Christmas food is definitely different, there are lots of things that we eat which hardly (if ever) make it onto our menus at other times of the year, from cranberry sauce to the (some say) dreaded Brussels sprout. But for me it’s the massive influence North African and Middle Eastern cuisine has on our Christmas fare that is the most interesting part of the experience, like the original Father Christmas St. Nicholas who hailed from that region.
If you have ever made a Christmas pudding you may have noticed that during the early stages of putting the ingredients together it smells strangely like when you start off a tagine in the pan but bar the onions of course! It’s the use of spices like cinnamon and ginger which come from the North African region that take over Christmas and have become an essential part of British cooking not really being used outside of desserts at any other time of the year.
Take the humble mince pie. The origins of this well loved Christmas treat come directly from Morocco, the mince meat that we put into them did in fact many years ago actually contain meat! Now meat wrapped in pasty sprinkled with sugar and spice on top is the classic Moroccan Pastilla, so we have taken this directly and over time it has been adjusted to the fruit filling we know today. Many people don’t realise that the meat was still hanging on in there for years as shredded beef suet was used in our mince meat until very recently.
This influence not unsurprisingly appears to have made it to our shores during the crusades and perhaps bringing back these exotic spices and recipes from the Holy Land made total sense to fit with Christmas, and the mince pie is our prime example. For centuries we in the UK did use many of these spices all year round and as well as being status symbols, some say they were important in covering the flavour from not so fresh food. Now this would make them a perfect fit for mid winter when the foods harvested would now not be at there best.
Because of the time of year preserved foods are therefore a big part of Christmas, but not just traditional British styles of perseveration, for example candied peel which is an ingredient in both mince pie and Christmas pudding is of Arab origin. There is also the pickled walnut which only ever gets an outing at Christmas, interestingly the “English” walnuts used originated from Persia.
In recent years here in the UK we have picked up more from Europe to add to our Christmas 20-30 years ago it would have been hard to find the German Stollen bread or an Italian Panettone but now you can find them in almost every supermarket. As the popularity of the German Christmas market has now spread up and down the country, I wonder what new treats are in store for our Christmas future?
One of the great things we British do is take foods from around the world and make them part of our own tradition, and although we still may pick up some Christmas foodstuff from other regions of the world I am sure those old traditions from the east just like the three wise men will be part of our Christmas forever.
Do you know the secret past of a Christmas staple? Our fancy predicting where from or what could be a future Christmas food? Please comment below!
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They don’t taste the same without the suet… 🙁
@SarahArrow It’s true, the sweetness and acidity of the filling is to cut through the richness of the meat/suet so without it there is something missing…