The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1879-12-26
The Christmas Dinner.

SOME OF ITS FAMOUS DISHES IN THE oLDEN
TIME.
A Christmas dinner in the olden time was
very different affair from that of our day
The dish which ruled the roast ON every
board in feudal times was the boar's head
Borne on platter of gold and silver and gar
nished with bay, it was proudly carried, while
trumpets blew and MINISTRIES sang their mer-
ry strains, by the sewer into the banqueting
hall followed by noble procession of titled
lords and ladies'.
Mustard was an indispensable accompani-
ment to the dish. Says an old rhyme
Sweet rosemary and bays around it spread;
His foaming tusks with some large pippin
graced,
Or midst those laundering spears an orange
placed,
Sauce, like himself, offensive to his foes,
The roguish mustard, dangerous to the nose"
When Parliament, in the time of the Com
mon wealth, undertook to put down the
Christmas celebration, the boar's head ceased
TO decorate the Christmas table, With it,
too, has gone out of fashion dish then al
most equally famous-that of roast peacock.
This was esteemed great delicacy, the "food
for lovers and meat for lords" and great care
was taken in its preparation. The fowl was
never picked, but the skin stripped off with
the plumage. 1t was then stuffed with sweet
herbs and spice, basted with yolks of egg and
dressed. When properly done and sufficient
ly cooled, it was tightly sewn up in its own
skin and feathers, the whole body sometimes
being covered with gold-leaf; and then a
piece of cotton having been placed in its beak
saturated with spirits and ignited, it was sent
to table. We can easily believe that it re-
quired considerable skill on the part of the
carver to handle it. Three fat wethers, we
are told, were sometimes praised to make
enough gravy for a single peacock. 1t was
generally reserved for ladies of quality to
bear the dish to the table, and over it knight
Grants used to VOW the most desperate feats
ofgallantry. The mincc pie, known at first
as the shred or Christmas pie, is probably at
mutton-pie, but it was not the less toothsome
on that account if we may judge by the old
rhyme beginning
Come guard the Christmas pie,
That the thief, though ne'er so sly.
With his flesh hooks don't come nigh
To catch 1t,
From him who all alone sits here,
Having his eyes still in his ear
And deal of mighty fear
To watch It,"
1t is curious fact that while the Puritans
in England made common cause against
Christmas and all its goodly proyender, in
New England they grated on their "Thanks
giving day" the genuine pie. They had re-
| Taxed little from the stern creed of Crom
| wells time when
1.-THE high-shoe lords of Cromwels making,
Were not for dainties- roasting, baking;
The chiefest food they found most good in
Was rusty bacon and bag pudding.
Plum broth was poppsh and mince pie
o, that was fiat idolatry."
The plum broth above alluded to was at
one time thought quite as indispensable as
plum pudding, and it formed one of the regu
lar courses until the beginning of the present
century. Plum pudding dates from the mid
die of the seventeenth century, but its pro
genitor, plum pottage, was staple Christ
mas dish long before. Its ingredients were
mutton or beef, boiled with broth; raisins
currants, prunes, cloves, mace and ginger
1t is worthy of remark that this mess, as late
plum buildings, was served with the meats
instead of as dessert