Thank you for reading and sharing and being wonderfully curious.

I’ve already started planning next year’s 25 Days of Christmas (Food), with a couple tweaks to my process (ya know, so it doesn’t take until mid-February to finish). So far I have planned….well, mostly just fruitcake since I skipped it (there were too many fruitcake-like items already). I’ll also be able to throw up those Hanukkah posts I planned.

Fried things.

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I’m going to update a few of the posts since I feel there are some I didn’t have time to properly explore. Plus, I have some awesome Photoshops I didn’t make due to time constraints.

It’s been tough and so rewarding and I’m very proud. When it comes down to it I did 23 posts in 23 days. I’ve never worked on anything this hard in my life, and I definitely didn’t work this hard in college. I have no idea how I graduated (I totally do. I’m a great manipulator).

This is me when I graduated and this picture is hilarious because my gown was just way too big youguys lol omg.

And remember to check out the Philadelphia Science Festival blog, my second home for the next three months. There’ll be some nifty food science going on!

Keep eating and asking, my friends.

Esther

So, I wanted to share some fun and exciting news with you. Seriously, I’m so stoked.

Just like this guy is stoking a fire.

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You should probably sit down for this.

Ready?

Ok.

I’m going to be blogging for the Philadelphia Science Festival!

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That’s right, the amazing festival that spawned my goat cheese series has opened up it’s big, festivally arms and welcomed me in with a giant, fesitvally hug.

The festival, which runs April 20-29th and boasts some pretty interesting events (BEER!!), will keep me pretty busy starting the beginning of February, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be neglecting my Why’d You Eat That? posts. There’s been a slight lapse since Christmas, which I attribute to an utter and complete burnout, but I’m gearing up for my next post.

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As always, I invite you to leave me suggestions or questions. I want to answer them! I got tons of excellent food books for Christmas that are begging to be used over and over. Those books may not admit it to themselves, but they like being used. I think it’s a psychological thing.

Anyone know a good therapist for books?

He's an open book when it comes to his therapist. LOL GET IT.

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Anyway, make sure to like PSF on Facebook and follow them on Twitter. And like and follow me as well! I mean, I’m assuming you have, but do it again, just in case.

So, let’s get down to business.

I realize that has nothing to do with anything. I just really like Mulan. Like that part where he’s like “Did they send me daughters instead of sons?” It’s because she’s a girl. Get it?

Keep eating and asking, my friends.

Esther

I wanted to bring to your attention something that really kinda sucks.

No, not that.

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It’s the Stop Online Piracy Act, also known as SOPA. Also known as the “Let’s Just Make The Internet Lame” Act.

Today, major websites like Wikipedia, Reddit, and Google, are blacking out in protest of the act that allows any government or copyright holders to obtain court orders they suspect of copyright infringement.

That’s right, all they have to do is suspect it.

Where did Google go!?

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I’m not going to try to explain it, partially because a friend of mine, Ryan, wrote one of the most straightforward explanations I’ve read so far. I cannot hope to compete with it. It’s long, but I really do encourage you to take a few minutes to read it.

If you don’t have a lot of time, let me quote my favorite part here:

“Basically, if SOPA were to pass and I were to post a link to a YouTube video of, say, The Humpty Dance I would be committing a felony. In the eyes of the courts, it’d be a crime on par with arson, kidnapping, murder, or rape.

Just to reiterate, if SOPA were to pass and I would post that link to The Humpty Dance:

* I’d be guilty of a felony for linking to that video.

* ZWR [Zoo With Roy] would be liable because he owns the site on which it was posted and as such be guilty of a felony and the copyright holder would instantly be allowed to shut down the site permanently.

* The company that hosts ZWR’s webservers is guilty of a felony for hosting the site.

* The guy that uploaded it to YouTube would have committed a felony by uploading it.

* YouTube is guilty of a felony for hosting it and/or not preventing it from being uploaded in the first place and, as such, could be shut down permanently.

* If ZWR were tweet the link to this post, Twitter would also be guilty of a felony and could also be shut-down because they (inadvertently) linked to this post.”

Blank stare.

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So please, sign a petition, write a letter or email, or give your representative a call. Tell them you don’t like SOPA. Tell them you don’t want to be charged for sharing a link. Tell them you want to continue laughing at humorous Photoshops.

My first, and very worst, Why'd You Eat That? Photoshop. It's Buffy the Vampire Slayer + Scrapple. I'm embarrassed.

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And check out this infographic. It’s a good one.

Let’s do this, guys.

Keep eating, asking, and petitioning so I can keep doing my thing, my friends.

Esther

I am hungry right now and this looks delicious.

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The wild turkey, native to Mexico and Central America, was nothing like the bird we know today. They were incredibly intelligent, brightly colored, and lived in flocks. Certain American Indian tribes, like the Zuni and Sioux, connected the turkey to the sun the same way early Europeans did with the goose. In one early Zuni legend it is said that the turkey, in an effort to raise the sun, burned his head feathers off, and that is why the turkey is bald. The turkey is associated with crops and their feathers were used in clothing and rituals. Later, European immigrants brought their custom of using the wishbone of the turkey to predict events to America.

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When it came to feasting, wild turkey was more plentiful in the New World than goose. Once settlers used it to celebrate Thanksgiving it was initiated into the seasonal feast bird club. The turkey had the same seasonal maturation as a goose and was just plain easier to come by. Some continued using goose for Christmas dinner until the 19^th century, but most people replaced it with turkey simply because it was more accessible. The Aztecs and American Indians in the New World had already domesticated it by the time it was brought to the Old World around 1523-24.

Male wild turkey by John James Audubon

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Female wild turkey by John James Audubon

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Turkey wasn’t only loved for its feast possibilities. Wild turkeys were so intelligent that Benjamin Franklin wanted to make them the national bird. The turkey was a “much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America.” He thought the bald eagle everyone else was so fond of had “bad moral character” (Bowler, 230). Oh yeah? Tell us a little more about bad moral character, Mr. Franklin. Right after you’re done cheating on your wife.

Benjamin Franklin in 1743, celebrating the birth of his daughter, Sarah.

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And now we come to the turkey’s journey across the pond. There are several stories about how the turkey came to Europe and eventually Britain. None of them have been proved to be without a doubt true. The most frustrating part is they all seem slightly possible, but you can’t tell without an actual written record. Ah, the uncertainty of history.

Someone bring me my DeLorean.

The first story I have to share begins with Spain. One version says Spanish ships transported the turkey from the Aztecs in the New World to the homeland after Cortés feasted on it in the West Indies. Another story says Sebastian Cabot’s officers brought it with them when they returned home from their trip to the New World. Either way, it made it’s first appearance in Spain around 1519. The bird arrived about the same date as the guinea-fowl, which was also being imported into Spain. It had been rediscovered by the Portuguese in West Africa and traveled by way of merchants who had traveled to West Africa and then traded with Turkey. The guinea-fowl had been dubbed the “Turkie-Henne” (a hen that came from Turkey) and due to their similar arrival times, the turkey was also called a Turkie-Henne. From Spain, the turkey traveled to the Spanish Netherlands, and finally came to “England’s Holland” of East Anglia.

And then Cortés stole all those gold pieces and Geoffrey Rush turned into a skeleton and Kiera Knightly and Orlando Bloom fell in love and Johnny Depp became a caricature.

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The guinea-fowl had been popular with the Ancient Greeks and Romans. Histories written between the 16^th and the 18^th century claimed they had feasted on turkey regularly, but it’s much more likely that there was name confusion and they were feasting on guinea-fowl. There’s also a legend that Charlemagne had been served turkey at his wedding feast, but since we know about the name confusion, we would assume that the bird in question was, again, a guinea-fowl. French philosopher and food historian, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, has a different reason for why it was impossible turkey was served at Charlemagne’s wedding. It’s not because there is no proof, but because of “the appearance of the bird, which is clearly outlandish” (Muir, 55). He also claimed that the Jesuits introduced turkey to Europe.

Brilliant man, totally off base.

Oh look, a guinea-fowl.

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Other sources say there was no confusion between the two birds in England. There are references to both turkey-cocks and guinea-fowl in journals and accounts of noble families. The turkey-cocks are described as the size of a crane or a swan and the guinea-fowl were said to be about the size of a capon or pheasant. In addition, there are mentions of both birds together: “At much the same time a certain Sir William Petre was keeping his table birds alive until wanted in a large cage in his Essex orchard, ‘partridges, pheasants, guinea-hens, turkey hens and such like’” (Tannahill, 210).

Sir William Petre, the Man with the Pancake Hat.

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Another story of how the turkey got to Britain concerns British merchants on their way home from a business trip to Turkey. They stopped at a friend’s home in Cádiz, Spain, who had recently traveled and explored the West Indies. They were given several live turkey birds as a gift, which they brought with them to England. The bird was called a turkey because it came to England (sort of) via Turkey. When it comes down to it, it came from Spain. It makes no sense. Then again, could you imagine eating “Spain” at Christmas? That would be weird.

The spain is served!

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Then there is the direct-to-England route. A man named William Strickland introduced turkeys to England when he imported six turkeys to the port of Bristol in 1526. Of course there is no written proof, but hey! who needs written proof when you have word of mouth! Even if Strickland wasn’t the first to import the turkey to England, he certainly became the most important turkey trader. He got rich selling them and was granted a coat of arms featuring a turkey-cock in 1550. That’s right. In 1550 you could get a coat of arms for getting rich.

I mean…honestly…

The Strickland Coat of Arms.

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Turkey in the mortuary chapel in the village of Boynton in Yorkshire. That's where Strickland lived. He was proud of his turkeys.

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If that was the case and turkey didn’t have any connection to Turkey, then how did it get its name? Remember when Columbus landed in America and thought he had discovered India? Apparently he saw the (then) colorful bird and believed it to be part of the peacock family. He called them tuka, which supposedly meant, “peacock” in 16^th century India. Other countries also believed that the turkey had come via India. In France it was called coq d’Inde, in Italy it was galle d’India, and in Germany it was indianische Henn. In India itself, the bird was called peru. Some say that the American Indians called the birds furkee while others claim the word came from the noise turkey’s make when they’re afraid: “turk turk turk.”

"Coq d'inde commun" by Nicolas Robert (1610-1684)

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The first written record of the turkey existence in England is by an Archbishop Crammer in 1541. He wrote about the gluttony of “greater fowls,” including both the swan and turkey-cock, and declared that his clergy should eat no more than one greater fowl at a meal. Remember, some people liked to have goose, swan, and peacock at their meals and once turkey arrived on the scene it was also present at the table.

"Chicken Vendors" by Pinacoteca di Brera, c. 1580

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In Tudor and Stuart times, it was common to baste large birds with butter, lard them with pork fat, or cover them with bacon to keep them from drying out. Turkeys were studded with cloves during roasting in addition to being smothered with some kind of fat. In the Georgian period, roast turkey was served with a spiced bread sauce with onions, similar to the bread sauces that had been served with goose.

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Fowl roasting.

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Europeans had no trouble introducing turkey to their festive meals because they already serving big birds (not to be confused with Big Bird), including somewhat inedible ones. Turkey was large, decorative, and delicious and considered an exotic bird that only the wealthy could afford and it became a popular bird. Catherine de Medici held a banquet that consisted of 70 “Indian chickens” and 7 “Indian roosters.”

One of the Valois Tapestries depicting a party at the Valois Court, the home of Catherine de Medici (c. 1580).

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In England, turkey began to replace birds such as swan and peacock at Christmas in rich households. By 1570 an Englishman named Thomas Trusser wrote that even common farmer was enjoying domesticated turkey and it had replaced birds such as herron, goose, cockerel, and bustard for the middle class.

Roast turkey, according to Mrs. Beeton.

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In 1555 enough turkeys were being sold in London that their price was legally fixed in the London market. Turkey meat was cut up and sold in pieces or slices by vendors and became part of the general public’s diet, but buying a whole roast or boiled turkey was still expensive and remained a luxury. By the 17^th and 18^th century, turkeys were the most common Christmas bird, but their prices were not in reach of the lower class (e.g. the majority of the population) until the 20^th century.

Let me backtrack for a second. Boiled turkey? Really?

I would advise you to click on the source for this photo.

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The expansion of London’s population between 1485 and 1785 was great – it went from 75,000 inhabitants to 850,000, which necessitated an increase in food production, provided by surrounding rural areas. In Britain, turkey was not farmed on small, individually held farms because they were difficult and expensive to raise. They weren’t profitable enough to earn their keep if a farmer only had 20 or so turkeys. Small flocks were only available on the estates of the elite, while large populations were raised outside of large urban areas. In the 1600’s, they were bred mostly on farms in the south east of England (East Anglia) in large flocks. That area already grew plentiful amounts of corn and grain so the turkeys could be easily and cheaply fed.

"Poultry" by Melchior d'Hondecoeter (1636-1695). Dude painted a lot of poultry.

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Since turkeys were incredibly hard birds to raise their prices were jacked up considerably. Prices dropped in the 1950’s because of intensive modern farming methods, but that wasn’t particularly helpful for those alive between 1523-1949. Unless they had a Tardis.

Cat Tardis.

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By the end of the 18^th century, the turkey was plentiful in Norfolk, Cambridge, and Suffolk. Norfolk turkeys were especially scrumptious. Around Christmas in 1815, Charles Lamb wrote to a friend in China that “you have no turkeys; you would not desecrate the festival by offering up a withered Chinese bantam instead of the savoury grand Norfolcian holocaust that smokes all around my nostrils at this moment from a thousand firesides” (Muir, 56). When he says “holocaust” I believe he means “mass slaughter.” In the late 19^th century, the Norfolk turkey was called the Rolls Royce of birds.

Norfolk black turkey.

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Turkey lookin like a BAMF.

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Every year, huge flocks of turkeys would be driven into London for Christmas from turkey farms in East Anglia. The journey began in august and took anywhere from three weeks to three months to make, depending on their original location. Turkeys had trouble walking on the roads, so they were given special shoes to prevent turkey foot injury. In the 1800’s, that queen of the kitchen, Mrs. Beeton, described the process of shoeing a turkey. Farmers would walk the turkeys through warm tar and then sand (for grip and extra protection), creating a sort of bootie. The bootie prevented the bird’s feet from becoming blistered and damaged on their long journey. It was also quite stylish.

So stylish.

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Turkeys no longer had need of their stylish booties once rail travel and refrigeration was in introduced in the 19^th century. They were slaughtered before being carted off to London.

The Swedish had a slightly different way of bringing up turkeys. Ya know, besides feeding them and putting booties on them. Hannah Glasse wrote in The Art of Cookery (1747) that

“by plunging a just born turkey chick (poult) into a bucket of cold water and forcing it eat a pepper corn…from that time in it will become hardy and no more fear the cold than a hens chick…the truth of these assertions are too well known to be denied; and as convincing proof of their success, it will be sufficient to mention that three Parishes in Sweden have for many years followed this method and gained several hundred pounds by rearing and selling turkeys” (source).

Holy crap adorale baby turkey.

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Oy. I just heard PETA scramble to gather enough red paint to splash over the entire country of Sweden, which is a lot of paint because Sweden is totally like 173,745 square miles which is like…a lot of square feet.

Charles Dickens is credited with popularizing the Christmas turkey. The Cratchit family is meant to eat a goose, but Scrooge, after his personality lift, offers up a turkey twice the size of Tiny Tim instead. There is constant reference to the largeness and sumptuousness of the turkey and how very exciting it was to be presented with such a bird. The funny thing is, when you come down to it, it’s not that heart warming. Not for the turkey, anyway. First I will start you with a quote:

“‘Do you know the Poulterer’s, in the next street but one, at the corner?’ Scrooge inquired.

“‘I should hope I did,’ replied the lad.

“‘An intelligent boy!’ said Scrooge. ‘A remarkable boy! Do you know whether they’ve sold the prize Turkey that was hanging up there — Not the little prize Turkey: the big one?’

“‘What, the one as big as me?’ returned the boy.

“‘What a delightful boy!’ said Scrooge. ‘It’s a pleasure to talk to him. Yes, my buck.’

“‘It’s hanging there now,’ replied the boy.

“‘Is it?’ said Scrooge. ‘Go and buy it.’”

Oh how heart warming. Scrooge bought that turkey for the poor Cratchits! But what about the turkey?

What you should keep in mind is that from the earliest times of man up until, well, today, humans have a cruel way of treating and slaughtering their animals. I’m not going to go into details about some of the more disturbing methods, but I will tell you what “hanging” a turkey means.

1911 illustration.

In the 19^th century, folks were very particular about the color of their meat. They liked their animals to be drained of all blood before cooking so that there was minimal blood on the plate when the meat was cut and, in poultry’s case, the meat was white. How did they accomplish that? Right underneath the turkey’s tongue is a small vein. Cooks would slit that vein, hang a turkey by its feet, and let it bleed out, drop by drop. Literally. It went drop by drop. The turkey’s death could take upwards of 6 hours.

Now go read that quote again and feel the Christmas joy.

WHYYYYYY DID YOU RUIN TURKEY FOR MEEEEEE

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I’m sorry.

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The British Royal Family ate their first Christmas turkey in 1851, officially replacing swan as the seasonal dish, 13 years after Charles Dickens had written about the Cratchit’s Christmas turkey. They were fashionably late to the turkey party.

As time has gone on, turkey has become less popular and even a source of disdain. There are always jokes about the overcooked, dry turkey you’re serving made by your annoying but (supposedly) well-intentioned aunt. In 1975, William Connor of the Daily Mirror wrote “what a shocking fraud the turkey is. In life preposterous, insulting – that foolish noise they make to scare you away! In death – unpalatable. The turkey has practically no taste except dry fibrous flavor reminiscent of a mixture of warmed up plaster of Paris and horsehair” (Muir, 56). He’d obviously never had fried turkey.

I would stuff my face with this in a very undignified manner.

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Modern domesticated turkeys are a little different from their wild ancestors. They’ve been bred to have larger breasts and more white meat. They’ve also been bred to be a lot more stupid. Probably not intentionally, but with no need to outsmart predators there’s no need to exercise their brains. Wild turkeys, who can easily detect traps and run really fast, have eleventy bajillion more IQ points than domesticated turkeys. The lack of smarts hasn’t made them any less curious, though. Groups of domestic turkeys have been seen standing in the rain with their beaks aimed towards the sky. No one really knows why they do it. Maybe they’re thirsty? Or they’re confused about those odd drops plummeting towards earth? Or maybe turkeys are all really aliens and rain indicates the arrival of bootie shaped spaceships from the planet Gallopavo that take them home where they feast on humans fattened on corn and grain.

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There are stories of turkeys drowning due to rain gazing. There’s no evidence for that, but without guidance, domesticated turkeys don’t know to come in from the rain. Young turkeys that only have down feathers to protect them are more likely to die from exposure rather than drowning.

Fun turkey fact: turkeys love music. Musician Jim Nollman went to Mexico in the 1970’s and lived next door to a family who owned a turkey. Every morning he would go outside to play his flute and when he hit a certain note the turkey would gobble. Eventually the turkey would be waiting for him at the fence in the morning.

It's turkey music. Get it? Cause it's music from Turkey. Get it?

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Turkey is the most popular Christmas dish in the Western world. It’s eaten all over the place and each country has their own way of raising and prepping their turkeys. In Lisbon, Portugal, famers walk the streets with their flocks until customers stop them to purchase a bird. Once the turkey has been chosen, the farmer forces alcohol down its throat and lets it run free for a little while its insides are marinated. Then the bird is slaughtered, plucked, gutted, and brined with lemon and bay leaves for 12 hours, after which it is hung (not in the Dickens sense) for another 12 hours before cooking. Brazilians have a similar technique. They feed the birds a rum called cachaçe before it’s slaughtered on Christmas Eve.

Nice haul.

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Everyone eats their turkey in different ways. Frying is becoming popular in the US while in Mexico it’s eaten, traditionally, with a mole sauce made with chocolate and chili peppers (may I direct your attention towards this). In Spain they stuff their turkey with truffles, in Burgundy they’re stuffed with chestnuts, and in my house turkey is stuffed with the greatest chestnut and sausage dressing of all time. If you think your mom makes a better dressing than my mom, you are sorely mistaken, my friend.

Is there anything more glorious than stuffing? No. There isn't.

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Speaking of stuffing your face with turkey, I’d like to say one more thing. It has to do with tryptophan.

It seems to be common knowledge that turkey contains a chemical called tryptophan that makes the eater sleepy and desirous of a wittle nappy. Eating turkey on Christmas will immediately put you into a stupor of epic proportions, and obviously it’s all that stupid bird’s fault.

Not true.

WRONG.

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Eating a small amount of turkey contains negligible amounts of tryptophan. To feel the effects you would have to eat an entire turkey on an empty stomach, which would probably make you vomit before knocking you out. Not to mention that other foods, such as chicken, pork, and cheese contain a larger amount of tryptophan per 100 gram than turkey. If small amounts of tryptophan could make us fall asleep we’d be passing out every time we ate nachos, chicken casserole, or a HoneyBaked ham.

I'll honey bake your ham. It's funny because it's innuendo or something.

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What’s really making you sleepy is the over-indulging. Overeating, excessive fat, and alcohol are what’s putting you down. Large meals and fats take a lot of energy to digest, requiring your blood to attend to your digestive system rather than other organ systems, like your nervous system. Hence, sleepy. Plus, most of us drink during the holidays. Alcohol is a depressant for the nervous system, which also can make you sleepy. And drunk. So you can deal with your mother-in-law.

LIES!!!

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And that’s the end of the 25 Days of Christmas (Food) 2011. Look out, 2012. I got plans for you.

Keep eating and asking, my friends.

Esther

Bibliography for Part I and II:

-Andrews, Tamra. “Goose and Turkey.” Nectar & Ambrosia: An Encyclopedia of Food in World Mythology. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2000. 105-6. Print.

-Bowler, G. Q.. “Goose; Peacock; Turkey.” The World Encyclopedia of Christmas. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2000. 95, 174, 229-30. Print.

-Davis, Karen. “The True Original Native of America; Why Do We Hate This Celebrated Bird?.” More Than a Meal: The Turkey in History, Myth, Ritual, and Reality. New York: Lantern Books, 2001. 38; 80-81. Print.

-Dickens, Charles. “A Christmas Carol – Charles John Huffam Dickens – Google Books.” Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Dec. 2011. <http://books.google.com/books?id=nEyFzAdyWZcC&dq=a+christmas+carol&source=gbs_navlinks_s>.

-Drisdelle, Rosemary. “The Christmas Goose: Tales of the Goose in History and Tradition, or How the Goose Came to be a Traditional Christmas Feast | Suite101.com.” Rosemary Drisdelle | Suite101.com. N.p., 27 Nov. 2006. Web. 24 Dec. 2011. <http://rosemary-drisdelle.suite101.com/the-christmas-goose-a7183>.

-Helmenstine, Ph.D., Anne Marie. “Does Eating Turkey Make You Sleepy? – Tryptophan & Carbohydrate Chemistry.” Chemistry – Periodic Table, Chemistry Projects, and Chemistry Homework Help. New York Times Company, n.d. Web. 24 Dec. 2011. <http://chemistry.about.com/od/holidaysseasons/a/tiredturkey.htm>.

-Miles, Clement A.. “Christmas Feasting and Sacrificial Survivals.” Christmas Customs and Traditions, Their History and Significance. New York: Dover Publications, 1976. 203, 284. Print.

-Moon, Beverly. “Sacred Animals; Goddesses.” An Encyclopedia of Archetypal Symbolism. Boston: Shambhala, 1991. 83; 147-149. Print.

-Muir, Frank. “The Christmas Turkey.” Christmas Customs & Traditions. New York: Taplinger Pub. Co., 1975. 55-6. Print.

-Olver, Lynne. “The  Food Timeline–Christmas food history.”   Food Timeline: food history & vintage recipes . Lynne Olver, n.d. Web. 24 Dec. 2011. <http://www.foodtimeline.org/christmasfood.html#goose>.

-”Poor – and hungry.” Home. stentiford.org, 30 May 2007. Web. 24 Dec. 2011. <http://www.stentiford.org/Issue_24/More%20Christmas%20Pages/3Dec3art1.htm>.

-Larousse Gastronomique: The World’s Greatest Culinary Encyclopedia. New York: Clarkson Potter/Publishers, 2009. 454. Print.

-Sterling, Justine. “The Story Behind the Christmas Goose – Delish.com.” Recipes, Party Food, Cooking Guides, Dinner Ideas, and Grocery Coupons – Delish.com. Hearst Communications Inc., 21 Dec. 2010. Web. 24 Dec. 2011. <http://www.delish.com/food/recalls-reviews/history-of-the-christmas-goose>.

-Tannahill, Reay. “The Turkey.” Food in History. [New, fully rev. and updated ed., 1st American ed. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1988. 210-211. Print.

-”The Turkey At Christmas – A History.” RecipeWISE |  Recipes From The UK & Ireland. RecipeWise, n.d. Web. 24 Dec. 2011. <http://recipewise.co.uk/the-history-of-the-turkey-at-christmas>.

-”The history of the Christmas turkey: Recipes: Good Food Channel.” UKTV Home. Good Food Channel, n.d. Web. 24 Dec. 2011. <http://uktv.co.uk/food/item/aid/641034>.

-Trueman, Chris. “Tudor Christmas.” History Learning Site. historylearningsite.co.uk, n.d. Web. 24 Dec. 2011. <http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/tudor_christmas.htm>.

-”Turkey for the Holidays.” University of Illinois Extension. University of Illinois Board of Trustees, n.d. Web. 24 Dec. 2011. <urbanext.illinois.edu/turkey/history.cfm>.

-Wilson, C. Anne. “Wild fowl, tame fowl and eggs.” Food & Drink in Britain: From the Stone Age to the 19th Century. Chicago: Academy Chicago Publishers, 2003. 112-37. Print.

This year I went to my first real Christmas party. There was food and drink and games and even a little bit of awkwardness. We were playing Christmas trivia and one of the questions was “What is the traditional American Christmas dinner?” I, in my infinite food history genius, knew at once the answer was turkey. Which obviously it was. However, nearly all of the 20 or so people at the party insisted that the traditional meal was ham.

I did not know that Christmas ham included pineapple and maraschino cherries. On a related note, I've never had Hawaiian pizza.

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Uuuuh, no you’re all wrong, I’m right, don’t argue with me because I am a food history virtuoso.

Omigosh I'm like sooooo totally humble you guys!

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When I think of Christmas dinner, I think of bird. I’ve had ham before and we even had beef wellington the last two years (YES MEAT WRAPPED IN PASTRY I LOVE YOU). But if I were to imagine a traditional Christmas dinner I would think of a Norman Rockwell-esque Nuclear Family sitting around their dining room table with a huge steaming turkey in the middle.

This is Thanksgiving, but you get what I mean.

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That’s the image I grew up with.

The turkey wasn’t the first Christmas bird. No, indeed, he was not. The Christmas turkey comes from a long line of Christmas birds, all of varying degrees of edibility and deliciousness. Obviously, the turkey knew something the rest didn’t cause he stuck around.

One of the first festive birds was the goose. Goose served at Christmas can be traced directly back to goose used for pagan solar celebrations and were common sacrifices to the pagan gods of old. Geese are migratory birds and follow the sun when going south in the winter and north in the summer, confirming (in the minds of ancient pagans) that geese were spiritually connected to the sun. They appeared and disappeared at important times of the solar and agricultural year, making them an ideal sacrifice and feast item at festivals associated with solar movements. Goose’s original purpose as a sacrifice was to honor of the spirit(s) of vegetation since their migratory pattern followed the changing of the seasons. Ritual consumption followed the ritual sacrifices, as well as plentiful drinking.

Thirteenth century Byzantine bowl with an image of a goose. Cause geese are important.

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Ancient peoples in Europe, Central Asia, North America, and North Africa sacrificed geese at the turn of the seasons. The Egyptians recognized the goose as a solar symbol and associated it with sun gods such as Ra, who was hatched from an egg laid by a primordial goose in the Nile. The goose, called the Great Cackler, first broke the silence of the world and once hatched, Ra created the cosmos. Geese were sacrificed to Isis and Osiris in the autumn, and the priests of the two gods would feast on its flesh. Isis was the Egyptian goddess of nature and Osiris was the god of death, making them a perfect pair when it came to agricultural “death” and “rebirth.” The story of the goose that laid the golden egg probably stemmed from the ancient solar myths and symbolism, like the one of Ra.

An Egyptian relief sculpture depicting two guess, c. 2620. From the tomb of Nefermaat and Atet at Maydum.

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Sup, my name is Seb and I got a goose on my head, no big deal.

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The Chinese believed the goose represented yang, the force of fire and solar power and ate geese during rituals held at dawn and dusk. Like the Egyptians, the Scandinavians, Celts, and Slavs ate goose on important feast days. It was eaten during Celtic Samhain (Halloween) and the Germanic Yule, which was originally the first day of the New Year (now November 1^st). Even the traditional meal of Hanukkah, or the Feast of the Maccabees, is roast goose.

Isis and Osiris and their best friend, the goose.

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Goose scarab.

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In the very early Middle Ages, roast goose eaten during a Germanic harvest festival, called Erntedankfest, as a thank you to their spirits of vegetation, the gods Odin and Thor. The ancient Greeks feasted on goose to ensure the regeneration of nature after she went underground for winter, paralleling the Greek myth of the abduction of Persephone by Hades. The sacrifice guaranteed a good harvest in the months to come. Not to mention the goose was sacred to Aphrodite, who later became a manifestation of the Goddess in Old Europe. In fact, she may have become Mother Goose after the Christianization of Europe. In Rome, geese were sacred to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. Around 389BC, a flock of geese woke Roman defenders and alerted them to a stealth attack by the Guals, essentially saving the Roman Empire.

And so Aphrodite rode her sacred goose all over the place all the time because the goose protected her from crazy men because I tell you what geese are VIOLENT. (c. 470-460 BC)

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The most famous (and one of the earliest) goose feast is Michaelmas/Martinmas, the ritual feast of the winter solstice that commemorates St. Martin, the patron saint of (among other things) geese. Michaelmas is a sort of continuation of Samhain and Germanic Yule. It occurs during the winter solstice and celebrates the end of the harvest and change of season. These days it’s celebrated on November 11^th. Bavarians would eat goose on St. Martin’s Day and then use the breastbone to predict whether or not the winter would be harsh or mild, wet or dry. Some people used the color of the goose’s breast meat to determine what the winter would be like. A white breast meant there would be snow while brown meant the winter would be very, very cold. The same tradition was upheld in Germany, but there isn’t much agreement on what the colors mean.

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Illustration done in the early 20th century for the Chatterbox Annual.

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Let’s all take a moment and appreciate how important the goose was and how much we hate them now.

HOW DARE THOSE GEESE HARM AIRPLANES BY BEING SHREDDED TO DEATH BY AIRPLANE ENGINES. THE NERVE.

Also, relevant:

Anyhow, goose was kind of a big deal in ancient times. Once medieval times rolled around, the goose was still considered a feast bird, but other birds had taken its place as the most festive. Fowl, both wild and tame, were considered a great delicacy that people did not get to enjoy everyday; the same way we don’t eat steak everyday. Contrarily, medieval folks would eat a lot of beef and mutton. Could you imagine having steak everyday? My quality of life (and cholesterol) would skyrocket.

Uuuuuunn steeeeaaaaaaak....

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Most fowl were considered in season between October and Lent, so eating them at Christmas as a festive meal was not only connected to pagan traditions of eating goose, but it also made sense. Fowl were popular Christmas gifts, particularly during Twelfth Night, which is why 184 of the 364 gifts given in “The 12 Days of Christmas” are some type of bird, including geese and swans (another medieval Christmas bird).

This is not at all the image I had in mind but it's so freakin adorable.

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Serving large, overstuffed fowl for Christmas stems from earlier cultural practices. The larger the bird, the more festive it was considered. Christmas birds depended on wealth. The rich liked peacock and swan, while the less wealthy used herons and bustards. Every fowl had its season and were said to be “in good grease” or fattened when they were ready to be slaughtered and eaten. “Peacocks be ever good, but when they be young and of a good stature, they be as good as pheasants…Cygnets [young swan] be best between All Halloween day and Lent” (Wilson, 121).

Louis Rhead for The Century Christmas Number (December 1894).

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Each type of fowl, including peacock, swan, and goose, had very specific cooking instructions in medieval times. The most popular method of cooking wild fowl was roasting. Large birds with dark meat were brown roasted, meaning they were cooked for a long time before a slow fire, usually turning on a meat spit. There were even special spits for smaller birds, like doves and blackbirds. Certain birds were easier than others to cook. For example, it was easier to cook goose than duck because goose fat turns to liquid at a lower Fahrenheit, also making it easier to eat.

I HAVE NO IDEA IF THIS IS AUTHENTIC BECAUSE THE PERSON DIDN'T CITE THEIR SOURCE AHHHH *brain asplode*

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In the 12^th century, each roasted bird had it’s own special sauce (no, it’s not thousand island dressing) and their blood was sometimes saved to color sauces. The “domestic” or stubble goose required a garlic sauce made with wine or verjuice, an acidic juice made of unripe grapes or crabapples. Using a garlic based sauce continued to be popular in Elizabethan times because “any goose be eaten above four months old, it is badly digested without garlic sauce, exercise, and strong drink” (Wilson, 122).

Medieval cooking.

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Two other frequently used goose sauces were sauce Madame and gauncil. Sauce Madame was made by stuffing the goose with herbs, quinces, pears, garlic, and grapes. The bird was sewn shut and roasted. Once it was cooked and carved, the forcemeat (stuffing) was combined with wine and spices to make a sauce. A similar sauce was green sauce, made with green wheat, gooseberries, and melted butter and served with green (young) goose. Green goose could also be served with a sorrel sauce and stubble goose with mustard and vinegar. Gauncil was a simple thick, flour-based sauce, similar to a béchamel. Swan was usually served in a blood-based sauce called chawdron.

The Green Goose.

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Most birds were stuffed before cooking. In the 17^th century, birds were stuffed with breadcrumbs, minced meat, herbs, spices, and dried fruit, like crystalized orange. By the 18^th century, the fruit had been omitted but oyster stuffing and chestnut stuffing with bacon and the bird’s own liver had become fashionable. Like sauce Madame, stuffings were sometimes used to make a bread-based sauce for the bird.

During the Middle Ages, each type of bird had its own carving techniques and terminology. One would “rear that goose,” “lift that swan,” and “disfigure that peacock.” Oh yes, they disfigured that peacock. In fancier households, the dictated carving techniques were closely adhered to and all the meat had to be shredded and served in the correct sauce. In smaller homes, there was less ceremony when it came to carving and serving.

A closeup of a scene from "Les Tres Riches Heures de Duc de Berry." (Limbourg brothers, c. 1408). Note the carved bird meat on the table. Next to those weird tiny dogs.

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Peacock was usually “served up in its hackle,” meaning it was still feathered. The process was complicated:

“Take a peacock, break his neck and cut his throat, and flay him, the skin and feathers together, and the head still to the skin of the neck, and keep the skin and the feathers whole together; draw him as an hen, and keep the bone to the neck whole, and roast him. And set the bone of the neck above the broach, as he was wont to sit alive, and bow the legs to the body, as he was wont to sit alive; and when he is roasted enough, take him off, and let him cool; and then wind the skin with the feathers and the tail about the body, and serve him forth as he were alive” (Wilson, 125).

"The feast of the peacock" from The Book of the Conquests and Deeds of Alexander, 15th century.

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Occasionally the peacock would be decorated and have their combs gilded, but only when people were feeling really extravagant. Because serving a bird fully feathered is no big deal.

Cue facial expression.

Thanks, Mr. President.

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Peahens and peachicks were considered an acceptable, although less colorful, substitute for the peacock when it came to less important guests. Between 1274 and 1634, peacocks were the most expensive bird available according to tariff records kept by members of the Company of Poulters. Quick note, poultry dealing was recognized as a specialized trade in London, and the Company of Poulters, a poultry guild, was established at the end of the 13^th century. In order to keep a handle on the selling situation and to reduce competition between poulterers, prices for birds were legally fixed. Swan, cygnet, and turkey were the costliest birds.

The Company of Poulters badge. It's awesome and I want one.

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A section of London was designated to poultry sellers. The stench was unbelievable and no one wanted to be near them. Chances are, despite fowl being an expensive luxury, only the poor lived near the stinking market. The area where the shops used to be is still called The Poultry.

The Worshipful Company of Poulters. I just...I love this so much...I love this like Kristen Bell loves sloths.*

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By the 17^th century peacock was completely abandoned as a Christmas dish. They had always been tough to prepare and eat (literally – the meat was tough) and killing it days in advance (sometimes up to 15) didn’t help much. “Peacock flesh was condemned by the Anglo-Saxon leechdoms [doctors], on the grounds that it was hard and not easily digested” (Wilson, 116). It was still used as the center piece in many Middle Age feasts and younger birds and peachicks were eaten as a curiosity on occasion, but it was recommended that they were fed corn and killed 3-4 weeks before serving.

Holy crap, could you imagine having to cook one of these and then put it's tootin feathers back on?

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The peacock carries some significant symbolism. Its presence in nativity art is meant to symbolize immortality, which comes from the belief that peacock flesh never rots and its tail can renew itself. So, obviously, killing the bird in advance and keeping it for…like…ever posed no health threats because it would never go bad. Eating a whole peacock was said to make one immortal, probably because the meat was so tough to digest (not to mention the beak and feathers) that God was like “I am so impressed I’m just gonna make that guy immortal.”

"The Annunciation, with Saint Emidiu" from "Tales of Mary" by Carlo Crivelli, 1486

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Swan was more popular with noble families than peacocks and was appointed for special occasions. It was roasted like goose and served with a chawdron sauce, but wasn’t a spectacle the way a peacock was. It was rarely brought to the table whole with its feathers, but when it was its beak would be gilded and stuffed with a piece of alcohol soaked bread. The bread would be set on fire for an impressive effect as it was carried to the table. Normally the swan’s neck was cut off and sometimes stuffed and served separately as “pudding de swan neck.” However, like peacock meat, swan meat was tough and not very tasty. It was eaten at feasts up until the 17^th century, but after they were only kept live for beauty’s sake. Cygnets, or young swans, were considered very good because their meat was less tough, but only if they were fattened by being fed oats. They were sold from 1575 onwards.

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For those that could not afford swan or peacock, there was the old standby: goose or chicken. At rich feasts it was common for all three birds to be served, but the everyman could only afford one. Yeoman farmers and even ploughman had goose at Christmas. The native goose of Britain is the grey leg variety, which was kept by the Celts for pleasure. In the later medieval period, goose was considered in season twice a year – in the early summer as a young or “green” goose and around Michaelmas when it was fattened up. The goose feast had come to characterize holiday celebrations and, since it was in season around the time, made it a perfect choice for Michaelmas and, later, Christmas. The Michaelmas goose was served with applesauce, rather than a garlicky sauce. Before being brought to market, the birds were force fed oatmeal, barleymeal, or ground malt to fatten them up some more.

Note that his legs aren't actually grey. MISLEADING!!

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While it wasn’t a swan or a peacock, the goose was a coveted bird, so in medieval times it was available only to the rich, middle class, and some of the working class. The poor were out of luck. Those who couldn’t afford to buy a goose could choose to become members of a “goose club,” which were run at most public houses. Goose clubs were a way to save money throughout the year for Christmas dinner. Every week, poorer and working class families would make a small investment, maybe a few pence at most, to their club until they could afford to buy a goose. On Christmas day, local bakers stayed open to cook geese for members of Goose Clubs.

And gin or rum!? SCORE!

In 1588, Elizabeth I decreed that everyone should have a goose for their Christmas dinner. Christmas dinner was the first meal after her victory against the Spanish Armada and she considered it commemorative of the British sailors who lost their lives. Unfortunately, it’s likely that the majority of her citizens could not carry it out because goose could be expensive and goose clubs had yet to be formed. From then on, goose became the traditional Christmas meat in England, Alsace, and Denmark. It was such a popular Christmas dish that in The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, Sherlock Holmes solves a mystery of the Christmas goose that swallowed a jewel.

Illustration from "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle."

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Here are a couple fun facts about geese, which may or may not be true. In any case, they’re pretty interesting:

• Sixteenth century scholar, Jules Cesar Scaliger, is quoted as saying that “geese lower their heads in order to pass under a bridge, no matter how high its arches are.”
• Alexandre Dumas, the historical novelist and gastronomic storyteller, wrote that “they have so much foresight that when they pass over Mount Taurus, which abounds in eagles, each goose will take a stone in its beak. Knowing what chatterboxes they are, they ensure, by thus constraining themselves, that they will not emit the sounds which would cause their enemies to discover them.”
• According to Dumas, a French chemist “saw a goose turning a spit on which a turkey was roasting. She was holding the end of the spit in her beak; and by sticking out and pulling back her neck, produced the same effect as the use of an arm. All she needed was to be given a drink from time to time.”

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Not many people eat goose for Christmas these days. You get a few here and there, but most of the world eats a goofy bird that makes a goofy noise and is pretty darn goofy overall.

The turkey.

I like that thing on your face.

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TO BE CONTINUED…

Until then, keep eating and asking, my friends.

Esther

*For reference, this is how much Kristen Bell loves sloths:

There BETTER be an Easy Bake Oven in that bag.

It’s a sure-fire way to make sure your parents get – I MEAN Santa stays fat.

Santa would never go on a diet.

The practice of leaving food for Santa comes from pagan cultures in pre-Christian Europe. Pagans presented food offerings to their ancestor in the hopes that the dead would bless their living descendants. Leaving food for ancestors has always had a very specific date in the pagan calendar and tended to be during the winter solstice. This practice of honoring dead loved ones is still apparent today, during celebrations such as the Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) and at religious shrines.

Dia de los Muertos food offerings.

Once Christianity was introduced, the tradition of giving gifts of food to ancestors or gods was altered slightly. In Europe, a huge feast was held on December 6^th, Saint Nicholas Day. After the feast, children would leave out food and drink for Saint Nicholas who had been traveling all night and must be very hungry. in the morning it had been replaced with gifts. During the Protestant Reformation, the feast of Saint Nicholas was considered extravagant and gaudy and was discouraged, but people still wanted to honor Saint Nicholas with a feast and gifts. They moved their traditional feast to Christmas Eve and continued leaving out tasty tidbits for Saint Nicholas.

HE'S GOT A DONKEY.

There is another story of the Norse god, Odin, and his eight legged horse, Sleipnir. During the winter solstice, Odin would hold a great hunting party. Sleipnir could leap great distances, helping Odin cover vast amounts of ground (that’s possibly where the reindeer came from). Children would leave their boots by the chimney filled with carrots, straw, or sugar for Sleipnir and a glass of wine for Odin (ya know, since he ate no other food than wine). In return for their generosity, Odin would leave candy and other small gifts for the children. Children still leave out boots in Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands, while in other Germanic countries they leave out stockings.

On a completely unrelated note, the characters of the popular anime television program, "Ah, My Goddess!", are based on Norse gods. I love Japan.

The Dutch had a similar tradition. Their Santa Claus, called Sinterklaas, rode a horse through the country leaving gifts for all the children who “knew their prayers.” In return, children left food offerings for his horse, usually hay or carrots in shoes or socks by the door. Some leave a glass of gin for Sinterklaas, as well.

Sinterklaas travels with his associate, Black Peter (Zwarte Piet), who is in no way racist. At all. Not a bit.

Nope, not even now. Not....at all....no....uhhh....did you guys hear about that new species of shark they found!?

And there is still one more story. In western Germany, Christmas trees were decorated with apples, wafers, and cookies. Parents and children began to notice that “Santa” was snacking on the cookies. Children assumed that Santa (who was really just a bunch of mice) must be hungry and, at their parents’ encouragement, began leaving out plates of cookies by the fireplace. That was done partially to keep it close to Santa’s entrance and partially to keep the mice at bay.

Adorable little sneaky mouse.

Today, countries leave out different offerings. In Sweden, children leave rice porridge or a saucer of milk for the Juul Nisse, who are elves that live in the attic. British and Australian children will leave out mince pies and glasses of sherry, while Irish children leave Santa a glass of Guinness. And in the US, the most popular snack is the Oreo cookie.

Juul Nisse. With a whip. God, what is it with Europe and these violent Christmas figures?

Leaving cookies for Santa is most common in America. The tradition is actually a fairly new one that began with the new version of Santa. In The Night Before Christmas, Clement Clarke Moore describes Santa’s belly as “jiggling like a bowl full of jelly.” Meaning Santa was fat. Meaning that Santa obviously had a sweet tooth. Still, leaving cookies didn’t really begin until the 1930’s during the Great Depression. Naughty children would leave out cookies to bribe the sweet-toothed Santa into leaving them gifts while good children left the cookies as a thank you.

Here’s a news article about how many calories Santa consumes on Christmas Eve. Hint: It’s 262,200,000.

Well that's awkward.

 Sounds like somebody needs to make a New Year’s Resolution.

Keep eating and asking, my friends.

Esther

Bibliography:

-Donnelly, Maddie. “The History of Santa and Christmas Cookies – Gourmet Live.”  Gourmet Live. Condé Nast Digital, 6 Dec. 2011. Web. 24 Dec. 2011. <http://live.gourmet.com/2011/12/the-history-of-santa-and-christmas-cookies/>.

-McCann, Michael. “Santa Claus:Where Did That Guy in the Red Suit Come From?.” Austin Web Design Company – Austin Website Hosting – Lone Star Internet. The Business Cafe, n.d. Web. 24 Dec. 2011. <http://www.lone-star.net/mall/main-areas/xmas-santa-origin2.htm>.

-Riley, Chris. “Welcome to Santa’s FAQ Page on www.SantaClaus.com!.” santaclaus.com. santaclaus.com, n.d. Web. 24 Dec. 2011. <www.santaclaus.com/santa-claus-christmas-faq.php>.

-”The Pagan’s Path ~ Witchcraft & Shamanism – Who Is Santa Claus.” The Pagan’s Path ~ Education Network. Spring Wolf, 1 Nov. 2011. Web. 24 Dec. 2011. <http://www.paganspath.com/magik/yule-history2.htm>.

-”Why People Put Out Food For Santa – Legend Behind Putting Food For Santa.” Lifestyle Lounge – Online Lifestyle Magazine – Lifestyle Management Tips. iloveindia.com, n.d. Web. 24 Dec. 2011. <http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/why-people-put-out-food-for-santa-7867.html>.

-”Why do People Put Out Food for Santa?.” wiseGEEK: clear answers for common questions. Conjecture Corperation, n.d. Web. 24 Dec. 2011. <http://www.wisegeek.com/why-do-people-put-out-food-for-santa.htm>.

Photos, in order of appearance:

-http://www.thenightowlmama.com/page/3

-http://manolofood.com/why-santa-gets-cookies-at-christmas/

-http://www.gringaespanola.com/2009/11/day-of-the-dead/

-http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/357/santa_claus___how_do_we_deal_with_him_.html

-http://www.cosplayful.com/index.php/others/ah-my-goddess.html

-http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2008/12/moorish-guards-for-zwarte-piet.html

-http://thelongholidays.com/sinterklaas-and-zwarte-piet

-http://www.cobrapest.com/mouse.html

-http://www.prettysweetthings.com/blog/post/christmas-around-the-world

-http://fullfat.ca/

Like southward downward.

Today let’s take a peek at a Filipino Christmas custom, two desserts called bibingka and puto bumbong.

Puto Bumbong (left) and Bibingka (right).

Bibingka and puto bumbong are forms of rice cakes that are now available year round, but they have a place of honor during the Christmas season. They are well known for being the snack of choice after Misa de Gallo, a series of morning masses beginning on December 16^th.

Let's go to the church, everybody!

The Philippines are the only Asian nation where the Christian faith predominates and the country has celebrated Christmas since the 16^th century. Misa de Gallo, meaning “Rooster’s Mass,” takes place during the nine mornings before Christmas. Each mass starts at 4am. Firecrackers, bands, and carols are sung over the church PA system to summon villagers to mass and in some areas, the parish priest will actually walk through the village banging on people’s doors to wake them up.

It's like a freakin festival. At 4am.

Not cool.

DON'T WAKE ME UP I WAS SLEEPING

To compensate for the crazy early morning mass, which is also called Simbang Gabi in the Tagalog region, food booths are set up outside the church with snacks to warm worshippers, specifically bibingka and puto bumbong. Bibingka is a steamed rice pancake and puto bumbong is a cylindrical cake of steamed, purple rice. Both dishes are considered kananin, or rice turned into a snack. They usually use simple ingredients like rice, coconut milk, and sugar as a base, and then other ingredients or toppings are added. The typical accompaniment is hot ginger tea, or salabat, although hot chocolate is also available.

Bibingka and salabat.

Bibingka is made with galapong, a glutinous rice soaked in water and ground with the water to make either a batter or dough. While it’s possible to use blended flours to make bibingka, it will make for a harder rice cake. Using pure rice flour gives the cake a fluffier and softer texture. It is mixed with heated coconut milk, coconut strips, brown sugar, and traditionally tuba, which is a coconut alcohol. The “batter” is poured into small crocks lined with banana leaves and baked by placing hot coals over and under the crock in steel ovens. Usually, the ovens are made from discarded materials, such as oilcans for tower ovens, and the crocks can be made from the bottoms of tinned food cans. It’s also possible to make larger versions that can be sliced or scooped into individual portions. The bibingka are cooked outdoors and it needs to be carefully timed or the sugar on top will burn.

A homemade bibingka oven.

An oven made from an oil drum.

The bibingka ends up being slightly sweet and is served with itlog na maalat (sliced salted duck eggs), kesong puti (white cheese), and occasionally a slice of ham. The newly cooked bibingka is slathered in butter, sprinkled with brown sugar, and served with niyog (grated coconut). Traditionally, the cake was just made of rice and flour, and the rich toppings were added later on. The banana leaf in which the bibingka is baked gives off an aroma that the cake absorbs to add another element of flavor. The cake is semi-sweet, but there is a sugary crunch from the caramelized sugar, and the salted ducks eggs, cheese, and grated coconut provide lots of pleasant texture. Bibingka, while much better fresh, is also available packaged year round.

Extra ingredients like the salted duck egg are added towards the end of the baking process.

Filipino food is a sort of mix of Hispanic, American, Chinese, and other Asian cuisines. The name “bibingka” is similar to an Indian dessert called bebinca, a dessert popular in the state of Goa. The Goan dish is made with similar ingredients, flour (instead of glutinous rice), coconut milk, sugar, egg yolks, ghee or clarified butter, and almonds. Both cakes are cooked with heat on the top and bottom, but bebinca is a layered dessert. Each layer is cooked before the next layer is poured over top. Bibingka’s root word, “bi,” is Romanized mandarin for “unripe grain” or, more simply, “rice.” It is used in naming other cakes, such as various forms of bibingkang (which are not the same as bibingka).

With coconut.

Here’s a news story about the importance of bibingka.

Puto bumbong is a sticky, violet colored rice cake that is steamed in a bamboo tube. Puto is originally a Chinese dish (rice balls) that is served for breakfast or merienda (Filipino equivalent to afternoon tea or brunch). The word “puto” is a generic term for a rice cake made from galapong (rice flour). A regular puto is white, but bumbong is purple because it’s made with pirurutung glutinous rice. There are many other types of puto with just as many variations.

 Puto bumbong has a slightly sweet, although bland, flavor. The rice used is soaked overnight and then “ground dry,” meaning it is drained of water and then ground into a flour. The rice flour mixture is poured into bamboo tubes, which are only filled up about half way, wrapped in clothes (so they will not burn hands when handled), and placed on a special steamer.

 “The puto bumbong steamer is made out of tin or stainless sheet metal, It usually has three vent or holes on top in which bamboo tubes are attached. These bamboo tubes are filled with the galapong mixture, steam will pass thru the tubes thereby steam cooking the galapong mixture into a finger like and violet colored rice cake.” (Overseas Pinoy Cooking)

The rice mixture expands when steamed, hence the tubes only being filled halfway, and have a heavy, porous texture. It needs to be cooked carefully otherwise the rice will get too sticky and harden if it’s served too soon or too late. The cakes are removed from their tubes and served with sugar, shredded coconut, and butter to add a little oomph to its blandish flavor. They are wrapped in wilted banana leaves to keep them warm and moist.

 While both bibingka and puto bumbong are commonly street foods, they are most popular at Christmas. They are so popular that during the Christmas season, 5 star hotels will serve them made with traditional ingredients and cookware. The cakes are also eaten after Christmas Eve Midnight Mass during Noche Buena (Good Night) supper. It’s an extensive dinner that features stuffed chicken or fish, stuffed rolls, noodles, rice pudding with ground coconut, salabat, and fruit.

 Here are a couple videos of how to make bibingka and puto bumbong.

And check out Market Manila for more fun stuff about homemade bibingka.

Keep eating and asking, my friends.

Esther

Bibliography:

-”A Taste of the Philippines: Bibingka and Puto Bumbong: Philippine Christmas Sweets.” A Taste of the Philippines. N.p., 4 Dec. 2010. Web. 24 Dec. 2011. <http://a-taste-of-the-philippines.blogspot.com/2010/12/bibingka-ang-puto-bumbong-philippine.html>.

-Albala, Ken. “Philippines.” Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia: Asia and Oceania. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood, 2011. 222-223. Print.

-Alejandro, Reynaldo G.. “Part Two: Cooking in the Philippines.” The Food of the Philippines: Authentic Recipes from the Pearl of the Orient. Boston: Periplus ;, 1998. 24, 27, 30, . Print.

-Belen, Jun. “Feeling Sentimental and How to Make Bibingka (Christmas Rice Cakes) | Jun-Blog.” Jun-Blog | Photographs and Stories from My Filipino Kitchen. Jun Belen, 20 Dec. 2010. Web. 24 Dec. 2011. <http://blog.junbelen.com/2010/12/20/feeling-sentimental-and-how-to-make-bibingka-christmas-rice-cakes/>.

-”Bibingka, puto bumbong and simbang gabi.” Langyaw – Travel, Adventure and Food. N.p., 16 Dec. 2008. Web. 23 Dec. 2011. <langyaw.com/2008/12/16/bibingka-puto-bumbong-and-simbang-gabi/>.

-Bowler, G. Q.. “Philippines.” The World Encyclopedia of Christmas. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2000. 175. Print.

-Crump, William D.. “Philippines.” The Christmas Encyclopedia. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2001. 229-230. Print.

-”Puto Bumbong ~ Overseas Pinoy Cooking.” Overseas Pinoy Cooking. N.p., 11 Dec. 2009. Web. 24 Dec. 2011. <http://www.overseaspinoycooking.net/2009/12/puto-bumbong.html>.

-”Search results for “bibingka”.” Market Manila. Market Manila, n.d. Web. 23 Dec. 2011. <www.marketmanila.com/?s=bibingka>.

-”Spot.PH.” SPOT.ph: Your One-Stop Urban Lifestyle Guide to the Best of Manila. SPOT.ph, 21 June 2010. Web. 24 Dec. 2011. <http://www.spot.ph/print_article.php?id=45938&post_name=>.

-CASA Veneracion — Powered by Apple, Canon, delicious food & great cocktail drinks. Connie Veneracion, 11 Dec. 2004. Web. 24 Dec. 2011. <http://casaveneracion.com/bibingka-and-puto-bumbong/>.

Photos, in order of appearance:

-http://www.soygrowers.com/publications/ph-1.htm

-http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/christmas+in+the+Philippines

-http://chrisbon09.wordpress.com/2009/12/16/misa-de-gallo/

-http://dennisvillegas.blogspot.com/2008/12/misa-de-gallosimbang-gabi.html

-http://azfotos.com/people/children/boy-pictures.htm

-http://the-newbie-wife.blogspot.com/2010/08/late-night-snack-bibingka-and-salabat.html

-http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/bibingka-at-the-valladolid-fiesta

-http://www.whileontheroad.net/2011/07/food-trip-friday119-rice-cake-with.html

-http://www.flickr.com/photos/santos/37911195/

-http://cannedthoughts.com/2007/12/tasty-misa-de-gallo-treats/

-http://travelman1971.hubpages.com/hub/Misa-de-Gallo-A-Set-of-Nine-Masses-before-Christmas-Eve-in-the-Philippines

-http://www.flickr.com/photos/ton70/6536595151/

-http://www.flickr.com/photos/dothedelima/5098680201/

-http://www.allphilippines.com/?p=662

Or fairies, right? They’re fairies that rule the Land of Sweets and do ballet during Christmas……….

IT'S A TINY SUGAR-PLUM FAIRY!!

Right?

Not really.

Modern sugarplum. I'll tell you later.

Sugarplums were an early form of boiled sweet that didn’t necessarily contain plums (although it is quite possible that at one point they were actually sugar coated plums). In fact, more often than not, there was no type of fruit inside them at all. They are actually a central “seed” or “kernel” covered with layers upon layers of a hardened sugar syrup. The seed can be anything – almonds, caraway seeds, a sugar crystal. Following that definition, a sugarplum can be an M&M, a gobstopper (everlasting or otherwise), or a jellybean.

Willy Wonka makes sugarplums.

Wild, right?

WILD.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a sugarplum as “a small round or oval sweetmeat, made of boiled sugared and variously flavored and colored; a comfit.” While this definition is strange and poorly worded, it does point out on thing: “sugarplum” is just another name for a comfit. And comfit is just another name for the original “dragée.”

Which one is it, already!?

It’s confusing.

The term “sugarplum” first appeared in 1668 and was used commonly until the 19^th century. Comfits probably garnered the name because the candy was roughly the shape and size of a plum and decorated with little wire stalks so they could be suspended.  Eventually, “sugarplum” became a slang word. To say someone’s mouth was “full of sugarplums” meant that the person said sweet, but possible deceitful, words. To stuff another person’s mouth with sugarplums meant to offer a sop or a bribe. In the 18^th century, the word “plum” came to mean anything from £100 to a large amount of money to a rich person and in the 19^th century, it meant anything desirable. It’s possible that “plum” could have had that meaning since 1608, so sugarplum would mean any delicious, desirable boiled sweet.

“The chances are she won’t have you that’s of course; plums like that don’t fall into a man’s mouth merely for shaking the tree” (Doctor Thorne, Anthony Trollope)

The sugarplum’s grandmother was the dragée, which may have come from the Greek habit of taking a seed and coating it with honey, prior to the availability of sugar:

“The word appears to come ultimately from Greek tragemata, “sweets,” plural of the word tragema, which was derived from the verb trōgein, “gnaw.” These Greek sweets consisted typically of aromatic seeds, such as aniseed or fennel, coated in honey, and this was the association the word tragemata carried with it into Latin, and thence into Old French as dragie. This was borrowed into English in the fourteenth century as dredge, by which time sugar had replaced honey as the outer coating. Comfit soon replaced dredge as the English term for such sweets, but in the nineteenth century English reborrowed the French word which by then had become dragée” (Ayto, 113).

Fennel comfit.

So, since the word “dragée” never really caught on in English, comfit was used up until the 20^th century when dragée was slyly slipped back into highbrow speech (and then quickly forgotten again). Its earliest meaning (in its crudest form) is anything preserved in sugar. The comfit could be the original sugar confection. By the 20^th century, “comfit” had become such a broad, all encompassing term that it was easier to do away with the word and give each candy its own specific name.

Comfit.

The practice of covering things with a sugar coating probably began with apothecaries that sugared their pills to make them more palatable, a practice that’s still used today. Herbalist John Gerard, author of Complete Herbal, published in 1597, mentioned that sugar is beneficial to both the respiratory and the digestive systems (yea, ok buddy). He even stoops to mention some of the treats that can be made with sugar, but follows up by saying “it is not my purpose to make my book a Confectionairie, a Sugar Bakers furnace, a Gentlewoman’s preserving pan…” (Gode Cookery)  Someone’s a little touchy.

He's grumpy cause he just got home from the vet.

Making comfit is “one of the most difficult and tedious methods in craft confectionery, requiring specialized equipment, careful heat control, and experience” (Mason, 121). The centers for the comfit sat in a heated revolving pan as layers of sugar syrup were poured over them from a basin. As the pan turned, the seeds rolled around to get a full coating of sugar syrup. After each application, the tiny candy needed to be completely dried and cooled before continuing. As it dried, a thin layer appeared and the process was repeated over and over until the comfit reached its desired size. The process was called “panning” and there was actually another name for the comfit, “panned sweet,” but that was a little too technical and didn’t catch on. It took several days to make a batch of sugared almonds, which we now call Jordan almonds.

Coordinating the process was tricky, especially when the confectioner was making comfit on his own. The best method was to suspend the basin by cords attached to the ceiling over the pan. That meant the confectioner could shake the basin with one hand, dispensing sugar syrup, and stir the seeds with other hand, all while keeping the pan in constant motion. The constant motion was key in order to keep any of the seeds from burning. Hanging the basin also kept the sugar the right distance from the heat, keeping it warm enough to dry but not hot enough to burn. The hanging basin became known as the “balancing pan.”

Making comfit with a balancing pan.

Another method for comfit making was to place a pan over a small furnace and stir the seeds with one hand while rotating the pan with the other to prevent burning. The pan was attached to the top of a wooden barrel or tub. This method of placing a flat pan or basin over a barrel was used to make nonpareils as well as comfits (and let’s be honest, nonpareils are just itty bitty comfits anyway).

Making nonpareils.

Balancing pan diagrams.

As early as the 17^th century, confectioners realized that comfits were delicate creatures. Slight variations to the temperature and sugar solution would give different texture results to the candies. The textured ones described as rough, crisp, or pearled (probably because of bobbly surface) and the smooth were called lisse. Smooth, round comfits needed a slightly higher boiling temperature and a lighter, less concentrated syrup. Smooth comfits were made with a sugar syrup boiled to the degree of lisse, literally meaning smooth.

Pearling.

Pouring the sugar syrup from a higher distance from the pan would give the comfits an irregular surface and required the sugar syrup to be boiled to the degree of “pearl.” Something called a pearling pot was also employed, which allowed the flow of syrup flow to be controlled by a pin.

"Hero's recruiting at Kelsey's; - or - Guard-Day at St. James's" by James Gillray (1797). Notice his cone of sugarplums.

When it came to simple comfits, the whiter the better. It meant that the candy had been properly dried and stored, but colors and flavors could be added to the last layer of sugar syrup as it was poured over the seed. Anise vermeil, red anise, was the first mentioned colored comfit and goes back as far as 14^th century France. Turnsole (violet or purple) and sanders (powdered sandalwood) were used in the 16^th century to make candies red, and in the 17^th century beet leaf juice (green) and saffron (yellow) were used as well. To show that you were really rich, you could have your comfits covered with thin layers or gold or silver.

Instructions for making comfit weren’t usually published because of all the special equipment required to make it. Those people with access to recipes saw comfit making as a specialized craft beyond what any normal person could accomplish. There were professional confectioners in larger towns like London, so people who could afford them usually bought the sweetmeat rather than even thinking about attempting the feat themselves. While covering the seed with layers of sugar would have been a new idea in the 16^th century, it wasn’t until the 1540’s that sugar was refined in London and could be acquired in greater quantities. Even then, it was still expensive and only well to do families could afford it.

An etching by Christoph Weigel from One Hundred Fools (c.1700). The little boy on the ground also has a cone of sugarplums.

The few recipes there are give extremely detailed descriptions of quantities, methods, and implements, implying that the process needed to precise. Unlike so many other sweets, there was no room for improvisation when it came to comfit making. Comfit could not easily be made on a whim and was a treat reserved for aristocrats or eaten as a between course at a banquet. It could take several weeks to make one batch depending on the size of the candy.

A detail from a still-life painting by George Flegel (1566-1638). Comfits were often thrown into still life paintings the way exotic fruit is used in modern still life. To show sophistication and wealth.

The most popular comfit was made with a caraway or aniseed in the middle. Caraway seeds were thought to freshen the breath, thus leading any comfits made with caraway to be called “kissing confits” (an “n” was used instead of an “m” sometimes). The caraway comfit needed up to a dozen layers of sugar to ensure the seed was successfully encased. Occasionally fruit was used, which was a perfect way to preserve summer fruits to be enjoyed during the holiday season. “Long” comfits were made using slivers of cinnamon stick or candied orange and lemon peel. Tiny comfits, called “biskets” and nonpareils were made using sugar grains (fun fact: nonpareil means “unequaled”). It was generally agreed that smaller sizes made better comfits.

The spices, while providing a sturdy base, also lent a kind of perfume to the candy. Whole spices used as kernels were aniseed, coriander, the ever-popular caraway, fennel, ginger, clove, mace, cubebs, cinnamon slivers, and cardamom. There were centers made from a dried mix of grated bread with cinnamon, ginger, saffron, sugar, and borage water. And then there were almonds, pistachios, cucumber seeds, melon seeds, and preserved lemon pulp.

You could make comfits out of nearly anything.

Probably not.

Comfits were eaten as sweets or in other sweet dishes. For example, a seed cake may have been made with caraway comfit rather than plain caraway seeds. Nonpareils were sprinkled on top of cakes and custards and confectioners used them to cover chocolates. They were common decorations for marchpane (large, round, flat cakes of marzipan) cakes and were an essential part of any festive occasion. In France they were called espices de chambre, digestive sweetmeats for the table. When used in cooking, they were called espices de cuisine.

Marchpane.

Here’s a detailed description of how to make them now.

Because comfits were so portable, they were used as gifts. Banquet tables would be set with little packages of comfits at each place, kind of like little bags of Jordan almonds at weddings. They were given out by men to all the women they courted during New Year’s, which was probably more a show of wealth than anything else. There was also the habit of placing the comfit inside an edible container. In the 1800’s, that practice evolved into comfits in the shape of eggs containing either an edible or inedible filling. Sound familiar?

And remember that famous scene in Alice in Wonderland when Alice must give a prize at the end of the Caucus-Race:

“Alice had no idea what to do, and in despair she put her hand into her pocket and pulled out a box of comfits (luckily the salt water had not got into it) and handed them round as prizes. There was exactly one a-piece all round” (Carroll, 34).

Once the comfits were handed out…

“The next thing was to eat the comfits: this caused some noise and confusion, as the large birds complained that they could not taste theirs, and the small ones choked and had to be patted on the back” (Carroll, 35).

Another literary reference is a poem called The Sugar-Plum Tree, written by Eugene Field (1850-1895):

Have you ever heard of the Sugar-Plum Tree?

‘Tis a marvel of great renown!

It blooms on the shore of the Lollypop Sea

In the garden of Shut-Eye Town;

The fruit that it bears is so wondrously sweet

(As those who have tasted it say)

That good little children have only to eat

Of that fruit to be happy next day.

When you’ve got to the tree, you would have a hard time

To capture the fruit which I sing;

The tree is so tall that no person could climb

To the boughs where the sugar-plums swing!

But up in that tree sits a chocolate cat,

And a ginger bread dog prowls below-

And this is the way you contrive to get at

Those sugar-plums tempting you so:

 You say but the word to that gingerbread dog

And he barks with such a terrible zest

That the chocolate cat is at once all agog,

As her swelling proportions attest.

And the chocolate cat goes covorting around

From this leafy limb unto that,

And the sugar-plums tumble, of course, to the ground-

Hurray for that chocolate cat!

 There are marshmallows, gumdrops, and peppermint canes

With striping of scarlet and gold,

And you carry away of the treasure that rains,

As much as your apron can hold!

So come, little child, cuddle closer to me

In your dainty white nightcap and gown,

And I’ll rock you away to the Sugar-Plum Tree

In the garden of Shut-Eye Town.

 Note that the poem doesn’t have any reference to Christmas.

In the 1860’s, candy-making machinery was invented, so things like steam heat to regulate temperature for sugar melting and mechanized rotating pans became available. That meant that less skilled workers could turn out larger batches of comfit faster and more easily, without sacrificing (too much) quality. The price of sugar fell, so candy makers could afford to make all kinds of small, shelled candies. The sugar syrup became softer as well due to a technique called “soft panning,” which substitutes glucose syrup for sugar syrup. The best example of that technique is jellybeans. The mechanization and modernization of comfit making has done one other thing: taken away the magic of the comfit.

Today, the most common type of “sugar plum” we see is made by coating preserved fruit or cream in a layer of rich chocolate or plums coated in sugar.

So anyway, what’s the connection to Christmas? When you dig into comfit’s history, there is no clear one. The connection to Christmas has come entirely from one literary reference and a little ballet known as The Nutcracker.

First, there’s the famous line in A Visit from St. Nicholas. When “the children were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads,” they were probably just thinking of the sweet treats to come the next day or even (as per the slang) any pleasing thing.

Then there’s The Nutcracker, composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, which premiered on December 18^th, 1892. One of my favorite parts has always been “The Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy.” In the same way that I loved Queen Frostine in Candy Land (the board game), I love the Sugar-Plum Fairy because she was beautiful and in charge.

Queen Frostine!

I kind of had a Miss Piggy complex when I was younger.

She's so fabulous.

Anyway, Clara visits the Land of Sweets in Confiturembourg (bolded part, if you please), which is ruled by the Sugar-Plum Fairy. Without knowing what a sugarplum was or its significance, the Sugar-Plum Fairy seems kind of underwhelming. Who wants to be ruled by a plum coated in sugar?

Olga Preobrazhenskaya as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Nikolai Legat as Prince Coqueluche. Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, c. 1900

Not so, my friends.

Those comfits were a thing of wonder and beauty, just like Ms. Sugar-Plum. By 1892, the sweets had become mechanized so the wonder was slowly fading, but it was not so far in the future that people had forgotten the importance of the comfit. The ballet was, after all, based on The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, written by E.T.A. Hoffmann in 1816 when they were still expensive delights.

This has always been my favorite version of “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy”

And that, in sort of a weird, long-winded way is why sugarplums are a Christmas thing.

Keep eating and asking, my friend.

Esther

Bibliography:

-Ayto, John. “Sugarplum.” An A-Z of Food and Drink. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. 329. Print.

-Bowler, G. Q.. “Sugarplums.” The World Encyclopedia of Christmas. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2000. 217. Print.

-Carroll, Lewis. “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland … – Lewis Carroll – Google Books.” Google Books. Google, n.d. Web. 22 Dec. 2011. <http://books.google.com/books?id=XlsVAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=alice+in+wonderland&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Wt78Tpz5NcjY0QH9n7WtAg&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=comfits&f=false>.

-Cohen, Sharon. “Visions of Sugarplums.” Welcome to Gode Cookery. Sharon Cohen, n.d. Web. 23 Dec. 2011. <http://www.godecookery.com/friends/frec74.htm>.

-Crump, William D.. “Sugarplums.” The Christmas Encyclopedia. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2001. 271. Print.

-Kawash, Samira. “Sugar Plums: They’re Not What You Think They Are – Samira Kawash – Health – The Atlantic.” The Atlantic — News and analysis on politics, business, culture, technology, national,  international, and life – TheAtlantic.com. The Atlantic Monthly Group, 22 Dec. 2010. Web. 23 Dec. 2011. <http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2010/12/sugar-plums-theyre-not-what-you-think-they-are/68385/>.

-Mason, Laura. “Lost meanings: comfits.” Sugar-plums and Sherbet: The Prehistory of Sweets. Totnes: Prospect, 2004. 119-133. Print.

-O’Loughlin, Kathy. “The colorful origins of traditional holiday sweets.” Main Line Times [Ardmore] 23 Dec. 2004: 9. Print.

-Olver, Lynne. “The  Food Timeline–Christmas food history.”   Food Timeline: food history & vintage recipes . Lynne Olver, n.d. Web. 23 Dec. 2011. <http://www.foodtimeline.org/christmasfood.html#sugarplums>.

Photos, in order of appearance:

-http://www.learntopreserve.com/whats-cooking-in-my-kitchen/tag/sugar-plums-in-syrup

-http://classicalbeaver.wordpress.com/tag/sugarplum-fairy/

-http://backtoherroots.com/2011/12/08/sugar-plums/

-http://www.alicialegg.com/blog/2010/09/29/the-everlasting-gobstopper/

-http://world-nationalwildlife.blogspot.com/

-http://www.diybride.com/blog/diy-projects-tutorials/crafters-toolbox/what-a-dragee/

-http://www.ideachampions.com/weblogs/archives/2010/06/the_value_of_co_1.shtml

-http://www.ehow.co.uk/info_8519009_chocolate-dragees.html

-http://www.candyblog.net/blog/category/fancyfood/

-http://www.deborahspantry.com/sweetmeats.htm

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plain-M%26Ms-Pile.jpg

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gerard_John_1545-1612.jpg

-http://www.phillipschocolate.com/prodinfo.asp?number=JA

-http://www.historicfood.com/Comfits.htm

-http://www.flickr.com/photos/dreamyshade/galleries/72157624006761405

-http://megajob.hu/2009/10/a-10-legjobb-allas-a-vilagon/

-http://www.i-like-this.net/2011/05/spices-of-life-just-add-water-and-what.html

-http://arnica.csustan.edu/photos/animals/animals.htm

-http://www.simplesite.com/theapothecary/4732220

-http://www.chocolate-easter-eggs.co.uk/

-http://storynory.com/2006/11/06/alice-in-wonderland-chapter-3/

-http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rgs/alice-III.html

-http://theculinarycellar.blogspot.com/2010/06/sugar-plum-tree-and-other-culinary.html

-http://www.flickr.com/photos/crossettlibrary/5933288575/

-http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2010/09/24/singing-singable-picture-books-like-candy-thats-good-for-you/

-http://reallybigvintagejunkdrawer.blogspot.com/2009/08/blog-post_13.html

-http://www.thenightbeforechristmas.com/

-http://things-we-heart.blogspot.com/2009/12/yummies-visions-of-sugar-plums-dance-in.html

-http://www.beautybloggingjunkie.com/2011/09/queen-frostine-chic-mac-cosmetics.html

-http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Miss_Piggy

-http://christmaspudding09.blogspot.com/2011/12/a-z-of-christmas-v.html

Fruitcake.

Seriously, fruit was like the most coveted Christmas item way back when.

This is my most coveted Christmas fruit.

Stollen is a German specialty eaten at Christmas that’s related to panettone, fruitcake, King cake, babka, and dreikonigsbrot. All these cakes were developed in medieval times and were reserved for the holidays because they were expensive to make. The most common and most famous stollen are from Dresden, Germany.

Stollen is a yeast bread made with nuts, raisins, currants, candied orange and lemon peel, and lots of butter. Other possible ingredients include orange and lemon zest, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mace or cloves. Some people choose to soak the dried fruit in brandy or rum before adding it to the dough, but that’s entirely optional. It’s rolled out with a thinner middle and thicker outsides, folded in, and dusted with powdered sugar and some have a filling of marzipan wrapped inside.

LOOK OUT MARZIPAN YOU ABOUT TO BE EAT UP BY THE STOLLEN!!!

Alas, poor Marzipan, we knew ye...before Stollen ate you all up.

The word originates from the Middle High German “stolle” from the Old High German word “stollo.” Stollo means post, support, or boundary stone for a city. Some historians think that it could also be the entrance to a mine because it reminded the locals of entrances to silver and tin mines in Dresden.

I don't see it. I must not have an imagination.

Stollen goes by several different names, the most common being (obviously) “stollen.” There’s also strutzel, striezel, stutenbrot, and christstollen. The name “christstollen” comes from the loaf’s resemblance to baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling cloths.

What do you mean you "accidentally baked Jesus into a bready dessert!?"

I sort of hit upon two different origin stories that I couldn’t seem to reconcile. The one story claims stollen was created early in the 14^th century while the other claims it originated in the early 15^th century. The second story seems a little more plausible, but I’ll share them both.

HOLY CRAP STOP SLICING INTO BABY JESUS!!

Origin Story Number One:

Stollen was invented in 1329 as a result of a contest created by the Bishop of Naumburg in the Thüringen region. He asked the bakers in Dresden to create a most delicious pastry for special occasions, specifically Christmas. The bakers made breads with butter, sugar, raisins, citron, and other special ingredients and spices. The Bishop enjoyed it so much that he ordered a store of grain to be reserved just to make stollen.

"4 stollin doo not tuch" -Lil Joey Bishop

Stollen was first mentioned in writing in 1330 in Naumburg an de Saale, where it was made by a baker’s guild with episcopal privilege. There is a mention of it in Dresden in 1400, but it didn’t become widespread until the next century.

My mom got a stollen for Christmas and my dog ate the whole thing. He didn't feel well afterwards.

Origin Story Number Two:

Stollen was created as a Christmas pastry in the Saxon Royal Court in 1427 to symbolize the Christ child. It was simply called “striezel,” which means “loaf.” Since it was served during the Advent fast, the Catholic Church dictated how it was prepared, so it was made of only flour, yeast, turnip oil, and water. There was no butter or sweet ingredients, such as raisins, candied peel, or almonds. Since butter and other rich ingredients were banned, the bread was pretty much a tasteless lump. Still, large stollens, weighing up to 30 pounds, were created for the Royal Court’s celebrations.

They were delivered like mattresses tied on top of cars.

A similar stollen was mentioned in writing in a 1474 bill from the Christian Hospital of St. Bartholomew in Dresden. That particular stollen was called a “cake for the fasting period” and was recorded as being made with only flour, oats, and water as the Catholic Church required.

This is an oat cake, and I'm pretty sure the old stollens didn't even look this good.

Stollen continued to be made without any other ingredients until Electoral Prince Ernst of Saxony and his brother Duke Albrecht had enough. They sent a request to Pope Nikolaus V to revoke the inconvenient “butter ban” that grated on the nerves of Saxon bakers during the Advent. Five popes came and went before, finally, Pope Innocenz VIII replied in 1491 (40 years later!) with a letter now known as the “butterbrief” or “butter-letter.” His Excellency declared that stollen could use both butter and milk “with a clear conscience and with God’s blessing,” but only after making the “appropriate penance.” (What’s Cooking America?)

Hey guys, in order to use butter during the Advent, I'm gonna need you to beat yourselves with whips. Cool?

They had to pay a fine. Because, duh, doesn’t everyone have to pay a fine to use butter? That “butter money” was used to build the Freiberg Cathedral. Here’s a website with a link to the complete letter, which is in German, and nearly impossible to see.

Your cathedral is built on a foundation of butter!

It took another couple of years after the ban was lifted for a baker named Heinrich Drasdo in Torgau to add extra sweet ingredients, like fruit and nuts. He named his stollen the Drasdoer Stollen, and it became famous all over Saxony. In 1500, christstollens were sold at the Striezelmarkt in Dresden, the oldest German Christmas fair. Stollen became so special, to Dresdner’s in particular, that special stollen utensils (like the Stollen Knife) were made to cut and serve it.

Striezelmarkt. No big deal.

And here ends the conflicting origin stories.

But wait! There’s more! (And this time everyone agrees…)

The handshake is a symbol for agreement. That's why this picture is here.

By the 16^th century, Christmas stollens were the celebratory cake. Traditionally, a family would keep the first slice of stollen cut in order to ensure that they could afford to buy a stollen for the next year. The last piece was saved to ensure the family had enough food for the year. Stollen bakers in Dresden would bake and deliver giant stollens to the King of Saxony for Christmas. In 1560, two 5-foot stollens weighing in 36 pounds, made by eight bakers, was delivered to the palace by eight journeymen for the Christmas festivities. The tradition of making large stollen for the monarchy to enjoy during the holidays continued until 1918 when the monarchy fell.

King of Saxony.

If you think a 36 pounder is impressive, wait till you hear about the stollen Friedrich August I, aka August the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, ordered.

August the Strong by Louis de Silvestre. They called him "the Strong" because of his intense eyebrows.

In 1730, August the Strong decided to throw a huge festival at the military camp of Zeithainer Lustlager lasting from May 31^st to June 28^th. The festival, which went by the same name, covered no less than 1,000 hectares (2,471.053 acres) and took place “near the cities Riesa and Großenhain between the villages Zeithain, Glaubitz und Streumen not far from the border between Saxony and Brandenburg” (Dresden Stollen Festival). The purpose of the camp and the festival was not, as it would seem to the untrained eye, to demonstrate wealth and splendor, but rather military strength as well as the managerial skills of the generals and officers. But, since it was held at that time period, it was extremely lavish and in the Baroque style. Think “The Inside of Versailles” lavish.

The Queen's bedroom in Versailles. Now imagine 2,471 acres of this.

Guests from all over Europe attended. There were 20,000 guests in all, including 47 princes and dukes, 69 counts, 38 barons, and Friedrich Wilhelm I, the King of Prussia and his 150 Prussian officers. Mr. the Strong really wanted Friedie (I totally just nicknamed him that) as an ally in his territorial claims against the Habsburger Donaumonarchie. In addition to the 20,000 guests, there were 30,000 men in 30 infantry battalions and 50 cavalry squadrons present. It was the biggest military review in Europe and was known as the greatest Baroque festivity of the time. There were military exercises, Italian singers, French actors, decorated boats cruising the river Elbe, five hour long fireworks, comedies, operas, FREE BEER!!, and 160 oxen and countless deer and pheasants were roasted.

Italian singers...

French actors...

Talk about decadent. Also, FREE BEER!!

...and free beer.

But that’s not all. In an effort to really “Wow!” his guests, August commissioned the largest stollen ever attempted by anyone. The result was a stollen orchestrated by master baker Zacharias of the Mühlberg bakery.

What this post is actually about.

In addition to Zacharias, 100 master bakers and their assistants helped create the monstrosity. It took them an entire week. The court architect, Pöppelmann, had to build a special oversized stollen oven in order to bake it. It took over 6 hours. The finished product was 27 feet long, 18 feet wide, and a foot high.

Female great white sharks grow to be about 15-16ft long. The stollen could have owned the shark.

Oh, and it weighed 1.8 tons.

Blank stare.

That’s 3,960 pounds.

HOLY CRAP!

That’s a lot of stollen.

More than that. Like 500x more.

The stollen was pulled to the festival by 8 horses attached to a specially made cart. A specially made Stollen Knife was forged to cut it (which, by the way, had to be done by the court carpenter). Everything about this stollen was “specially.”

Not the original.

While it was hugenourmous, the stollen wasn’t quite as palatable as the stollen we know today. It had significantly different ingredients and was more of a white bread than a cake and the baking process produced some rather undesirable results. The way it was cooked gave it a hard crust and a soft, almost doughy inside, making it hard to cut and eat. But who cares!? It was a giant freakin stollen! That, to me, screams “MILITARY POWER!!!”

This giant cookie makes me realize that North Carolina is a huge military power. The cookie was created on May 17, 2003 in Hendersonville, North Carolina by the Immaculate Baking Company.

Today’s annual Dresden Stollen Festival is designed after Zeithainer Lustlager. It’s held every Saturday prior to the 2^nd day of Advent. Yes, I will be telling you all about that.

By the 20^th century, the Dresden stollen had become the slightly sweet Christmas pastry that’s eaten today. By World War II, it was being packaged and exported in metal sheet boxes over the Atlantic to both North and South America.

Here’s a video about how to make a stollen:

Here’s a slightly better video about how to make a stollen:

I love Omi.

I think it’s only fair to warn you now that if your stollen doesn’t have the gold seal of approval from the Dresdner Stollenschutzverband e.V (Dresdner Stollen Trade Protection Association) then it is not an authentic, handmade Dresden stollen. Only 150 bakeries have the gold seal and they all have to follow certain requirements when making their pastries. First and foremost, it must be made in Dresden.

If an image of this seal is not on your stollen package, it's not genuine. Cute girl not included.

Then:

“For every 10 grams of flour, the Dresdner Stollen must contain at least 3 grams of butter or milk fat, 7 grams of dried fruits and candied orange and lemon peels, and 1 gram of almonds. Only those Stollen that meet these requirements can be called “Dresdner Stollen ” and carry the official Dresdner Stollen seal” (German Food Guide)

You don’t mess with the Stollenschutzverband.

You get a certificate.

While the general ingredients (and the amounts mentioned above) remain the same, every stollen baker has inherited his or her own family recipe. One recipe might use a little more spice while others may throw in some of that orange zest, and there’s always room for a little rum or brandy. There are a couple different types of stollen:

• Almond stollen (mandelstollen) – contains more almonds
• Butterstollen
• Marzipanstollen – has marzipan inside
• Persipanstollen – contains persipan, which is made with apricot or peach kernels
• Poppyseed stollen (mohnstollen)
• Nut stollen (nuss-stollen)
• Quarkstollen – contains quark, a type of fresh cheese
• Schittchen – Stollen in the German state of Thüringen, considered a specialty of the city of Erfurt

And then there’s the Dresden Stollen Festival.

Holy cow.

This now annual event was originally supposed to be a one-time PR event in 1994 for the city of Dresden and it’s signature pastry. Dr. Peter Mutscheller, a Saxon art and culture expert, ran across some pictures and reports of the Zeithainer Lustlager festival from 1730. He decided that it was high time for a similar festival featuring traditional stollen to take place. Mutscheller worked with Dresden bakers and pastry chefs, a PR company, and the Stollenschutzverband to get it together and it was scheduled to take place during the Striezelmarkt. The event was so successful that Mutscheller and his company, Hommage Dresden, with the cooperation of the Stollenschutzverband, decided to make it a yearly event.

Bee tee dubbs, this is Dresden.

Now, the festival gets around 700,00 visitors from all over the world annually. Travel agencies have even begun putting together packages specifically for the Stollen Festival. The spectacle is broadcasted on all the German TV stations and even some American and Japanese TV channels as well. In addition to promoting the city, the festival is meant to showcase the skills of Dresden craftsmen and has become a sort of show of traditional Saxon handicraft.

This guy is making some kind of Saxon craft. He's too legit to quit.

There’s even the Dresdner Stollenmädchen, the Dresden Stollen Maiden, who is to stollen what the Budweiser girls are to underwhelming beer. The position, originally created during the 2^nd festival just for fun, has become a coveted station. She is the most photographed person during the festival and also a handy advertising tool. A jury headed by the president of the festival’s PR firm elects the Stollenmädchen in October. Candidates are baker or pastry chef trainees at the Vocational School for Nutrition in Dresden. To qualify, she must have good school performance, knowledge of the Dresden stollen and the festival, and a love for the city.

Lisa Straßberger – Dresden Stollen Maiden 2011/2012

It also helps if she’s pretty.

So pretty.

For twelve months, the Stollenmädchen represents Dresden’s baker and pastry chef trade and markets stollen by traveling through Germany, visiting towns, Christmas fairs, and other events. She also does radio and TV interviews promoting the German “Christmas Capital of the World.”

Again, Striezelmarkt.

That’s all well and good, but what about the stollen?

Well, it’s big. It’s proportionately the same as a regular 4lb stollen and was designed by Professor Kurt Merker. Yea, it had to actually be designed. Professor Merker also designed the cart that carries the giant stollen and his involvement in the festival has earned him the nickname “the Stollen Professor.”

The stollen is made by combining many different stollen “plates,” individual loaves, using butter and sugar. For three weeks 60 ovens are kept burning to bake them all. It takes about 370 plates, each weighing 11-kilo (there are around 2.3lbs in a kilo), to make the stollen. Different bakers and pastry chefs make the individual plates using their own secret recipes, which have all passed the standards of the Stollenschutzverband.

So...much...carbohydrate....

All the pieces are joined together on the actual cart, like an enormous puzzle. Baking each plate individually keeps the stollen from becoming it’s poorly baked ancestor. There’s also no need to build a special oven. Professor Merker has designed tools and building constructions to make the process of putting the stollen together easier, but it still takes 6 hours. Once it’s done, it’s covered in a layer of icing.

Oh yea.

The stollen of the first festival weighed 2,720 kilos and was recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records. The festival has since topped its own record several times, the largest being in 2001. It weighed 4,200 kilos and took 80 bakers and pastry chefs and 1.5 tons of flour, 2.5 million sultanas, 455 kilos of sugar, and 44 liters of Jamaican rum to make it. Its measurements are as follows:

Length: 4.75 meters

Width: 1.75 meters

Height: 0.90 meters

1,500 kilos wheaten flour

990 kilos seedless raisins (sultanas)

790 kilos butter

455 kilos sugar

200 kilos candied lemon peel

150 kilos almonds (sweet)

110 kilos icing sugar

95 kilos yeast

55 kilos almonds (bitter)

45 kilos lemon peels

44 kilos Jamaica rum

44 kilos powdered milk

30 kilos salt

5 kilos spices

I'm pretty sure this is from the 1980s.

After a lengthy ceremonial procession through the town, the Royal Master Baker and the Stollenmädchen make the first cut. They use a 1.2 meter long silver plated replica of the 1730 Dresden Stollen Knife. After it was used one time at August the Strong’s military bash, it was kept in the Dresden Royal Silver Vault (Hofsilberkammer) for more than 200 years. It disappeared in 1945 during WWII, but was recovered by Dr. Mutscheller. He tracked it down using only a copperplate engraving called “Praise and Glory for the Laudable Bakery Trade” as a clue. The engraving had a picture of the knife as well as a detail showing its measurements. You can also buy miniature replicas of the knife for your own normal sized stollen.

After the first cut is made, the rest of the stollen is cut into pieces and sold to tourists directly from the cart. In order to get their piece, visitors have to buy something called a Stollenthaler, which costs 3 euros. They are available all over the market and get exchanged for a piece of stollen. Part of the revenue of the giant stollen is given to charity.

In case you were thinking about hosting your own stollen festival, complete with giant knife and stollen, think again. The festival is patented. If you held one, it would be a stolen festival. 

Stollenburglar.

GET IT!?

Keep eating and asking, my friends.

Esther

Bibliography:

-Ayto, John. “Stollen.” An A-Z of Food and Drink. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. 325. Print.

-”Dresdner Criststollen – History.” Apache Tomcat. Dresdner Stollen Geschichte, n.d. Web. 23 Dec. 2011. <http://cms.rosinenstollen.de/opencms/opencms/rosinenstollen/en/_header/geschichte/>.

-”German Food Guide – Stollen.” German Food Guide and Directory. German Food Guide, n.d. Web. 23 Dec. 2011. <http://www.germanfoodguide.com/stollen.cfm>.

-Olver, Lynne. “The  Food Timeline–Christmas food history.”   Food Timeline: food history & vintage recipes . Lynne Olver, n.d. Web. 23 Dec. 2011. <http://www.foodtimeline.org/christmasfood.html#stollen>.

-Larousse Gastronomique: the World’s Greatest Culinary Encyclopedia. New York: Clarkson Potter/Publishers, 2009. 1021. Print.

-”Stollen, history and recipes.” The Kitchen Project, The Complete Cooking Experience . The Kitchen Project, 6 Dec. 2007. Web. 23 Dec. 2011. <http://www.kitchenproject.com/german/recipes/Stollen/StollenHistory.htm>.

-Stradley, Linda. “Stollen, Dresden Stollen, Strutzel, Stutenbrot, Christmas Stollen, History of Stollen.” What’s Cooking America, Christmas Dinner Planning, Prime Rib Roast Dinner, Christmas Cookie Recipes. Linda Stradley, n.d. Web. 23 Dec. 2011. <http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Cakes/Stollen.htm>.

-”The history of the “Christstollen from Dresden” – Bäckerei & Konditorei Gnauck.” Original Dresdner Stollen – Bäckerei & Konditorei Gnauck. Bäckerei & Konditorei Gnauck, n.d. Web. 22 Dec. 2011. <http://www.stollen-online.de/dresdnerstollen/geschichte-eng.htm>.

-”eDining.ca | Nova Scotia Restaurants, Wine, Dining, Food – Restaurant, Halifax, Dartmouth, Bedford, Nova Scotia.” eDining.ca. eDining.ca, 8 Dec. 2006. Web. 23 Dec. 2011. <http://www.edining.ca/326/articles/German_Stollen,_History_and_Tradition>.

Photos, in order of appearance:

-http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/fruit-cake-688931/

-http://www.mommykatie.com/2010/11/harry-david-holiday-review.html

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stollen-Dresdner_Christstollen.jpg

-http://www.applepiepatispate.com/bread/stollen-recipe-dan-lepard/

-http://kochtopf.twoday.net/stories/5391387/

-http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/en/04__W__t__G/04/03/00/Recipe__Stollen.html

-http://ukraine-foreign-policy.com/international-relations/un-will-not-store-their-grain-in-ukraine.html

-http://www.schreiber-pirna.de/Dresdner_Christstollen.448/

-http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/b8468/1091e/a/?o=3

-http://www.bakingishot.com/blog/easy-oat-cakes

-http://www.postiar.com/post/20781/sin-and-penance-in-the-middle-ages.html

-http://www.flickr.com/photos/dsorth20/3018812608/

-http://www.saechsischer-bote.de/news/id/1243.htm

-http://buyeragentsearch.com/wpress3/reason-for-buyers-broker-agreement-or-contract.html

-http://www.surfbirds.com/cgi-bin/gallery/search2.cgi?species=&photographer=&location=&county=papua%20new%20guinea

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:August_II_the_Strong.PNG

-http://www.visitingdc.com/paris/queens-bedroom-versailles.asp

-http://thesplendorofthechurch.blogspot.com/2007/09/pavarotti-returned-to-catholic-faith.html

-http://www.bellenews.com/2011/08/17/world/gerard-depardieu-peed-in-front-of-an-aircrafts-passengers/

-http://www.bostonhassle.com/2011/12/01/tonight121-the-haven-free-beer-the-ioa-many-peoples-bandmems-of-quilt-boston-hassle-comp-listening-party/

-http://saboresdeljardin.wordpress.com/tag/stollen/

-http://caterpillarpublishing.com/?tag=great-white-sharks

-http://www.mtv.com/photos/exiled-ep-10-erin/1599145/3378728/photo.jhtml

-http://www.sodahead.com/fun/would-it-shock-you-if-i-told-you-lg-and-samsung-was-from-korea-not-japan/question-1530239/?link=ibaf&q=shock&imgurl=http://images.sodahead.com/polls/001530239/5119503128_Shocked_answer_1_xlarge.jpeg

-http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/rollin-with-stollen/Content?oid=2726778

-http://www.dresdnerstollen.com/english/e_fotos/e_me02_2.htm

-http://recordsetter.com/world-record/cookie/544

-http://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2010/12/dresden-bakers-do-it-again.html

-http://hausaufgoblin.blogspot.com/2010/12/youve-stollen-my-heart.html

-http://www.cafe-maass.de/stollenschutzverband.html

-http://www.dresdnerstollen.com/english/e_fotos/e_fest/e_f01_5.htm

-http://www.forwarderexpress.com/?en-r-d-14434.html

-http://www.blackknighthistorical.co.uk/index.php/photo-gallery

-http://www.stollenfest.com/

-http://www.dnn-online.de/web/dnn/nachrichten/detail/-/specific/Das-Dresdner-Stollenmaedchen-58102982

-http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/12/1214_xmassshopping/source/8.htm

-http://www.worldrecordsacademy.org/food/largest_stollen_Dresden_Giant_Stollen_set_world_record_101999.html

-http://www.cntraveller.com/photos/the-week-in-travel-pictures/travel-pictures-28-november/construction-of-giant-stollen

-http://www.kitchenproject.com/german/recipes/Stollen/StollenHistory.htm

-http://nicoledula.com/category/recipes

-http://bestuff.com/stuff/hamburglar

Ours didn't look this good.

When you think about gingerbread at Christmas, the first thing that probably comes to mind is the flat, crisp cookie that’s made into men whose heads you bite off before destroying their gingerbread homes with your mouth. Of course, there’s still the cake kind, but that’s more of a year round dessert. Both kinds share a common origin that goes way back. And no, gingerbread was not always a Christmas food.

Medieval gingerbread decorated with cloves.

 If you want to go real deep, gingerbread actually originates with the ancient Greeks and Egyptians. In 2000 BC, wealthy Greek families would sail to the Isle of Rhodes to buy “spiced honey cakes” and both Greeks and Egyptians used a form of honey cake for ceremonial purposes. Later, the ancient Romans made special, highly spiced honey cakes cooked in a clebanus (a type of portable oven) in their dining rooms. The cakes were taken straight from the clebanus and served directly to guests and visitors. The Romans also made their little honey cakes in the shape of hearts, associating them with weddings. They eventually became edible love tokens, similar to a box of chocolates on Valentine’s Day. Whitman’s Sampler anyone?

Greek honey cakes.

An Armenian monk called Gregory of Nicopolis (Gregory Makar, Grgoire de Nicopolis) supposedly brought honey cakes to Europe in 992. He left Nicopolis Pompeii for Bondaroy, France, where he spent seven years, teaching the art of gingerbread making to the French priests and Christians until he died in 999. At that time, the honey cakes didn’t include any ginger.

The crusaders spread ginger through Europe in the 11^th century when they returned from their travels. Ginger, which is native to Malaysia, could be used medicinally for all type of things (flatulence, hangovers, stomach disorders) and quickly became a popular cure. The discovery that ginger could be used a preservative probably lead to the invention of new types of cakes, pastries, and breads, including the gingerbread. The center of the medieval ginger trade was in Nürnberg, Germany, a city that became famous for its gingerbread cakes and cookies, but more on that later.

The term “gingerbread” was not the food’s originally name. In the 13^th century, it was called “gingerbras,” the Old French word for “preserved ginger.” Gingerbras meant anything that had been cooked with ginger, and not specifically a cake type item. Gingerbras came from the Latin name for the spice, zingiber.  In the middle of the 14^th century, -bras was replaced with the more familiar word –bread and by the 15^th century, gingerbread had replaced gingerbras altogether.

Catholic monks were the first to make honey cakes infused with ginger, and introduced them to Europe in the 1300’s. The monks designed the cakes to be theme “cakes” for Saint’s Days and festivals. The gingerbreads depicted saints and religious motifs, which were imprinted on the gingerbread by molds, called “cookie boards.” They were intricately carved slabs of wood that were pressed into the surface of stiff, rolled dough leaving a detailed image on the surface. Soon, gingerbreads were being made all over Europe, particularly in Germany, Scandinavia, England, and France.

St. Nicholas on a horse in cookie board form.

Gingerbread was a favorite uncooked early medieval sweetmeat in England and it was characterized as a “bread stuff,” meaning it was an edible dry finger food eaten to compliment a meal. The spices needed to make it were expensive, so it was only available to those who could afford it. The Duchess of Leicester paid 12 shillings for 4 pounds of loose ginger and another 2 and fourpence for a little less than a pound. That was a high price in 1265. These loose boxes must have been imported from the Netherlands because it paid a small customs duty in London.

More medieval gingerbread.

Homemade gingerbread was made by mixing breadcrumbs with a paste of honey, pepper, saffron, and cinnamon. A 15^th century recipe in Good Cookery called for the breadcrumbs to be boiled in honey with ginger and other spices. It was also common to add sandalwood to color the gingerbread red. The earliest written recipe fails to mention ginger, which could simply be a mistake made by the author. Other gingerbreads were made with mustard, pepper, raisins, nuts, and apples. The breadcrumbs were usually stale and a heavy hand was required with the spices to hide the stale flavor. The bread and honey mixture was pressed into a square loaf so it could be sliced and decorated with gilt. Occasionally it was added to meat dishes to cover the odor of aging meat. Ya know, when it wasn’t exactly fresh.

This is a gingerbread house made out of meat. Not exactly the same thing.

Ew.

Red gingerbread continued to be popular until the 17^th century when it was made with “the grated breadcrumbs of stale manchet [a high quality yeast bread],” flavored with cinnamon, aniseed, and ginger and darkened with licorice and red wine instead of sandalwood. The ingredients were mixed together, rolled thin, and “printed” with cookie boards. Gingerbread wasn’t baked, but placed in a cool oven to dry. White gingerbread was also fashionable, but it was more of a marzipan confection flavored with ginger and also covered with gilt. This is probably where the saying “take the gilt off the gingerbread” (meaning, to remove one’s most attractive qualities) comes from.

Gilded gingerbread figures.

Medieval English gingerbread was a treat, but it was also a sort of “medical candy.” Ginger on its own could be used to treat ailments, but so could the tasty “baked” good. It was used as a medicine in other countries as well. Sources show that Swedish nuns from the Vadstena Monastery were using it for digestion problems in 1444. A 16^th century writer, John Baret, described gingerbread as “A Kinde of cake or paste made to comfort the stomacke” (Food & Think).

Later in the 17^th century, cake baking had become more popular in England and gingerbread changed again. It lost the breadcrumbs and was made with flour, sugar, butter, eggs, and black treacle with ginger, cinnamon, and chopped or preserved fruits for flavor. Sugar was only widely used in sweet foods in the 16^th century, so gingerbread began using a little around then. With the introduction of black treacle in England the 17^th century, honey used to sweeten gingerbread could be replaced and the amount of sugar used in the recipe could be lessened. It was shaped into cakes and baked in the oven. This continued until the 18^th century.

Black treacle.

To get the appropriate color, gingerbread had used sandalwood in medieval times and black licorice in Tudor times. Once gingerbread was made with treacle, there was no need to add a coloring agent. Treacle’s already dark color did the job without an extra ingredient. This particular type of gingerbread was a favorite of Charles II. Treacle gingerbread is most closely related to the soft, cakelike type of gingerbread.

Remember this guy from my treacle post?

There were several types of gingerbread. It could be soft and delicately spiced, crisp and flat, or warm, thick dark squares of cakelike “bread” that was served with a pitcher of lemon sauce or whipped cream. The French made a yeasty spice bread called pain d’epices, with ginger, allspice or cloves, aniseed, and honey. The Italians made panforte, a dense candy-like gingerbread with nuts and dried fruit, shaped into loaves, and baked slowly. Panforte was mainly made commercially rather than at home and was a specialty of Siena. It was said, “during the seasonal baking just before Christmas, one could detect the mouth-watering, spicy fragrance from miles away” (Journal of Antiques and Collectables). The Germans made cookie board stamped gingerbread called lebkuchen and Dutch speculaas cookies were popular in Lowland countries and shaped like every day objects – windmills, farm animals, and farm men and women.

Speculaas

Figure cookie making can be traced back as far as the 16^th century in Europe. They were made using intaglio style molds (incised carving) rather than cookie cutters. Queen Elizabeth I enjoyed giving important visitors gingerbread likenesses of themselves cut into slabs of gingerbread using an intaglio cookie mold. Fine ladies at court would sometimes give gingerbread to their favorite knights in tournaments for luck. Gingerbread became so well liked that in 1598, Shakespeare mentioned it in his play Love’s Labour Lost: “An I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldst have it to buy ginger-bread…” (V.i)

Cookie boards, or molds.

With this upswing in popularity, gingerbread was easy to find in England. It was common to run across it at county fairs where it was considered fairground delicacies, and fairs were soon known as “Gingerbread Fairs.” At each fair there was at least one booth where the Gingerbread Woman would sell molded cookies, decorated with bright colors and gilt. The recipe she used probably resembled a medieval one of boiled honey, wine, breadcrumbs, and spices that created a thickened, cooked (not baked) dough. She would shape them into men, women, armor, suns, moons, flowers, birds, or other animals. Gingerbread and other treats bought at fairs were collectively called “fairings.”

Different cookie shapes were associated with different seasons. Buttons and flowers could be found at Easter fairs and animals and birds at autumn fairs. There was one village tradition in England that required unmarried women to eat gingerbread “husbands” at the fair if they wanted to meet a human husband.

The part they didn't tell you was if you didn't eat the gingerbread man, your husband would look like a gingerbread man.

Gingerbread fairs were a huge happening in Germany, where the flat, shaped gingerbread reigned supreme. You can still get shaped gingerbread at modern German autumn fairs, often hearts decorated with colored icing and tied with ribbons. They are usually inscribed with icing messages, for example “Alles was ich brauch bist du” (all I need is you) and “Du bist einfach super” (you’re really super), or simpler ones like “With Love!” and “For Friendship!”

This is what those lebkuchen hearts look like.

The French also had an annual Christmas gingerbread fair held in Paris. It lasted from the 11^th to the 19^th century and took place at an abbey that once stood on the site of the present St. Antoine Hospital. The monks cut their gingerbread into the shapes of pigs to reflect the suckling pig that was often a favorite Christmas dish. Gingerbread bakers in Belgium and Holland made huge gingerbread cookies imprinted by cookie boards to put in their windows as Christmas advertising. Several schools of mold carving were practiced there.

Pain d'epice pigs.

While the shaped gingerbread was fashionable at county fairs, cookie board gingerbread was the mainstay. The boards had become even larger and more extravagantly carved and the images changed in the 17^th and 18^th centuries because of secularization. They showed pictures of idealized lords and ladies, soldiers, castles, and floral and geometric patterns. There were also images of characters from well-known folktales and legends in Germany. One surviving 17^th century cookie board has an image of a sunburst on it to celebrate the winter solstice and lengthening of the day.

Pearwood gingerbread mold of the Virgin Mary and Jesus

Soon after bakers began cutting and decorating the delicious treat, gingerbread making became an actual profession. In 17^th century Germany and France, only professional gingerbread bakers were allowed to bake gingerbread. France’s gingerbread guild began in 1571 while Germany’s came into being in 1643 as a means of quality control and to remove competition. At first, this was fine because gingerbread ingredients were costly, but the prices dropped, they were more available to everyday people. Still, these everyday people weren’t permitted to make their own gingerbread, except on Easter and Christmas. The bakers of the German guild were called Lebkuchler.

One type of lebkuchen. These are delicious. Seriously, I ate one yesterday. It was great.

Nürnberg became known as “the gingerbread capitol of the world” in the 1600’s. Their guild employed master bakers as well as sculptors, painters, woodcarvers, and goldsmiths who all helped make gingerbreads into magnificent works of art. Artists helped decorate gingerbread with frosting, gold paint, or gilt and woodcarvers created beautiful molds to press into the dough. Master bakers used all kinds of spices in their gingerbreads, as many as they could fit, including cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, white pepper, anise, and (of course) ginger. The practice of highly spicing their gingerbread earned the bakers the nickname “pepper sacks.”

 Professional gingerbread baking was the job of males, as was carving the cookie boards. All the gingerbreads were made with honey, since there was an abundance of honey hives in forests surrounding Nürnberg. If there were no artisans available, wives and daughters served as decorators to “apply makeup” to the treats.

Decorated gingerbreads were often kept as decorations for the home, either on the wall or displayed in glass front cases. The quality of Nürnberg gingerbread was such that it could be used to pay city taxes and was considered a gift worthy of heads of state and royalty. Nürnberg also had the special Christkindlmarkt, a market featuring lebkuchen. The market is continues to be a popular event where you can buy all types of gingerbread, including the traditional imprinted ones. And in case you can’t get to the market, Saint Nicholas, who visits on the evening of December 5^th, will be sure to leave you gingerbread as a gift.

Gingerbread at Christkindlmarkt

Cookie board carving became a popular and respected art. Today, the molds are incredibly expensive and difficult to find, and most known ones are in museums. Some of the best-known areas of mold carving were Lyon, France; Nürnberg, Germany; Ulm, Germany; Toruń, Poland; Pesth, Hungary; and Prague, Czech Republic. The bread museums in Ulm and the Ethnographic Museum in Toruń have two of the largest mold collections in Europe.

Toruń gingerbread mold

Molds were a way to mass-produce designs. Master carvers were available, but as part of their training, gingerbread bakers had to learn to carve molds during their internships and as journeymen. Not all the bakers were great carvers, but they were able to replace molds or create new motifs depending on what was in style. Gingerbread dough was left to sit for two or three months to undergo an enzyme process so it became softer and almost rubbery, but was also dry and hard to handle. Strength was needed to work with the dough, and to properly transfer an image from a mold to the dough, it had to be “beaten out.” This meant the baker literally hit and punched the back of the wooden mold until the image was imprinted on the gingerbread.

Hanns Buel, a gingerbread baker in 1520

Bakers and journeymen made hundreds of cookies in one day. Once the cookies were printed, they were dried at low temperatures in an oven rather than baked in order to keep the image clean and not warp it. A lot of the large surviving molds are from the 19^th and 20^th centuries:

“One fascinating Dutch board in my collection shows the long life of these cookie forms in Europe. One side is covered with figures in traditional dress, and the other side, apparently carved in a more careless style by another artist at a later period, includes a car, bicycle and a hot air balloon among the more predictable rural references” (Journal of Antiques and Collectables)

 There were all kinds of motifs for gingerbread. The classical ones included hearts, babies, and riders. Other motifs had to do with Christmas or Easter. Christmas motifs were usually scenes from the Nativity and the Adoration of the Three Kings, as well as images for the feast of Adam and Eve on December 24^th. Bakers also made edible Christmas cards out of gingerbread.

Imprinted gingerbreads were used for important celebratory events such as weddings. When two noble families were combined, an “allied coat of arms” was carved into a mold and pressed into gingerbread and handed out to all the wedding guests. The bride was presented with gingerbreads with babies on them as a good luck charm. After all, the point of getting married was to have a bunch of kids immediately.

Wedding gingerbread.

Catholic motifs still included saints but also places of pilgrimage. It was more common to celebrate Name Days rather than birthdays, the day of the saint for whom the person was named. On that day, they were presented with a gingerbread with their patron saint on it. Those going on pilgrimages would carry gingerbreads with a depiction of the place they were visiting on it. This is still practiced today, only now the image is on paper rather than gingerbread. Molds made specifically with children’s images were available and included babies, riders, swords, pistols, trumpets, animals, and at the beginning of the school year, alphabets and school scenes.

Most of the molds were made in the baroque style, because molds were at their finest in the 1600s. However, they wore out so they had to be recopied, meaning that molds made 200 years later still had the same stylistic criteria as the original. The molds served sort of as a history book or newspaper. Images of emperors, empresses, kings, and queens were shown to the public on gingerbread as well as copperplate engravings. There are molds made of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria (Marie Antoinette’s sister who had a baby like immediately) or of Emperor Charles the Great (Ya know, Charlemagne who was actually a lion but was also a shape shifter and could be come a human too.)

I made that up.

I'm not even sure where I got the "lion" part from. Pretty sure I'm confusing several different rulers.

“There were pictures of the giraffe the Egyptian ruler Mehemed Ali gave to the Austrian emperor in 1828 and of the first steamship on the Danube, the Maria Anna, as well as a portrayal of the 1817 European famine that was actually a sociocritical parody of the exorbitant prices of grain. These images represented the big news of the day” (ENotes)

Gingerbread houses came into being in the early 1800’s in Germany, where they were called lebkuchenhäusle. Many claim that they were inspired by the story of Hansel and Gretel and the hexenhäusle (witch’s house) made of bread with a cake roof and barley windows, but there’s no actual proof. The fairytale could actually be based on something that already existed. In any case, after the Grimm brothers published their book in 1812, records of bakers making houses of lebkuchen started popping up. The gingerbread bakers used the same artists and craftsmen who helped them with their regular gingerbread to create elaborate houses to keep in their windows at Christmastime. By the end of the 19^th century, Hansel and Gretel and the gingerbread houses had become so popular that the composer Engelbert Humperdink (yes, that’s seriously his name) composed an opera based on the story.

Humperdink.

Also Humperdinck.

German immigrants, who are now known as the Pennsylvania Dutch, brought the tradition to Pennsylvania. Gingerbread houses were and still are very popular in America, but they were never big in England in the same way.

Speaking of America…

America was built on a foundation of lies! AND EAGLES!!

Gingerbread had come to America along with European settlers in colonial times and has been baked here for over 200 years. There were two types of gingerbread in America. There was the honey-based gingerbread with a middle European origin and molasses shortbreads developed in the 17^th century from England or Scotland. The soft gingerbread, or “light cakes,” an American adaptation of European gingerbreads, could easily be made by home bakers as a staple dessert, especially when chemical leavenings, such as saleratus, were introduced in the 17^th or 18^th century. Hard gingerbread was cheap, easy to make, and a small batch would yield plenty of cookies. It cooked well in both brick ovens and cook stoves and was pretty hard to ruin. Pre-Revolution gingerbread took the form of miniature kings, but post-independence, they took on shapes such as eagles.

Look, it's Serenity made out of gingerbread. FTW.

Americans tended to use fewer spices, but they also used ingredients that were only available locally. For example, maple syrup gingerbread was popular in New England and sorghum molasses was used in the south. The north and Midwest had an influx of northern and middle Europeans, who brought with them Scandinavian cookies like pepparkakor. Today, Midwestern wives will often have “coffee kolaches” (coffee mornings) where they get together, eat Scandinavian style gingerbreads, and drink coffee.

Pepparkakor.

New Englanders had rejected Christmas as a feast celebration in order to reestablish its religious principles. They continued to make gingerbread, imprinting them with molds (Master carver John Conger in New York made especially good carvings), but the association with the Christmas season vanished. Instead, around 1800, gingerbread became associated with New Year’s as a way to continue using them for celebration. Hard gingerbreads, mainly in Pennsylvania with the German immigrants, continued to be associated with Christmas. They were shaped into chubby men or Christmas “memmeli.” They would also cut out and decorate foot high cookies to stand in the windows of their homes, which were often gingerbread men and women iced with rows of buttons and big smiles.

This totally doesn't fit here, but this is Carl's house from UP in gingerbread form. Brb, crying because any reference to that movie makes me cry.

In the 19^th century, the use of molds began to disappear. Cookie cutters were coming into fashion, which focused more on the form of the cookie rather than on the image on the surface. One of the first forms of cookie cutting was an English method of cutting the dough with a glass or teacup, making ginger biscuits.

In Victorian times, England and America began embracing the German Christmas traditions again, largely in thanks to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Traditions like the Christmas tree, Yule logs, and mistletoe resurfaced. Santa got a makeover when Thomas Nast, a famous 19^th century cartoonist, created our modern image of Santa based on the Father Christmas figure of the Lowlands. The tin industry began manufacturing primitive cookie cutters to go along with the rekindling of Christmas and the PA Dutch designed some of the cookie cutter shapes that are still used today.

People began baking shaped gingerbread cookies in mass amounts for decorations, holiday platters, and stockings. Early American cookies were referred to as “cakes.” The cookies were in the form of stars, moons, suns, boy’s and girl’s toys, animals, humans, and the newly evolved Santa Claus. In an 1868 issue of the New York True Democrat, a writer said “Cakes of various forms and quality droop from the different limbs, birds of paradise, humming birds, robins, peewees, and a variety of others seem to twitter among the evergreens” (Journal of Antiques and Collectables). In the late 19^th century, images of the commercial Christmas were becoming popular. There were wreaths, stars, Santas, elves, stockings, snowmen, trees, sleds, and Christmas toys. Everyone wanted a cookie cutter that was different from everyone else’s, so they would go directly to tin smiths to request shapes. Gingerbread houses began gracing the windows of bakeries everywhere.

Just a simple gingerbread house, no big deal.

Gingerbread has also been part of American presidential campaigning since the time of Abraham Lincoln:

“All Gingerbread Men Are Created Equal: The folksy childhood anecdote has been a mainstay of presidential campaigning since at least Abraham Lincoln. During a debate, Lincoln told a story about sharing a gingerbread man with a poor neighbor friend, who then remarked, “I don’t s’pose anybody on earth likes gingerbread better’n I do and gets less’n I do.” (http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2011/02/thomas-jeffersons-maple-sugar-love-and-more-presidential-food-facts/)

From Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cook Book.

All over the world today, gingerbread is very clearly connected to Christmas. It can range from the soft, cakey kind to the shaped, crisp kind. Countries still have all their own varieties. In the north of England there is parkin, a gingerbread made with oatmeal and treacle, as well as gingerbread made with treacle or golden syrup and brown sugar; in America, it’s hard and soft gingerbreads made with molasses; in Germany, it’s still lebkuchen, made with honey; in Scandinavia there are pepparkakors, thin brittle biscuits associated with Christmas, that are also used as window decorations; and in Russia, the most famous gingerbreads come from Tula, Vyazma, and Gorodets.

Tula gingerbread.

Gingerbread doesn’t have the same popularity in England as it does in Germany and America. Up until the 19^th century, gingerbread makers would peddle their wares in the streets of London and could be heard all over the place. By 1951, the tradition had all but disappeared, as noted by the writer Henry Mayhew: “there are only two men in London who make their own gingerbread nuts for sale in the streets.” Gingerbread nuts were round, flat biscuits of gingerbread.

Gingernuts.

In America, cookie boards have been abandoned in favor of cookie cutters. The closest gingerbread you’ll get to cookie board gingerbread is the Dutch windmill cookies, speculaas. They used to be available in grocery stores, but seem to have slowly disappeared from the shelves.

Commercial Christmas gingerbread really began to blow up in the 1950s when department stores created elaborate Christmas scenes to bring people into the store. The scent of gingerbread was especially effective. One of the most expensive was done in the 1960’s at Famous-Barr, a department store in St. Louis. The store had a full scale Victorian home in the building with the scents of gingerbread wafting from the kitchen. It cost $250,000. Today, companies have taken it one step farther. You can get gingerbread-scented body wash and shampoo, gingerbread scented mascara, and gingerbread scented dog shampoo. Your dog and eyelashes will smell delicious.

A French street with dog-themed houses and businesses by Rebecca Masson.

Making gingerbread houses with family has become an American Christmas pastime. Premade gingerbread house kits are available nearly everywhere, but all the houses look the same. Way back when, gingerbread houses were all designed by hand, but it took a lot of time and patience and gingerbread is tricky to work with so the practice was abandoned. However, now bakers and artists alike are getting involved in gingerbread house competitions where the point really is to make the most fantastic, hand-cut gingerbread houses around.

No big deal.

And then there’s this guy:

Oh, and I have to show you this as well.

I won’t lie, I love Gingy.

Keep eating and asking, my friends.

Esther

Bibliography:

-Ayto, John. “Gingerbread.” An A to Z of Food and Drink. New ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. 142. Print.

-Bensen, Amanda. “A Brief History of Gingerbread | Food & Think.” Blogs   |  From Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian Media, 24 Dec. 2008. Web. 21 Dec. 2011. <http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2008/12/a-brief-history-of-gingerbread/>.

-Bowler, G. Q.. “Gingerbread.” The World Encyclopedia of Christmas. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2000. 93. Print.

-Dorfman, Marjorie. “food humor Gingerbread Throughout History.” humor food cooking dining Eat, Drink and Really Be Merry. Eat, Drink and Really Be Merry, n.d. Web. 21 Dec. 2011. <http://www.ingestandimbibe.com/Articles/ginger.html>.

-Fallgatter, Tara. “A Taste of Cyberspace.” WWWiz Magazine. WWWiz Magazine, n.d. Web. 21 Dec. 2011. <http://wwwiz.com/issue04/wiz_d04.html>.

-”Gingerbread History.” Bakersfield Christmas Parade | The Joys of Christmas. Bakersfield Christmas Parade, 5 May 2011. Web. 21 Dec. 2011. <http://bcparade.com/gingerbread-history/>.

-”History of Gingerbread – Ultimate Gingerbread.” Ultimate Gingerbread – Ultimate Gingerbread. Ultimate Gingerbread, n.d. Web. 20 Dec. 2011. <http://www.ultimategingerbread.com/gingerbreadhistory.html>.

-Härandner, Edith. ” Gingerbread – eNotes.com.” eNotes – Literature Study Guides, Lesson Plans, and More.. Gale Cengage, n.d. Web. 21 Dec. 2011. <http://www.enotes.com/gingerbread-reference/gingerbread>.

-Marling, Karal Ann. “Window Shopping.” Merry Christmas!: Celebrating America’s Greatest Holiday. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000. 98. Print.

-Olver, Lynn. “The  Food Timeline–Christmas food history.”   Food Timeline: food history & vintage recipes . Lynne Olver, n.d. Web. 20 Dec. 2011. <http://www.foodtimeline.org/christmasfood.html#gingerbread>.

-Ross, Alice. “  A   Gingerbread   Tradition,   Hearth   to   Hearth   Article,   JOA&C   December   2000   Issue.” The Journal of Antiques and Collectibles. A Journal of Antiques and Collectibles, n.d. Web. 20 Dec. 2011. <http://www.journalofantiques.com/hearthdec.htm>.

-”What is the History of Gingerbread?.” wiseGEEK: clear answers for common questions. Conjecture Corporation, n.d. Web. 21 Dec. 2011. <http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-history-of-gingerbread.htm>.

-Wilson, C. Anne. “Breads, cakes and pastry; Spices, sweeteners, sausages and puddings.” Food & Drink in Britain: from the Stone Age to the 19th Century. Chicago: Academy Chicago Publishers, 2003. 247, 264, 301, 305. Print.