When we think long about the Christmas season, at least in the English-speaking world, the works of Charles Dickens come to mind. Of course, the main causes are: christmas carola novella that revived the public holiday culture that had declined by the mid-19th century. Whatever its literary shortcomings, this book provides many memorable images, especially those related to cooking. For example, Dickens likens Mrs. Cratchit’s pudding to “a speckled cannonball, very hard and solid, flaming in half or half or a quarter of lighted brandy, with a piece of Christmas holly resting on top.”
in History of tasting In the video at the top of this post, host Max Miller shows you how to make just such a holiday pudding. It’s actually a fig pudding. This candy is one that everyone knows by name, even if we don’t know it, with carols as standard as “We Wish You A Merry Christmas.” puddingin the Victorian sense, refers to a type of cake.
Miller’s original 1845 recipe for fig pudding looks and tastes similar to the alcohol-soaked version of the fruitcake that many of us still receive at Christmas. Despite its reputation as leadenly undesirable, reinforced by decades of Johnny Carson gags, fruitcake has a rich history, which Miller makes clear in the video above, with culinary merits that extend beyond its extreme shelf life.
A playlist of 20 Christmas-themed videos offers even more such fun: turkish delightFor example, Victorian sugar plums, medieval gingerbread, and as well as historical versions of comfort and pleasure that are still common today. eggnog and pumpkin pie. And if you’ve ever wondered, Wassail — as a noun or verb — to actually refer to. video aboveIn , Miller explains everything as he makes a pot of ingredients, which turns out to be some kind of applesauce-fortified ale. Wassail is also a favorite Dickens reference. christmas carol. his first novel pickwick papers The work includes a Christmas feast in which “there was a huge bowl of wassail, smaller than the copper of an ordinary washroom, in which the hot apples hissed and bubbled with a rich expression, making a merry sound, which was thoroughly charming.” Such images are the kind that, almost two centuries later, still make readers want to go to Wasail.
Related content:
Eudora Welty’s Handwritten Eggnog Recipe and Charles Dickens’ Holiday Punch Recipe
Try this Christmas pudding recipe from George Orwell’s essay ‘British Cooking’ (1945).
Charles Mingus’s ‘secret’ eggnog recipe contains ‘enough alcohol to kill an elephant’
How eating Kentucky Fried Chicken became a Christmas tradition in Japan
History of tasting: A popular YouTube series that shows you how to make dishes from Ancient Greece and Rome, Medieval Europe, and other places and eras.
Based in Seoul, Colin Mbemust write and broadcastIt’s about cities, languages ​​and cultures. His projects include the Substack newsletter books about cities and a book Stateless City: A Stroll Through Los Angeles in the 21st Century. Follow him on the social network formerly known as Twitter. @Colinbemust.
Source: Open Culture – www.openculture.com
