Christmas 1863

Christmas Plum Pudding

The 'Christmas' Plum Pudding during the Victorian Era became distinguished from the centuries old plum puddings. It contained rich ingredients, and many were served flaming. A few cookbook authors, such as the British chef Soyer, had a seperate Christmas section.

Most cookbooks gave several plum pudding recipes, Beeton [Beeton. Book of Household Management . 1861] detailed seven. Some American authors named one of the regular plum puddings "English". The White House Cook Book of 1887 [Gillette, F. L. White House Cook Book. 1887] listed English Plum Pudding (The Genuine), Christmas Plum-Pudding (By Measure), Baked Plum-Pudding, and Plum-Pudding, without eggs; and the Buckeye Cookbook [Wilcox, Estele Woods. Buckeye Cookery. 1877] contained: Christmas Plum Pudding, Eggless, Half Batch, Iced, Plum Pudding, and English Plum Pudding. They were either boiled in cloth or steamed in a tin or other mold and not to be confused with the baked fruit cakes which were also included in various cookbooks.

Many Christmas Plum Puddings were differentiated from the other plum puddings in that they were decorated with holly sprigs, covered with brandy, and set on fire. According to the venerable Victorian cookbook author Isabella Beeton: ... "The day it is to be eaten, plunge it into boiling water, and keep it boiling for at least 2 hours; then turn it out of the mould, and serve with brandy-sauce. On Christmas-day a sprig of holly is usually placed in the middle of the pudding, and about a wineglassful of brandy poured round it, which, at the moment of serving, is lighted, and the pudding thus brought to table encircled in flame."

In Dickens' A Christmas Carol 1843, "In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit entered -- flushed, but smiling proudly - with the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half or half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top."

©2009 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Egg Nogg Party

Christmas in the South - Egg Nog Party
Harper's Weekly, Dec. 31, 1870.

Recipes
Domestic Cookery. Eliza Leslie.. 1840 Egg Nogg

Jennie June's American Cookery Book by Jane Croly. 1870 Christmas Egg Nog

Presbyterian Cook Book 1873 Egg Nogg (3)

White House Cook Book By Gillette, F.L. 1887 Egg Nogg

Favorite Dishes By Shuman, Carrie V. 1893 Egg Nogg

Dishes and Beverages of the Old South By Williams, Martha McCulloch. 1913 White Egg Nogg, Egg Nogg

The Neighborhood Cook Book 1914 Egg Nog (2)

The International Jewish Cookbook By Greenbaum, Florence Kreisler. 1919 Cider Egg Nog

In Literature
Travels Through the States of North America... By Isaac Weld 1799

Pierce Egan. Life of London: or Days and Nights of Jerry Hawthorne and His Elegant Friend Corinthina Tom. 1820 Tom and Jerry (the drink)

Recollections of a Southern Matron By Caroline Howard Gilman. 1838 ...egg-nogg circulated freely, and at least a dozen large clothes-baskets of gingerbread...

Rambles about the Country by Elizabeth Fries Ellet 1840. Christmas Eve is usually celebrated by a large bowl of Egg Nog

The Epicure's almanac; or, Diary of good living, by B. E. Hill. 1842

Life in the West: Back-wood Leaves and Prairie Flowers... By Morleigh. 1843

The Cook and Housewife's Manual. by Christian Johnstone. 1847 Auld Man's Milk...nearly the egg-nogg of America.

Southern Literary Messenger 1849. Christmas Tree, the bowl of egg-nogg and the kindly superstition of old Santa ...

The American Poultry Yard: Comprising the Origin, History, and Description ... By Daniel Jay Browne 1850 ...preserved eggs ...Christmas ... ladies of their egg nog

Baltimore New Years Eve 1902

©2009 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

To Market, To Market ... baskets for chickens

A huge variety of baskets have been used over the centuries to take produce to market, as seen in this Market Scene from 1550 by Aertsen. Click on picture to see larger view with details of the baskets.

Goods could be transported in baskets on the back [At the Market Stall, 17th cen.], in an apron [Wheatley, Cries of London, 1796], or in baskets on the back of animals [Wheatley, 1796].

Specialty baskets were made to hold certain items such as poultry or eels. A search of World Gallery of Art for 'Market' shows several examples [bottom right corners] of baskets for chickens or birds from the 16th and 17th centuries.

Later examples are an enclosed basket from 1786 [Wheatley's Return from Market] and a chicken in an open basket from the first half of the 1800s.

©2009 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Meats... for the use of the table

An Historic Foodways Symposium, hosted by Deborah Peterson's Pantry, was held at Pennsbury Manor, Morrisville, PA on February 27. http://www.deborahspantry.com/

U Penn Culinary collection exhibit

Who's Coming to Dinner? Cooking for Different Audiences was held at Van-Pelt Dietrich Library Center University of Pennsylvania.