San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-12-27
CHRISTMAS FEASTS.
OLD TIME DINNERS OF AMAZING PRO-
PORTIONS.

Poor.
1t is almost impossible to say when
the custom began of celebrating Christ
mas with sumptuous feast Ii is GER
tain, however, that the observance has
never lapsed since English history be-
gan. Whistlecraft, writer who delved
deeply among the traditions and records
of the reign of King Arthur of the
Round Table, describes the Christmas
dinner of that day in verse:
They served up salmon, venison and wild
boars
BY hundreds and by dozens and by scores
Hogsheads of honey, kilderkins of mustard,
Muttons and fatted beeves and bacon swine.
Herons and bitterns peacock. swans and bus
tard,
Teal, mallard pigeons widgeons and in fine,
Plum buildings, pancakes, apple pies and Gus
tard.
And therewithal they drank good Gascon wine,
With mead and ale ind cider of our own,
For porter, punch and negus were not known.
This bill of fare is doubtless more
poetic than accurate, yet it is not far
out of the way. One notable omission
is that of the wassail bowl, for wassail,
though it was drink of the ancient
Druids of the third century and prob
ably earlier, was for many hundred
years favorite British drink and came
to be distinctive feature of Christmas
feasts 1t was first made of ale, or what
was then considered ale, sweetened with
something that did duty for the more
modern sugar Just what that was is
today unknown, but it was sweet Then
there was toast, and there were roasted
crabs, put kissing hot into the bowl-a
queer drink, but such as it was 1t was
liked
As time went by the recipe was va
ried till, perhaps 1000 years or so
later, the wassail bowl was filled with
wine, we'll warmed and spiced, with
toasted bread and roasted apples. If
wine were not obtainable, ale was used,
but the apples were deemed indispensa-
BILE and really seem to have been an
Improvement ON crabs. Doubtless it
was the white pulp of the apples that
gave wassail its nickname of lambs
wool, ;" and it was therefore an anach-
ronism that crept into the account Of
King Arthur's feast when the boy with
the mantle cast spell over the table,
for it is told that on that occasion only
one knight found his sword sharp
enough to carve the boars head or his
hand steady enough to lift the lambs
wool without splitting it
1t will be noticed that King Arthur
had neither turkeys nor geese, though
both of them are now distinctive fea-
lures of the Christmas feast. The tur-
key was not taken to England from
the east till the sixteenth century, and,
though the goose was known before, his
gastronomic value seems not to have
been discovered.
But if Arthur's feast seems gargan-
tuan it was frugal repast compared
with those that came later. Gervase
Markham describes moderate din
ner" of about A. d. 1900 that would
answer for Christmas in the following
amazing way:
1.-THE first course should consist of 16
full dishes-that is, dishes of meat that
are of substance and not empty or for
show-as thus, for example: First,
shield of braun with mustard; second
ly, a boyl'd capon; thirdly, boyl'd
piece of beef; fourthly, a chine of beef
rosted; filthy, meats tongue rosted;
sixthly, pig rosted; seventhly, chew
cts baked; eighthly, a goose rosted;
ninthly, swan rosted; tenthly, a tur-
key rested; the eleventh, haunch of
venison rosted; the twelfth, pasty of
venison; the thirteenth, kid with
pudding in the belly; the fourteenth,
an olive-pye; the fifteenth, couple of
capons; the sixteenth, custard or dow
SETS. Now, to these full dishes may be
added sallets fricases, quelque chooses
and devised paste, as many dishes more,
which make the full service no less
than two and thirty dishes, which is as
much as can conveniently stand ON one
table and in one mess. And after this
manner you may proportion both your
second and third courses, holding full
ness on one half of the dishes and show
in the other, which will be both frugal
in the splendour, contentment to the
guest and much pleasure and delight to
the beholder.
Surely moderate dinner like that
would make lord mayors banquet
seem stingy, yet there is ample evidence
that such feasts We're not uncommon
lin that elder day" Not every one,
however, set such table, even when he
could afford it, for Pepys records din
ner given to the poor by Sir George
Downing one Christmas at which moth
ing was served but beef, porridge, pud-
ding and pork 1t may have been better
than the recipients usually had for
everyday fare, but they voted it mean
entertainment for Christmas.
The boar's head, as is we'll known.
was for hundreds of years the piece de
resistance of every well regulated Brit
ish Christmas feast, and it has been
held by some writers that it became the
favorite because of a general desire to
protest against the Jewish prohibition
of pork. A more probable reason is that
the boar was the fiercest of all the wild
beasts of the country, and killing him
Il L. Il