Christmas Dinner

Now that we've all had a chance to digest, here's my current references for Christmas dinners c. 1840-1865.

Preparing for Christmas (Plucking Turkeys) 
by Francis William Edmonds, 1851. The Met.

Bills of Fare

Several dishes recur in descriptions of Christmas dinner: Turkey, plum pudding, and mince pie are almost universal, with American sources frequently adding pumpkin pie.  When circumstances permit, just about every type of seasonable meat joins the list--lamb, beef, pork, chicken, venison--along with a wide variety of sauces, puddings and cakes, gingerbread, cheese, fruit, nuts, and even the occasional winter vegetable.

Christmas and New Year's Dinners
Godey's, January 1860

The Godey's dinners, published in the January 1860 issue for use at Christmas '59, are verbatim copied from Miss Leslie's Lady's New Receipt Book (1850): 

Christmas dinner.--Roast turkey; cranberry sauce; boiled ham; turnips; beets; winter squash--Mince pies.
New Year's dinner.--A pair of roast geese with apple sauce; smoked tongue; turnips; cole slaw; winter squash--Plum pudding.

They offer a more extensive list for the next year:

"Christmas and New Year's Dinners" in Godey's, Dec 1860.

A Shilling Cookery for the People (London/New York, 1854) offers a modest Christmas dinner of boiled turkey, vegetable soup (made from the turkey water), roasted potatoes, and plum pudding.  By pre-boiling the pudding, the whole meal can be made with a single pot.

An 1856 Peterson's story, "Two Christmas Dinners" (p. 358), includes Turkey soup, fish with anchovy sauce, roast turkey with cranberry sauce, browned potatoes, plum pudding (served flaming, of course), and nuts for/with dessert.

"Christmas and Its Customs" (Godey's 1855) describes food prepared on Christmas eve: "...besides the customary mince-pies and plum-puddings, there was a large cake called the yule-cake, overspread with leaves and ornaments....In the meanwhile, a table was spread in the kitchen, covered in pork-pies, bread and cheese, elder wine, and ale" [for the carollers who would appear near midnight].  "Apples, nuts and gingerbread" are also mentioned as popular Christmas treats.

An extensive Christmas spread in 1843:

The oven was hot from morning till night and almost from night till morning. There was baking of pound cake, and plum cake, and sponge cake, and Christmas cake, and New Year's cake and all sorts of cake that could be found in the cook book. Then there were ovens full of mince pies and apple pies and custard pies and all sorts of pies. The greatest display of pies however was of the pumpkin tribe. There were pumkin[sic] pies baked on large platters for Christmas dinner and others on large plates for breakfast and supper a month afterwards and others still in saucers for each of the small children. In the next place there was a pair of plum puddings baked in the largest sized earthen pots, and Indian pudding,s and custard puddings to match. And then the roastings that were shown up on the morning of Christmas were in excellent keeping with the rest of the preparations. Besides a fine sirloin of beef, two fat turkeys were roasted, two geese and a half a dozen chickens. And then another half dozen of chickens were made into an enormous chicken pie and baked in a milk pan. A query may arise perhaps in the mind of the reader why such a profusion of food should be cooked up at once for a single family and that family too not unreasonably large though respectable in number for it did not count over sixteen including domestics hired help and all. This is a very natural error for the reader to fall into but it is an error nevertheless. This array of food was not prepared for a single family but for a numerous company to be made up from many families in the neighborhood.
--Way Down East OR Portratures of Yankee Life (1843)

A royal Christmas dinner contains "as many as sixty turkeys" for family, court, and servants, and always includes "a baron of beef, an immeasurable pie, and a boar's head, two or three brawns, and a large woodcock pie", among other dishes. (The Illustrated London Cookery Book 1852). The same book gives the components of a stereotypical English Christmas dinner as goose, roast beef, and plum pudding.

[The "baron of beef" being "two sirloins roasted and brought to the table undivided", which is "a favorite dish in England at Christmas". Breakfast, Dinner, and Tea (New York, 1860).]

Practical American Cookery and Domestic Economy (New York, 1860) instructs that roast turkey (with stuffing, gravy and oyster sauce) should be served with mashed potatoes, mashed turnips, dressed celery, pickles, and stewed apples; also tongue or cold boiled ham for a large party, and mince pies if served at Christmas--pumpkin and apple if at Thanksgiving.

For more ideas about seasonal menus, see Mrs. Beeton's December Bills of Fare for plain family dinners, parties of 6-18, or for a ball supper for 60 persons in winter.

Poverty & Charity

Plum-pudding is no dish for the dog-days, but its suet blunts the keen tooth of winter. Nor is it a mere sentimental sympathy that makes the wish to give the poor a good Christmas dinner. Scant fare makes cold more bitter.
--The Ladies' New Book of Cookery, New York, 1852

The Christmas hamper is a staple of period fiction. Fans of Little Women. and A Christmas Carol will remember it: the charitable main character delights in delivering a Christmas meal (or the ingredients for one) to poor neighbors.  Some of these meals are described in useful detail.

In "The Christmas Letter" (Godey's, 1856), a young woman, with the aid of her generous fiance, provides a Christmas meal for her poor aunts:

The search into the hamper is presently re-newed. It contains an acceptable stock of grocery, inclusive of tea, sugar, and other things; then come a great plum-pudding, only partially to boil to be quite perfect; a goose to stuff and roast; a grand piece of sirloin already cooked; a pigeon-pie; a boiled ham, tartlets, mince-pies, fruit for dessert, four bottles of; wine, and something a little stronger for punch." [Pippins (apples) and filberts (hazel nuts) from the fiance's family estate are included with the provisions.]

A widow and her three children are presented with "A chicken, plum pudding, four pies, bread and some cakes--these were for the Christmas dinner" in Merry Christmas: A Christmas Present for Children and Youth (Boston, 1854).

A different "a poor washerwoman with three children" receives a basket which "contains a turkey...two pies, a peck of potatoes, some currant jelly...and some oysters" for their Christmas dinner in the story "How Effie Hamilton Spent Christmas" (Godey's, Philadelphia, 1857).  The title character makes similar gifts to all of the poor people she can find, including with the dinner baskets personalized Christmas trees for the families with children, special food for invalids, and other treats such as wine, oranges, and white grapes.

Illicit Christmas charity appears a gifts of gin and brandy brought to prisoners by their friends--these supplement the beef, strong beer, tobacco, and plum pudding provided by the establishment and its' official donors. Meanwhile, the turnkey dines on "a magnificent piece of beef." ["Christmas With John Doe" Household Words (London, 1851).]

In 1857, the Girls' Lodging House in New York City served turkey and ham for Christmas Dinner.

Indigent persons without these gifts might make a dinner of bread and cheese.  In the story "Christmas Day In the Bench" (The National Magazine, London, 1858), the cash-strapped main character makes a stew of woodcocks, rump-steak, carrots, and turnips; an 'apple charlotte' of apples, sugar, and bread-and-butter; purchases mince pies; and finishes the meal with a few pints of beer and wine.  This feeds three adults and three children.  When the promised Christmas hamper arrives--weeks late--it contained beef, turkey, sausages, mince pies, pudding, and sherry (all spoiled save the last).

Charles Dickens, describing Christmas in various places and circumstances, describes typical meals among England's poor:

The commonest dinner in the poorer houses--in some parts of the country--is a curious sort of mutton pie. The meat is cut off a loin of mutton and reduced to mouthfuls and then strewed over with currants or raisins and spice, and the whole covered in with a stout crust. In some places, the dinner is baked meat and potatoes; in too many cottages, there is nothing better than a morsel of bacon to flavour the bread or potatoes. But it may be safely said that there is more and better dining in England on Christmas day than on any other day of the year.
--"What Christmas Is In Country Places" Household Words (London, 1851)

Foods in Season

"COD-FISH: In highest season from October to the beginning of February; in perfection about Christmas." (The Ladies' New Book of Cookery, New York, 1852; seconded in Eliza Acton's Modern Cookery for Private Families, London, 1864)  The latter also states that the "John Dory" [fish] is in season from Michelmas to Christmas. Lamprey is also apparently best around Christmas-time (The Modern Housewife, London, 1851)  Hints for the Table (London, 1859) concurs about ling, cod, and dory being in season at Christmas, while the Hake is in season from Michaelmas to Christmas; it also maintains that the lamprey is, in fact, quite costly at Christmastime.

Milton oysters "approach the meridian of their perfection about Christmas", having come into season in May. (The Housekeeper's Manual, London, 1859)

"Welsh Beef. -- It will keep for 2 months in winter, and will be found useful amid the Christmas fare in the country" (The Ladies' New Book of Cookery, New York, 1852) Veal is supposed to be good from Christmas to mid-summer, but cheapest at the end of that time frame (The Cook and Housewife's Manual, Edinburgh, 1862).

"Mutton is in its greatest perfection from August to Christmas" (The Improved Housewife, Hartfield, Connecticut, 14th edition 1851); The Virginia Housewife (1860), concurs. However, lamb is rarely served at Christmas, except for "house lamb", which is in season from Christmas until April (being more delicate near Christmas and more flavorful later, according to the The Modern Housewife).

Turkey is in season at Christmas--the hens are supposed to be boiled, the toms roasted.  
Hints for the Table suggest aging turkeys for 2-3 weeks to make them taste more like game. Other birds, including goose, are also consumed.  The Cook and Housewife's Manual maintains that "geese are in perfection from Michaelmas to Christmas" (though elsewhere, it is indicated that geese are best in summer and again at Michaelmas)*.  Nonetheless, goose pie is repeatedly named. Dickens describes elaborate goose pies being prepared in England:

"The goose pie alone is an achievement to be complacent about; even the most ordinary goose pie; still more a superior one with a whole goose in the middle and another cut up and laid round; with a fowl or two, and a pheasant or two, and a few larks put into odd corners; and the top, all shiny with white of egg, figured over with leaves of pastry, and tendrils and crinkle crankles, with a bunch of the more delicate bird feet standing up in the middle"
--"What Christmas Is In Country Places" Household Words (London, 1851)

Breakfast, Dinner, and Tea describes a 9-foot meat pie, containing rabbit and ten types of birds, which was supposedly made in England in 1770 (see page 127); Hints for the Table describes another elaborate 13th century meat pie recreated in 1836 (page 66).

Eggs are most expensive around Christmas, and cheapest at Easter, according to The Cook and Housewife's Manual.

Venison is "in perfection about Christmas" (Mrs. Goodfellow's Cookery As It Should Be, Philadelphia, 1865).

Cured "chine of pork" is "generally used at Christmas" (Illustrated London Cookery Book, 1852; The Practical Housekeeper (New York, 1857) repeats this observation.

*The Cook and Housewife's Manual also mentions poultry being cheapest in cities in the summer and in rural areas around Christmas; there may be few different ideas of seasonality under consideration.

Receipts

A Christmas dinner, with the middle classes of this empire, would scarcely be a Christmas dinner without its turkey... --Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management

Plum puddings are not only confined to British publications like The Young Housewife's Daily Assistant (London, 1864), The Housekeeper's Manual (London, 1859) or The Corner Cupboard (1858) [three Christmas pudding receipts, see #36-38].  Sarah Josepha Hale includes a "Christmas Cottage Pudding"in both The Ladies' New Book of Cookery (New York, 1852) and in Modern Household Cookery (London, 1854); Godey's (Philadelphia, 1860) also has pudding receipts, likewise The American Matron (Boston, 1851), and Practical American Cookery and Domestic Economy (New York, 1860).  Hints for the Table (London, 1859) recommends using duck eggs in Christmas puddings.

Cookery: Rational, Practical, and Economical (London 1855), has advice for serving its plum pudding, whether baked or boiled:

It is a custom in England at Christmas time, to ornament the plum pudding with a sprig of holly stuck into the top and after pouring a quantity of spirits over it, to set fire to this in the dish, and serve it blazing. Although this fiery sauce may amuse a Christmas juvenile party, yet the pudding is thereby spoiled for those who dislike the spirit flavour. It is therefore better omitted, so that each person may help himself or not as he pleases to a small quantity of brandy or other liqueur with which to flavour his pudding. Caudle sauce is also sometimes taken with plum pudding, though it is oftener preferred plain.  

A good plum pudding will keep (if not eaten) a very long time. Slices of it broiled or merely re-warmed before the fire, are excellent.

Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management (London, 1861) has recipes for Christmas Cake, Christmas Plum Pudding, and A Plain Christmas Pudding for Children. Other dishes recommended for Christmas include the aforementioned Roast Turkey and Turkey Soup ("a seasonable dish at Christmas"), while the boar's head is named as a traditional dish (no receipt given).

As previously noted, A Shilling Cookery for the People (1854) has recipes for boiled turkey, vegetable soup, roasted potatoes, and plum pudding.

In December 1860, Godey's publishes "Receipts for Christmas", including five Christmas plum

 puddings or cakes, pumpkin pudding, three types of mince meat, lemon cake, lemon gingerbread, seed cake, queen cake, imperial gingerbread, soft cruellers, and pound cake.  The following page contains instructions and recipes for preparing poultry and game. Three years earlier, the December issue of Godey's Christmas Receipts included mince pie, twelfth cake, Christmas pudding, buns, Sally Lunn, mince meat, and a receipt for pickling meat; more poultry instructions follow.

Francitelli's A Plan Cookery Book for the Working Classes (London, 1852): "Let us hope that at Christmas, or some other festive season, you may have to dress a fowl or turkey for your dinner." which follows with the receipt for roast fowl and gravy (#16), and also a Christmas plum pudding (#95) 

The Practical Housekeeper (New York, 1857) has receipts for Christmas Ham, Christmas Cake, Christmas Pie [goose and tongue], and Mince Meat Pies for Christmas.

Goose pie--baked well in advance, in a standing crust--apparently used to be common at Christmas. Now, you make it the day you serve it. (Miss Leslie's New Cookery Book, Philadelphia, 1857).  Her Lady's New Receipt Book (1850) includes a "French Raised Pie" of game or poultry, which can be made as a Christmas present and mailed.

The Modern Housewife or Ménagère (London 1851) describes Plain Roasted Turkey With Sausages (#378) as a Christmas dish.

Modern Cookery for Private Families (London, 1864) has receipts for Ingoldsby Christmas Pudding, The Author's Christmas Pudding; and a French fruit tart called Christmas tourte ala chatelaine.  Intriguingly, the instructions for a "common apple pudding" requires additional boiling if made after Christmas--possibly this is due to ingredients aging?

The Cook and Housewife's Manual (Edinburgh, 1862) gives receipts for ox-head soup (or Hessian Soup and Ragout), head and shoulders of cod, English Christmas goose pie, mincemeat and mince pies, Trinity Christmas plum-pudding, Scotch Christmas buns, and wassail bowl.

How to Mix Drinks (1862) includes six receipts for egg nog, noting that "Egg Nogg is a beverage of American origin, but it has a popularity that is cosmopolitan. At the South it is almost indispensable at Christmas time, and at the North it is a favorite at all seasons."  The Illustrated London Cookbook (1852) has a receipt for "Egg Flip or Egg Hot" (#1616).

To Be Continued...

P.S. A few seasonable receipts I have tried: Christmas Cake, Plum Pudding, New Year's Cookies, Twelfth Night Cake, and Roast Fowls.