Fancy adding some traditional Tudor and Elizabethan foods and drink to your own Christmas traditions? Here are some recipes to help you:-
- Collar of Brawn – This pork loin dish, also known as “To Sowse a Pigge”, dates back to Medieval times and was served on Twelfth Night.
- Goose in Sawse Madame – A traditional Medieval recipe for roast, stuffed goose.
- Venison Y Bake – A Medieval venison pie.
- Elizabethan Mince Pie – This mince pie recipe has evolved from the traditional Medieval mince pie but has more fruit in it than mean. In the 21st century, British mince pies do not contain meat but do have suet in them. Delia Smith has a great recipe for mincemeat –click here – or there is a vegetarian mincemeat recipe at Cook it Simply. Then you just need some shortcrust pastry.
- Elizabethan Wassail – Wassail is the traditional Medieval drink for toasting people’s health and this modern version of an Elizabethan wassail uses ale and apples.
- Hypocras – Another popular Christmas drink which has developed into our modern mulled wine.
- Elizabethan sweetmeats – Marchpane, gingerbread and leach of almonds.
Here in Southern Spain at Christmas we have turron (a type of nougat), mantecada sweets and marzipan and suckling pig or lobster is eaten on Noche Buena (Christmas Eve) and in my homeland, England, we enjoy roast turkey with all the trimmings, Christmas pudding, mince pies, mulled wine, Yule chocolate logs and various sweets and chocolate what do you have in your country at this time of year? Please do tell me in the comments section below.
My family has turkey AND ham since we like both. Dad always liked oysters, so the stuffing would have oysters and we’d usually make an oyster soup and also have breaded clam strips (fried or broiled). We also like fruitcake, at least our version. No citron, just enough cake to make the fruit and nuts stick together and dates instead of raisins. My sister makes the best fudge, chocolate and peanut butter, and someone always brings chocolate spiders, which are just clumps of crunchy chow mein noodles dipped in melted chocolate and left to harden on waxed paper. Peppermint break is also good. Pound up candy canes to small pieces and stir into melted almond bark and spread onto a large cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. If you want, you can put down a layer of melted chocolate and let it harden before adding the peppermint layer. After it all hardens, break up into bite-size pieces.