New-York tribune., 1907-12-15
CHRISTMAS STUFFJNG
What They Used to Eat in the So,,.,
and Still LiUed.

Copyright. 1907. by Doubleday Pax.
VI. Ber'heiot. an eminent French chsn..
0alu tidt ne coud toresee the time when m. 80
supply OF the world would be manuf.ct,,.n us rood
thetically. IL would be prepared in a r syn
densed that We might eat a fun rnsar ~ - - con
swallowing small tablet. The cook.s o"y "eley
would be gone. She would have N 1pdron .o.'
he'ds IN which to assert her independent. N,
exercise her skill and
With all due respect to NJ Berthslo,
prophetic vision. know that his drea- -' nc MS
be realized Imagine the Christmas aipns, ~eser
future-"Wtll you have Of these trrLos ens
notwithstanding tablets? Or perhaps Won Wit. Wit
the little dark brown pellets. roast Dig wiz,
sauce" M apple
No. thanks, I would rather So. ons
roasted turkey. surrounded by all the e o's
than eat d whole tray OF assorted food -,
though they contain the essence Of every s.,,"7 S
from English plum pudding to baked aamrrs..s,
tongues eoes
Somehow. though. T am afraid W. ar.
oU- grip on the old-fashioned Christmas. va -.
take the trouble to make il the great ,.,.. a
of the year that il to our grandnara,,s ~
I speaking Of this 70 a Southern lad, :,
other day-one whose memories go back 10 th
haIcyon days of the SOS. Christmas sba ...
AN old-fasEioned Christmas. You FOLKS -
mighty little about il. because up to the u,- e.,
Christmas lived down South II was thor. a. =
days of days. Oh. may have missed thu &c.,
of tive were not the least bit transcenda,+.I
but my, had the smells and the tastes ., a,
Never was. never will be such good eating sz.t
and the things nearly a good to Iook AZ -
eat. though we had not even heard Of o-rhys,
and never put a yard of ribbon on our 4,nI-
What we did put there the best Wa had =,
everything-Iinen, china, silver, glass And ,h.
dinner itself took up much room there was nons
left for decorations pure and simple But at des
sert we came out strong-served our fruit orr
oranges. apples and occasionally malaga cranes
we called them Sicily grapes'-in tall openvor.
china bowls. white with gilt bands. Nuts cam. on
the table in WedgwOOd boats our sweet homo
made wine in gold sprigged glasses our figs and
raisins in the finest glass dishes could muster
All together they made brave showing But the
Christmasiest thing of all the egg nogz II
was full mans size-but nobody sighted II 1t
began Christmas. in fact-about 4 O'Clock In TIE
morning
We had turkey. OF course. but no cranbsrris4
Why should be bother with them when telIisd
apples were 50 much better and prettier?
We had cake pans in those days. be sure
but never enough for the Christmas baking II
was a liberal education just 70 taste one O.,
Mamn1y's oven pound cakes. They were baked
between live Goals. with onIy a creased paper be-
TWEEN them and the iron. but they out the
richest brown. innocent Of -corches and sad
streaks. even if they were six inches thick and
sixteen across Fine grained and light as feather
and so good you felt like crying when you real
lied YOU couldn't eat any more
Nanny made batter puddings-but on suffer
ance What she reveIled in was cheesecake-though
she was fairly well affected toward potato
clIstard. She would have been perfectly happy in
cooking if only she had been able somehow. some
way. TO grease butter and sweeten sugar. T hates
desc we're vlctuals whar yer hab ter waar out
yo' tongue tryin' ter find de tase.' she used to
say.
Along with them went fried pIas-made Of sun
dried peaches. slowly stewed until very soft.
mashed sweetc1ea literally. then spread half over
rounds of efustrs<the unspread half turned over
and pfnched = The pie popped into boiling hot
fat. In two ..s u As it was turned 10 brown tpe
other side Ped was good Christmas fry-
tng-and s-. ne - before New Year Our doctor
boasted ps Pc lots = good fetils. Re soud cal
we Ia,E ~ coffee WITH our esEs md sweet
wine afio - -;,as,,,ls- ia tit,aI cheese had
been CT -, ,eebs before. ssst. > ston> jars and
dosed - with good ',sfspd' Z ~ TO -SrT
in a ,S ,oeralS n,.cs Yer afte- r-.ea esrns and
drnk ,,' !, was nothi<s TO ga % >s1 niles dans'
from 60, davbrsap--snd e7ne asI--'s fTesh as a
rose s,1Ivvess<ir, in Cory Life IN
America