Mistletoe Kisses and Yuletide Joy (28 page)

Candles link into this. There was a tradition of a Christmas candle that was lit on Christmas Eve and was supposed to last throughout Christmas Day. Again, this is not something I've seen specific reference to in a Regency text, though I used it in the story, A Gift of Light.

Snapdragon was one of those good old traditions -- even if it is one that would be banned today as highly dangerous! Raisins were soaked in brandy in a large shallow bowl. The lights were turned out, and the brandy lit. People had to try to grasp a raisin and eat it without burning themselves. I gather speed is the key. Don't try this at home!

And what of Christmas carols? They don't seem to have been popular in the Regency. There certainly are ones that predate the period, but if sung at all in the Regency it was in church as hymns. The other sort of singing was the wassail, where groups would go around to houses singing what were usually frank begging songs, hoping for some food, some drink, and some money.

A variant on this was the mummers, an ancient tradition. Groups of lower class men dressed up in traditional costumes to sing or perform a short play, again hoping for money. Some of the plays were traditional, and perhaps went back to the middle ages, but they were also generally updated with recent heroes such as General Wolfe and Nelson.

I use the mummers in a Christmas story available separately -- A Mummers' Play. The heroine uses the mummers as a way to invade the hero's house to get revenge.

Here is one description of these traditions in Whitehaven, Cumberland during the Regency.

"The comedians, of which there are many companies, parade the streets and ask at almost every door if the mummers are wanted. They are dressed in the most grotesque fashion; their heads adorned with high paper caps, gilt and spangled, and their bodies with ribbons of various colours, while St. George and the Prince are armed with ten swords. The "mysterie" ends with a song, and afterwards a collection is made." The "mysterie" these groups performed was Alexander and the King of Egypt. (Whose son is Saint George, an almost essential character in these mumming plays.)

And that might be connected to one English Christmas tradition that was present in the Regency and is still alive today – the Christmas pantomime. The pantomime usually opened on Boxing Day. Joseph Grimaldi, the famous clown who lived from 1779 to 1837, regularly performed in one at Drury Lane, and Astley’s Amphitheater also usually had a special Christmas spectacular.

However it was celebrated, Christmas in the Regency was Christmastide, which is the period from Christmas Eve to Twelfth Night, and Twelfth Night itself seems to have been more celebrated than Christmas.

Twelfth Night is January 6th, the Feast of the Epiphany, and the official end of Christmas.

On Epiphany Eve, men would gather round a tree with cider and guns. In an obviously ancient ceremony, they would drink to the tree and fire the guns to drive away evil spirits and promote the vigor of the trees. Horn-blowing was an alternative to firing guns. They also sometimes lit fires and tended them through the night. (It all sounds like an excuse for a rollicking all-male party, to me!)

The day and night of the 6th – Twelfth Night – was a time for masks and playacting. Cakes were part of this day, not Christmas.

This is from a report by a Regency traveler. "The Confectioners of London are famous for the elegance and size of their Twelfth Day cakes: for some days previously to this period, their shops are decorated with a great variety of them, made of different shapes, and with various devices upon them: some weigh many hundred pounds."

They were covered with coloured sugar in fanciful designs, and they contained a bean and a pea. The man who found the bean would become king for the night, and the woman who found the pea would become queen. I have no idea what happened if the wrong sex found the bean or pea! There are variants of this wherein the king and queen could choose a partner for the night, which could provide a situation for a romance.

Another similar Twelfth Night tradition was for the ladies to pick a man’s name from a hat, and he would be her partner for the night.

At the end of Twelfth Night, all the decorations were taken down and the greenery burned or else the house risked bad luck. That was the end of Christmas. Until the next time.

Of course the things that were not present in the Regency are Santa Claus/Father Christmas, reindeer-drawn sleighs and toy-making elves. Some members of the royal family had brought over the German tradition of the Christmas tree, but it didn't become popular until the reign of Victoria, when the London Illustrated News published a picture of her, Albert, and their young children around their tree. It was a small tree on a table, and that was the norm in most British households for a long time. It had candles, which would seem very dangerous, but the tradition was to light them on Christmas Eve and sing a carol. Then they were extinguished.

SOME SEASONAL RECIPES

Many Christmas recipes are shaped by the season. Fresh fruit of any sort would be rare in
Britain in the past, so dried fruits are a staple.

Gingerbread

This was a Christmas treat. Here's a Regency recipe, if you want to have a go. Not your usual gingerbread. In fact, literally bread with ginger. (A penny loaf was a normal sized loaf, but I can't be more precise than that because it was the size of loaf a person could buy for a penny, so it varied according to the price of flour. As for the moulding, printing -- stamping with a design? -- and drying, you're on your own.)

"
Into a pound of almonds, blanched and pounded, grate a penny white loaf; sift and beat them together; to the mixture add an ounce of ginger scraped fine, and of liquorice and aniseed in powder, of each a quarter of an ounce; pour in two or three spoonfuls of rose water, and make the whole into a paste with half a pound of sugar: mould and roll it; print it, and dry it in a stove."

The book adds, "Some make gingerbread of treacle, citron, lemon, and orange-peel, with candied ginger, coriander, and caraway seeds, mixed up with as much flour as will make it into a paste."

Sugar-plums

These were connected with Christmas, but have fallen out of favour. These days people sometimes think they were plums, but they were only plum shaped. They were formed of a paste of dried fruits and spices with no fixed recipe and covered with a sugar crust that could be quite hard. Cardamom

was a popular seasoning, as was caraway.

One Regency recipe book offers these ways to color the white sugar.

"A Beautiful green for this and for other purposes of confectionary may be obtained either from spinach or beet leaves, by first pounding them well in a mortar in order to express the juice, and then boiling in a water-bath, by placing the cup containing it in a stew pan of water over the fire, to take off its rawness. Yellow is easily obtained by a little saffron; and a red sufficiently good from boiling water poured over beet-root. Where a finer red is wanted, five grains of cochineal, boiled gently with half a dram of cream of tartar in a tea-cupful of water, for about twenty minutes, with the addition of a bit of alum not larger than a pin's head, will render it very beautiful. The colours will, in general, answer better by being mixed with a weak solution of the gum, and are to be put on with the last coat."

Mince Pies

These are still a British staple. I'll give a period recipe and then my own. Readers in
North America might have trouble finding suet, but a good butcher can provide some and grate or grind it for you. Try not to use the powdered kind. It doesn't give quite the same result. You'll need either a mincer or a food processor, or a lot of time and strength.

The addition of hard boiled eggs is a surprise! Mountain wine was probably "mountain Malaga" a rich, sweet wine.

"Mince sufficiently small two pounds and a half of fine fresh beef suet, eight eggs boiled hard, three ounces of blanched sweet almonds, a pound and a half of stoned raisins, and half a dozen of fine apples; mix up with them two pounds and a half of picked and cleansed currants, a pound and a quarter of the finest powdered sugar, an ounce of finely beaten cinnamon, half an ounce of pounded nutmeg, and a quarter of an ounce of cloves and mace beaten together, with half a pint of the best French brandy, a gill of mountain wine, a little fresh lemon peel finely shredded, and some candied citron, lemon, orange, and angelica.

For the pastry. Make a fine paste with one pound of butter rubbed into two pounds of flour, and half a pound rolled in; fill the pans in the usual manner, and bake them in a moderate oven. If the mince meat is intended to be kept, the candied sweetmeats, and even the currants, need not be added till wanted for making up the pies."

My recipe, which is actually approximate. Mincemeat is not a precise science! I make it in October so it can mature. I only make mince pies in December and up to Twelfth Night. Then no more until next year.

Equal amounts of currants, raisins, and sultanas. I use a pound of each because I make a large quantity, so the rest of the quantities are to match.

1 pound of apples, peeled, cored and cut into chunks.

Half a pound of mixed candied peel.

Half a pound of shredded suet.

Half a pound of sugar, either brown or white with a bit of treacle/molasses.

The grated rind and juice of a lemon and an orange.

Half a teaspoonful of nutmeg

Half a teaspoonful of ginger

A quarter teaspoonful of cinnamon

About a cup of booze. This is according to preference, but is essential if you're storing it. I use a cup of rum.

Stir it all together in a big bowl and then feed through your mincer or food processor so it's a mush. Store in one or more lidded containers and put in a cool place.

This will be a fairly stiff paste, so when making the pies or tarts you need to add a little liquid -- say a teaspoonful to a small mince tart. I add rum or brandy, but you can add plain water or orange juice.

In my opinion, the best way to eat a mince tart is still a little warm from the oven with stiffly whipped cream. Gently ease off the top crust, put a spoonful of cream in there. Put the lid back on and enjoy!

Toasted Cheese.

This isn't particularly a Christmas recipe, but if you've explored the Regency period at all you might have seen that they were very fond of toasted cheese for supper, even having lovely silver dishes in which to keep it warm.

This is a period recipe.

4oz of firm cheese, grated. (I find red cheddar in North America has a flavor which is different to any English cheese, so I recommend using old white cheddar.)

3 tbsp milk,

Mustard, English if possible.

Two slices of thick toast, using good bread of course. You can use French or Italian bread though it’s not quite authentic.

Melt
the cheese in the milk in a heavy pan, stirring over gentle heat. When it’s a thick consistency, season to taste. Re-heat to just below boiling. Put the toast in a suitably sized heat-proof dish and pour the cheese sauce over it. Put under boiler until it bubbles and browns. Serve immediately, preferably with English beer.

Toasted cheese was often called Welsh Rarebit or Rabbit, but my fa
mily’s recipe for that is a bit different.

Toast a slice of bread on one side only.

Grate 2 oz firm, flavorful cheese (being from Lancashire, that is preferred.) Add ¼ cup grated onion (or to taste. I like onion.)

Add
½ cup fresh breadcrumbs.

(This can all be done in the food processor. Slice cheese, chop onions, and tear bread into chunks, then whirl a bit.)

Add milk until there’s a soft paste, and salt and pepper to taste. If you don’t care to taste at this stage, be moderate with the salt, but generous with the freshly ground pepper.

It’s good to let it stand an hour or so at this point, and then you might have to add a little more milk, especially if the bread was a bit stale.

Spread the paste thickly on the untoasted side of the bread and put under a low broiler. You want it to cook through. When it’s brown and bubbly on top, eat. It can be cut into squares or fingers

Pease pudding
.

A traditional food you may have come across in nursery rhymes.

"Pease pudding hot, pease pudding cold, pease pudding in the pot, five days old."