“Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat. . .”
It is traditional to eat luxurious food during a celebration and Christmas is no exception. A huge slice of the British population will opt for the turkey roast this year , a tradition amongst the rich for many centuries, Henry the VIII championed the turkey and then Edward VII made it popular as a Christmas dish. The Common man has only been able to afford a turkey for the last 50 years or so.
Before this time people would celebrate with Goose many paying a small fee to use the local bakers oven to cook it in. Pre-dating the Turkey, which only arrived on British soil in 1526, was the boars head carried into the feast as everyone sang the boars head carol. In Roman Feasts the Boar was the first dish served and there are historical writings of boars stuffed with quails being served at ceremonies.
The Romans were great a having a good party and the notion of stuffing one animal into another animal became quite the norm. Writings also tell of another meal involving stuffing a chicken inside a duck inside a goose inside a pig inside a cow.
The Georgians also did well with marking an occasion with food. In 1753, James, Earl of Lonsdale sent a Christmas pie to King George III which weighed 22 stones (140 kgs) and contained 177 birds of differing varieties including 12 fieldfares, 46 yellow-hammers and a curlew.
By 1807 the rôti sans pareil ("roast without equal", a dish that the cook credited to the Romans) was reborn. Grimod de La Reynière presented his 17 bird roast with the largest bird being a bustard and the smallest a garden warbler. This is not the largest multi bird, however, in 1829 a cookbook was produced in Brussels which cited 20 stages.
In the modern day we are more refined but no less luxurious. Companies such as Pelham and Talbot (http://www.birdroast.co.uk/) provide the most “Royal of roasts” a succulent, fresh turkey breast, stuffed with goose, stuffed with chicken, stuffed with duck, stuffed with partridge. A delicacy which Mark Walker, Head Chef at Cambridge University’s Madingley Hall describes as :
“approximately 5 kilos of gourmet poultry and game with absolutely no waste. It is a mouth-watering cacophony of taste; succulent, juicy and very, very moreish indeed.”
The question is what is your traditional Christmas fayre? Can it be traced back to the Victorians ? The Romans ? Or the Tudors ?
Whatever you do make sure to spoil yourself this Christmas, if there’s one day of the year that you can treat yourself it’s the 25th of December, so eat like a King.
By http://www.fiercebadrabbit.co.uk/
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