Traditional xmas foods

[OceanMomma]

dd is going to be making xmas puddings at school as they need to sit for a few months before they are eaten. This made me think it would be good to do a thread on a actual traditional xmas foods as a pose to the modernised versions.

So we have xmas cakes & puddings which are made in sept/october & left to mature. My theory on that is that is when the chooks stop laying eggs in the northern hemishpere for winter. Panforte is it? which is cocoa, spices & dried fruit & honey. Then there are spanish/portugese traditional xmas sweets which are made with lard as they killed the pigs over the winter. I'll look out some decent recipes later but that is a start.

Anyone else?

[weliveintheforest]

Would eggnog be traditional, since there wouldn't have been eggs at christmas?

I'd love a good xmas pudding recipe!

[OceanMomma]

I have the odd chook who lays over the winter solstice here but it is nowhere near as dark as it is in places like england where xmas puddings came from. On a good year for us, all the chooks start laying around about then. Not this year just gone tho'. It is just a theory I have about the chooks as I was wondering why a cake would be baked 3 months in advance & saw alot of traditional european xmas sweet recipes are egg free. I could be wildly wrong of course

I have a book somewhere called colonial fare with a stack of old recipes in. My xmas cake recipe comes out of that & is pre victorian I think - georgian? It will have a decent xmas pudding recipe in I would imagine. I will see if I can find it later on & post a recipe.

[EmeraldGardener]

My Great Grandma and her daughter (my Gramdma) would make fruit cakes at the end of summer and right around now- they would be wrapped in some kind of cloth (just plain muslin I think) and every so many days the cloths would be taken off and dipped into a sugar/ brandy ( or rum) solution up until the holidays and then they would be eaten or given as gifts wrapped and placed in a nice tin. As a child I thought that they tasted funny, but I am sure that now I would probably like them.

[Leilalu]

christmas puddings are traditional and quite yummy. everything is soaked in brandy first and then you let it age for several months

[pnutS4us]

My grandma always made fruit cakes and prune cakes around this time of year, wrapped them in cheese cloth that had been soaked in brandy and 'refreshed' them with additional spirits until Christmas.... so good! you could practically get drunk off a slice--ok just kidding--but they were really strong! bug good.

[guestmama9904]

my Grandmother made Yorkshire pudding and a roast. My great aunt made a very alcoholic fruit cake too, i wish i had a recipe, it was really good. anyone have an old recipe they'de be willing to share? roast goose i think is pretty traditional. for new years my grnadparents always had raw oysters and black eyed peas with bacon.

[pnutS4us]

i will look for my grandmother's recipes and share those!