Food and Drink in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art and Life, Donna R.
Barnes and Peter G. Rose [Syracuse University Press:Syracuse NY] 2002 (p. 24-5)
"New Year's Day Collation at Mount Clare:
Crab Imperial, Oyster loaves, Boned Turkey Breast with Forcemeat and Oyster Sauce, Fried
Chicken, Maryland Ham, Fruits in White Wine Jelly, Beaten Biscuits, Sally Lunn, Apricot Fool,
Minced Pies, Pound Cake, Light Fruit Cake, Maryland Rocks, Little Sugar Cakes, Coconut
Jumbles, Peach Cordial, Syllabub, Egg Nog, Sangaree."
---The Thirteen Colonies Cookbook, Mary Donovan et al [Montclair Historical
Society:Montclair NJ] 1976 (p. 176)
---The Christmas Cook: Three Centuries of American Yuletide Sweets, William Woys Weaver [Harper Perennial:New York] 1990 (p. 140)
[NOTE: This book contains a modernized recipe based on one published by Eliza Leslie, circa 1838.]
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 tablespoons caraway seeds
Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Set aside. Beat eggs until very light, beat in sugar, a little at a time, and then the cream. Stir in flour combination
and caraway seeds. Refrigerate for several hours until dough is firm enough to handle. Roll about 1/4 inch thick on a lightly floured board and cut with a small
cooky cutter. Sprinkle tops with sugar and bake on greased cooky sheets in preheated 350 degree F. oven for about 10 minutes. Makes about 8 dozen."
---American Heritage Cookbook, Helen McCully recipes editor [American Heritage Publishing:New York] 1964 (p. 608)
"New Year's Cake. Take a pint milk, and one quart yeast, put these together over night and let it lie in the sponge till morning, 5 pound sugar and 4 pound butter,
dissolve these together, 6 eggs well beat, and carroway seed; put the whole together, and when light bake them in cakes, similar to breakfast biscuit, 20 minutes."
---American Cookery, Amelia Simmons, facsimile second edition printed in Albany, 1796 with an introduction by Karen Hess [Applewood Books:Bedford MA] 1996 (p. 45)
"New-Year's Cake.--Stir together a pound of nice fresh butter, and a pound of powdered white sugar, till they become a light thick cream. Then stir in,
gradually, three pounds sifted flour. Add, by degrees, a tea-spoonful of soda dissolved in a small tea-cup of milk, and then a half salt-spoonful of tartaric acid,
melted in a large table-spoonful of warm water. Then mix in, gradually, three table-spoonfuls of fine carraway seeds. Roll out the dough into sheets half an inch
thick, and cut it with a jagging iron into oval or oblong cakes, pricked with a fork. Bake them immediately in shallow iron pans, slightly greased with fresh butter.
The bakers in New York ornament these cakes, with devices or pictures fiased by a wooden stamp. They are good plain cakes for children."
---Miss Leslie's New Cookery Book, Eliza Leslie [T.B. Peterson:Philadelphia PA] 1857 (p. 605)
---Social Etiquette in New York, Abby Buchanan Longstreet, facsimile 1886 new and enlarged edition [Eastern National:
Fort Washington PA] 2002 (p. 187-196)
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!
Research conducted by Lynne
Olver, editor The Food
Timeline. About this site.