Copyright, 1951 by Katherine Burton and Helmut Ripperger
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this
book, or portions thereof, in any form, except for the
inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
Designed by
ALANSON HEWES
CONTENTS
Introduction
JANUARY
1 New Year's Day
2 Feast of Saint Macarius
Handsel Monday
6 Epiphany or Twelfth Day
15 Feast of Saint Paul the Hermit
21 Feast of Saint Agnes
FEBRUARY
1 Feast of Saint Bridget
2 Candlemas Day or Feast of the Purification
3 Feast of Saint Blaise
Pre-Lenten Festivals
Collop Monday
Shrove Tuesday
Ash Wednesday
14 Feast of Saint Valentine
MARCH
1 Feast of Saint David
17 Feast of Saint Patrick
19 Feast of Saint Joseph
21 Feast of Saint Benedict
25 Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Laetare or Mothering Sunday
Passion Sunday, also called Carling Sunday
Palm Sunday
Maundy Thursday
Good Friday
APRIL
1 Feast of Saint Hugh of Grenoble
Holy Saturday
Easter Sunday--Feast of the Resurrection
23 Feast of Saint George
25 Feast of Saint Mark
30 Saint Walburga's Eve
MAY
1 May Day
Ascension Thursday
19 Feast of Saint Ives
Pentecost or Whitsunday
JUNE
8 Feast of Saint Medard
9 Feast of Saint Columba
13 Feast of Saint Anthony
24 Feast of Saint John the Baptist
29 Feast of Saint Peter
JULY
4 Independence Day
15 Saint Swithin's Day
16 Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
25 Feast of Saint James the Apostle
26 Feast of Saint Anne
29 Feast of Saint Martha
AUGUST
1 Lammas Day--Feast of Saint Peter in Chains
6 Feast of the Transfiguration
10 Feast of Saint Lawrence
15 Assumption Day
16 Feast of Saint Roch
20 Feast of Saint Stephen of Hungary
24 Saint Bartholomew's Day
25 Feast of Saint Louis of France
SEPTEMBER
1 Feast of Saint Giles
24 Schwenkfelder Thanksgiving
29 Michaelmas Day
OCTOBER
4 Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi
25 Feast of Saints Crispin and Crispinian
28 Feast of Saints Simon and Jude
31 All Hallows' Eve
NOVEMBER
1 All Saints' Day
2 All Souls' Day
3 Feast of Saint Hubert
11 Feast of Saint Martin of Tours
23 Feast of Saint Clement
Thanksgiving Day
30 Feast of Saint Andrew
DECEMBER
6 Feast of Saint Nicholas
7 Feast of Saint Ambrose
24 Christmas Eve
25 Christmas Day
31 New Year's Eve
Table of Movable Feasts
Sources
Index of Names and Places
Index of Food and Recipes
INTRODUCTION
THE CELEBRATIONS surrounding festival days are a definite
part of our Christian tradition. "We have received these
days by tradition from our forefathers," says Saint
Augustine, "and we transmit them to those that follow to be
celebrated with like devotion."
Saint Augustine refers, of course, mainly to the religious
observance of feast days, but the custom of gathering
together for a meal after the ceremonies and the
processions, the prayers and the devotions, of offering
thanksgiving for divine favors and sharing the warmth of
home and hearth in the name of God is in the ancient and
honorable usage of centuries. It would be impossible to find
a land where there is no such celebration of holy days,
where families and friends do not gather to honor events in
the life of Our Lord, such as His birth at Christmas or His
Resurrection at Easter, or feasts of the Blessed Virgin or
the saints in heaven. And in many countries the homeless and
the stranger are bidden to the holiday board, or a portion
of food is set aside for the poor and the needy, later to be
taken to them.
The meals prepared in every land on these occasions include
traditional dishes, made from recipes handed down for
generations, and sometimes the entire meal is prescribed by
custom, often its least detail being symbolic in meaning.
For example, in Poland the Christmas Eve meal or "Wigilia"
is strictly ordered--in setting, in number of courses and
dishes, and in the kinds and mixtures of food. The same is
true of the Polish Easter "Swiecone," or Blessed Meal; and
similar customs prevail on these days in other Slavic
countries. In France we have the traditional "Reveillon
after Midnight Mass on Christmas, and in Italy the "Cenone,"
or Christmas Eve supper.
Again, the food for a festal day or season may be very
simple. There are traditions concerning fasting as well as
feasting, and for certain days only one time-honored or
appropriate dish is known.
It is interesting to note how many of the recipes for
special occasions have to do with bread and cakes. This
comes from the universal reverence for bread as the basic
food of mankind. For example in Hungary, the sign of the
Cross is made over the loaf of newly baked bread before it
is touched, and all members of the household stand as the
first piece is cut by the head of the family. Should a bit
of bread drop to the floor and someone step upon it, that
person must pick it up and kiss it.
Breads and cakes and cookies--the Russian Easter "Koulich,"
the Good Friday Hot Cross Bun of England, the Christmas
"Lebkuchen" of Germany, the Shrove Tuesday pancakes and
doughnuts of many countries--their recipes are legion. We
have included many of these, but there are hundreds of
others which space does not permit, so many in fact that one
large volume could be devoted to them alone.
It must be borne in mind that some Christian festival
observances spring from former pagan feasts, for which the
primitive Church found a counterpart to draw the people from
other allegiances to its own. Pagan feasts in honor of the
earth, the coming of spring, the reaping of the harvest,
were given a Christian connotation; the ancient fire and
water worship of pagan times became the blessing of water
and the lighting of fires in Christian worship. Even the old
names have often remained in certain languages: in English
the word Easter is from the name of the Anglo-Saxon goddess
Oestre, and Lent comes from the Anglo-Saxon word "Lencten,"
meaning spring. Once the goddess Flora was honored in May;
today for Christians this is the month of the Blessed
Virgin. Easter eggs and Christmas trees go far back into
antiquity--the tree perhaps to Druid days, the colored eggs
to ancient Persia and Egypt.
The barbaric and cruel practices that marked many of the
pagan observances have gone, but some superstitious elements
remain, and in many countries have been added to by folklore
and customs of peasant and local origin. Because of their
intrinsic interest we have noted many of these local customs
in reference to diversions and food. We have included too
some almost forgotten Christian feast days once of great
importance, as Michaelmas, Martinmas, and Lammas Day. Then
also we have given dishes traditional to the feasts of, or
suggested by incidents in the lives of the saints, as well
as well-known national dishes of a country, eaten on its
patronal feast, as Saint George's Day in England, Saint
Andrew's in Scotland, Saint David's in Wales. The reader
will note that we have even permitted ourselves an
occasional pleasantry, such as Fruit Cobbler on the feast of
the patron of shoemakers, or Lost Bread on the feast of
Saint Anthony. We assure him that our aim was not to shock
but to divert.
With the exception of the American Independence Day and
Thanksgiving, we have treated only the feast days of the
Church. Many of these have been omitted either because they
did not lend themselves to traditions in the matter of food,
or because any such collection as this must necessarily stop
somewhere. We are ourselves most keenly aware of its
limitations and many omissions.
Perhaps we should add that we are also aware the liturgical
year begins with Advent, but that for the convenience of all
we have followed the usual calendar, beginning with January
1st. And as some may question our placing of a movable
feast, such as Whitsunday, Shrove Tuesday, or Easter, in a
given month, we may explain that we have listed these only
approximately where they occur and have included a Table of
Movable Feasts at the end of this book so that the reader
may find the exact dates of these feasts for a good many
years to come.
It may also be well to add a reminder that the feasts of the
Eastern Orthodox Church follow the Julian calendar and not
our own, the Gregorian. Thus when we speak in our book of
the Russian Easter on the same date as that celebrated in
the West, we refer to the celebration rather than to the
date.
In some countries today the observance of Christian feasts
is forbidden. We remember that it has been forbidden before,
as the Puritans once forbade in our own country the
celebration of Christmas. The feast days flourish again as
time passes; the roots are alive; the plants will bud and
bloom once more. Therefore we do not speak of these customs
as in the past, but merely as temporarily interrupted--
perhaps not always entirely interrupted. Did our newspapers
not carry but recently the account of crowds in Russia
flocking into churches and cathedrals, bringing their Easter
food to be blessed?...
And now, a word about the recipes themselves. They have been
gathered from the four corners of the earth and, in point of
time, several go back to the biblical era, while others
range through the centuries down to modern times. We have
not attempted to standardize them in any way, preferring to
keep the flavor of their original compilation. However, as
given here, all of them are practical and adapted to present
day cookery. A possible exception is Scripture Cake, but
even this can be successfully made by anyone having a
practical knowledge of baking. And finally, these recipes
can be used not only for feast days, but for every day.
Recalling that seventeen hundred years ago, the Greek author
Athenaeus wrote, "A change of meat is often good, and those
who are wearied of common food take new pleasure in a novel
meal," we offer them as a refreshing change from routine
meals and for the delectation as well as interest of both
cook and diner.
It is always a pleasant task to acknowledge indebtedness for
favors and inspiration received. Obviously the authors of
this book cannot single out each and every one who has shown
interest in its preparation by giving practical and helpful
aid and advice. A selected check list of reference material
for further reading will be found at the end of the book, in
which we acknowledge many of the sources of our information.
However, we do wish to express our particular gratitude to
Mrs. F. Dodd McHugh and the Sisters of the Holy Family of
Nazareth, Torresdale, Pennsylvania, for information on
Polish feast day customs and recipes; to Dr. Lili Gonde for
data included in the French sections of the book; and to the
Reverend Claiborne Lafferty of the North American College in
Rome for a useful list of Italian festival dishes; to Mrs.
Marian Tracy, and to the Bronxville Public Library.
And a lion's share of appreciation and thanks should go to
the New York Public Library. It would be simple to set down
the names of the various heads of departments who have given
so generously of their time, but we feel that to do so
adequately and fairly, we should rightly commence the list
with the names of the Messers Astor, Lenox, and Tilden.
However, we feel that the "heads" have often been given
their due praise in print in the past. We would like to
thank here the hundreds who through the years have prepared
the millions of cards that make up the general catalogue of
the Library; the patient attendants who took and safely
forwarded the many call slips we made out day after day in
the course of our research; the unseen and unknown (to us,
at least) workers in the underground stacks, who found the
books we asked for; and, finally, the pages who so swiftly
sought us out and brought the needed treasures to us.
August 10. 1951 K. B.
H. R.
January 1: New Year's Day
FAR BACK in time goes the celebration of the first day of
the New Year, back to the time of the Druids, when priests
brought from the sacred wood mistletoe boughs to distribute
to the people. In ancient Rome sacrifices were offered to
Janus, the god for whom the month was named--a god with two
faces, looking both into the past and into the future.
Presents were exchanged on this day, and in time these
became very elaborate indeed. Christian emperors allowed the
pleasant custom to continue, but so many idolatrous rites
remained attached to the celebration that at last the Church
prohibited its members from observing it in any way.
Then when, some centuries later December 25th was fixed upon
as the day of the Nativity of Christ, the first of January
became a Christian feast day in honor of the Circumcision of
Our Lord. But secular customs in connection with the
beginning of the New Year continued to overshadow in many
places the religious observance of the feast, and much
revelry was connected with it. The Middle Ages eagerly
seized upon any event that afforded a reasonable excuse for
a banquet or feasting--coronations, great victories, and
Church festivals. When on "Newyere Daie" in medieval England
the country folk after copious repasts drank each other's
health in cups of wassail, they afterwards went out to the
orchards and "wassailed the trees."
Grate a little nutmeg and some ginger root over one pound of
sugar and add one quart of the beer. Add the sherry and the
lemon slices and finally the rest of the beer. Stir, taste,
and add more sugar if necessary. Serve in a bowl and float
the toast on top.
In England the celebration has always been elaborate and
various cakes were made especially for this day. First among
them came the seed cake, but the "god cakes" of Coventry
were also very popular. These last were of all sizes, some
so small they sold for a penny and some so large they sold
for a pound, and they were not really cakes at all, but a
sort of tart with a filling and cut in a triangle. At St.
Albans cakes were made in the form of a woman and were
called locally "pope ladies," but neither legend nor history
tell why.
God Cakes
1/4 cup butter 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup sugar 1/4 teaspoon allspice
3/4 cup currants puff paste or pie dough
1/3 cup lemon peel
Mix the butter and sugar thoroughly, and add the currants,
lemon peel, and spices. Heat in a double boiler for a few
minutes and then allow the filling to cool before using.
Make a puff paste (or use your richest pie dough) and roll
out 1/4 inch thick and cut into 3-inch squares. Place a
teaspoon of the filling in one corner of each square.
Moisten the edges of the pastry and fold over from corner to
corner to make a triangle; seal the edges with a fork. Bake
at 450 degrees F. for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350
degrees F. and bake for an additional 10 minutes or until
brown.
We read that on this day Queen Elizabeth collected many
gifts, a royal custom which sometimes was hard on her
subjects, for each strove to outdo the other to win her
favor, and she collected such rich offerings as caskets
studded with jewels, bracelets, and mantles. But she
received simpler gifts as well. There is a record of a box
of foreign sweetmeats given her by her physician, ginger
candy and lozenges from her apothecary, a box of green
ginger from a friend, and "Mrs. Morgan brought a box of
cherries and one of apricocks."
The lesser folk in Elizabeth's reign received gifts of gilt
nutmegs and pomanders--an apple or an orange--"stikt round
about with cloaves." These ingenious affairs were often hung
in milady's room and sometimes put inside wine vessels to
preserve wine from "foystiness." The name pomander was
originally applied to a small case of silver which contained
various aromatic scents. Here is a good way to make a
pomander in our day.
Pomander
Take a small, thin-skinned orange and stick whole cloves
into it until the surface is entirely studded. Roll the
orange in powdered orrisroot and powdered cinnamon, patting
on as much as you can. Wrap in tissue paper and put it away
for several weeks. Remove the paper, shake off the surplus
powder, and the pomander is ready for use. It can be hung up
by a ribbon in a closet where it will retain its fragrance
and aroma for years.
In France the "Nouvel An" has always been a day when gifts
are exchanged rather than on Christmas Day, and at family
parties children and grown folk exchange "etrennes."
In Italy, although the children are given their toys at
Epiphany, adults receive their presents at the "Capo
d'Anno."
In the United States New Year's Day has come to mean open
house, a day when people pay calls to wish each other joy in
the days to come and good fortune for the whole year. In
many minds the beverage associated with the day has become
fixed, and eggnog is its name. It is, for some, a very heavy
drink--imbibing one is possible but two may well prove
overwhelming. However, there are beverages for New Year's
Day that hail from other lands and which surely would please
one's guests. There is, for example, the Swedish Glogg.
Glogg
1/3 cup almonds 2 bottles sherry
1 cup raisins 2 bottles port
10 whole cloves 1 cup lump sugar
10 cardamons 1 bottle cognac
6 pieces stick cinnamon
A week before you wish to use your glogg, place the almonds
(blanched and shredded), the raisins, the cloves, whole
cardamons, and the stick cinnamon in a saucepan with enough
wine to cover. Place over low heat and bring to just the
boiling point. Place in a jar and keep in a cool place. To
make your glogg, add the rest of the wine to the spiced
foundation and heat it in an attractive kettle, chafing
dish, or "brulot" bowl. Bring to the boiling point but do
not allow it to boil. In a sieve placed over the kettle or
bowl, put your lump sugar and slowly pour the bottle of
cognac over it, and set it aflame with a match. When the
sugar has melted through, the glogg is ready. It should be
served hot.
With this one might well serve a modern version of the
English seed cake.
Beat the butter until creamy and add the egg yolks and
sugar, beating thoroughly. Stir in the egg whites and mix
briskly. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt and add to the
mixture, alternating with the milk. Beat well; add caraway
seeds and vanilla. Pour into a well-greased tube pan and
bake at 350 degrees F. for an hour and fifteen minutes. An
early American recipe says, "Wash the butter in rose water,
drean out the water and add a few drops of oyl of
sinnamont."
And here is a cake which could well be made for the New
Year, for it is good to eat and also good to consider,
especially in these days when the Bible is not so much read
as it once was. No doubt many an early American would not
have had to look up these references, but for many today it
may serve the double purpose of supplying gustatory and
religious information.
Scripture Cake
(1) Four and one half cups of III Kings, iv, 22; (2) one and
one half cups of Judges v, 25; (3) two cups of Jeremias vi,
20; (4) two cups of I Kings, xxx, 12; (5) two cups of Nahum
iii, 12; (6) one cup of Numbers xvii, 8; (7) two tablespoons
of I Kings, xiv, 25; (8) six articles of Jeremias xvii, 11;
(9) a pinch of Leviticus ii, 13; (10) a teaspoon of Amos iv,
5; (11) season to taste with II Paralipomenon, ix, 9; (12)
add citron and follow Solomon's advice for making a good
boy, Proverbs xxiii, 14, and you will have a good cake.
(Douay Bible.)
There are of course households in which the New Year's
family reunion and dinner menu are traditional and
inviolable. But for those open to suggestion, we offer a
dinner built about a central dish of suckling pig, the
standard New Year's roast in many European countries.
Usually a bright red apple or an orange is put in the pig's
snout, although the Hungarian custom is to put in a four
leaf clover. Around the pig's pate is often placed a wreath
of bay leaves.
Roast Suckling Pig
Clean the pig carefully. Insert a piece of wood into its
mouth to keep it open while roasting. Sage and onion
dressing is traditional, but you might use a prune-apple
stuffing or a sausage stuffing. Stuff your pig, truss and
skewer it. Make 4 parallel slits about 3 inches long on each
side of the backbone. Place on a rack, sprinkle with salt
and freshly ground pepper, brush with melted butter, and
dust with flour. Roast for fifteen minutes at 480 degrees
F.; then reduce heat to 350 degrees F. and continue
roasting, allowing thirty minutes to the pound. If you wish
to have the skin soft, baste every fifteen minutes with hot
stock; if crisp (and it's better that way), baste with
melted butter. When the roast is ready, remove to a hot
serving platter. Remove the piece of wood from the mouth,
replace with a bright red apple and insert cranberries for
eyes. Finally crown with a wreath of bay leaves. The ears
and tail have a tendency to burn, so wrap them carefully in
buttered paper which should be removed during the last half
hour of roasting.
The European side dishes which accompany the New Year's
suckling pig are usually heavy and a bit complicated. We
would suggest fluffy mashed potatoes covered with finely
chopped onions slightly browned in butter, a dish of
Brussels sprouts surrounded with braised chestnuts, and a
sharp green salad. The dessert might well be an Apple
Florentine which hails from seventeenth-century England.
According to the old recipe, this was a deep-dish apple pie
baked in a huge pewter or Sheffield plate, filled with "good
baking apples, sugar and lemon to the very brim." When baked
and before serving, the rich crust was taken off and cut
into triangular pieces ready to be replaced, but before this
was done a full quart of well-spiced ale, "quite hissing
hot," was poured over the apples. We might follow the same
instructions but substitute hot cider for the ale.
January 2: Feast of Saint Macarius
In the fourth century when the desert in Egypt sheltered
many hermits, happy in their austere lives and their
separation from the world, one of the most famous was
Macarius the Younger. We are told he was of joyful
countenance and, like Saint Francis of Assisi later, he was
the friend of birds and animals. One of the most charming of
the stories concerning him relates that one day a hyena came
to lay before him her blind cub, just born. The saint
restored the sight of the young animal, and the next day the
grateful mother returned to him carrying in her mouth a fine
sheepskin. Of this Macarius made a garment which he wore
until he died.
Macarius' fame spread far and wide because of his piety and
spiritual knowledge, and many sought him in his desert abode
for advice and guidance. He did not become a hermit until
the middle of his life. He had been a sugarplum merchant,
and that is why he became the patron of pastry cooks and
confectioners. His own product, sugarplums, a term once used
only for candied fruits, is today a synonym for sweets of
any kind.
Sugarplums
2 lbs. confectionery sugar
1 lb. any fruit
water
Cover sugar with enough water to dissolve, and let boil to a
syrup. Place fruit in a pan and pour syrup over it. Turn
fruit lightly by shaking pan until all parts are coated. Set
to cool, and when this is done pour off syrup and set pan on
its side so that the liquid may be well drained off. Should
be prepared two days in advance so that glaze will form.
In our day sugarplums are more apt to be replaced by glaceed
fruits.
Glaceed Fruits
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup water
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
Mix sugar, water, and cream of tartar in a small saucepan.
Stir until the sugar is dissolved; then cook to 310 degrees
F.--crack stage--without stirring. Remove the syrup from the
fire to check boiling and place the saucepan in another pan
of hot water. Begin dipping into the syrup at once, using
pieces of canned pineapple, canned cherries, figs, grapes,
dates, pitted prunes. Nut meats may be glaceed in the same
fashion. If the candies are dropped on tin, they will not
stick.
First Monday In January: Handsel Monday
The Scotch prefer to celebrate the New Year on the first
Monday in January. This day is known in that country as
Handsel Monday, a word derived from an Anglo-Saxon phrase
meaning a gift given by hand. Especially among rural workers
it is a popular holiday. The farmers give them on that
morning a huge breakfast of meats both roasted and boiled,
with ale and whiskey to wash it down, and a fine cake to
follow. Shortbread invariably appears on the table. No work
is done on that day, but everyone goes visiting friends
after the meal, partly no doubt to show a holiday spirit but
doubtless also to work off the heaviness that follows so
unusual an intake of food.
Scotch Shortbread
1 cup butter 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup confectionery sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
Beat the butter until soft and gradually add the sugar. Sift
the flour, baking powder, and salt together and work into
the butter mixture with the hands. A tablespoon of vanilla
or some freshly ground nutmeg may also be added. Knead the
dough well until no cracks appear. Roll it out to the
thickness of 1/4 inch and cut into squares or any desired
shape. Bake on a greased sheet at 375 degrees F. for about
twenty minutes.
January 6: Epiphany or Twelfth Day
Early in January comes a feast celebrated everywhere and
variously throughout the Christian world--Epiphany, from the
Greek word "Theophania," meaning the showing forth of God.
Because in the West this signified the manifestation of
Christ through the Magi after His birth, it is known as the
Day of Kings, and it is also commonly called Twelfth Day,
since Epiphany occurs that many days after Christmas.
In the East the manifestation of Christ was connected with
His baptism in the Jordan and with baptism in general. From
the lighted candle held at baptism, it receives another name
the Feast of Lights. The Greek Orthodox hold at Epiphany a
ceremony known as the Blessing of the Waters, at which water
is blessed and carried home by the worshippers to be placed
close to the familiar icons. In the United States this
annual ceremony is in some places carried out even more
splendidly than in Greece. In New York the Orthodox
Metropolitan carries a gold crucifix to the harbor, throws
it into the water in the presence of his congregation, and
then several divers leap in, each striving to be the first
to recover it.
Epiphany Eve is the setting of a tender legend. It is said
that the Wise Men on their way to Bethlehem passed an old
woman busily cleaning her house. When she learned where they
were going, she asked them to wait until she had finished
her work so she could go with them. But the Kings said they
could not wait; they told her to follow them when she was
ready and catch up with them. As she was a careful
housekeeper and also took time to prepare a gift to take to
the Child, when she finally started on her way, the others
were so far ahead that she never found them. Ever since she
wanders through the world, seeking the Child so that she may
give Him her gift. In Italy, as Befana--a corruption of
Epiphany--she leaves gifts at the houses she visits in the
hope of finding the Child she seeks. A time-honored Epiphany
dainty in Italy is "Cappelletti all' uso di Romagna."
Grind the meat very fine. It is preferable to use prosciutto
but ordinary plain ham may be used. Make a highly seasoned
mixture with all the other ingredients. The ground meat may
be sauteed in a little butter before being added. Make a
paste of 1 cup flour and 1 egg (add an extra egg white if
you have it): Put the flour on a board, make a hole in the
middle and break in the egg. Work it with a fork until it is
firm enough to work with the hands. Knead it thoroughly,
adding more flour if necessary, until the paste can be
rolled out. Roll as thin as possible and cut into rounds
about 3 inches in diameter.
Place a spoonful of filling in the middle of each circle of
paste, moisten the edges of the paste with finger dipped in
water to seal it securely, and fold into little cones or
hats. These "cappelletti" should be cooked in chicken broth
for about twenty minutes. Usually they are served with the
soup, but sometimes they are served separately with
"Mostarda di Cremona." The Italians say of it, "this is a
mustard which is not," for it is made of pieces of fruit,
mustard, and spices.
In some lands long ago, children set out to meet the three
Kings with cakes and figs, and hay for the camels; in our
day in some countries they still take their gifts to the
church and lay them before the altar rail.
One charming story goes like this: When Mary heard the
tramping feet of the camels, she picked her baby up and held
him close, fearing that someone had come to take him from
her. And so the Wise Men found them exactly as they had been
foretold. When they went home again, the story continues,
they resigned their high offices and estates and went forth
to teach the gospel of the Prince of Peace; and years
afterward Saint Thomas found them in India, baptized them
and ordained them priests. Later they were martyred, and the
Empress Helena is said to have found their bones and
enshrined them in the Cathedral of Saint Sophia in
Constantinople. During the crusades these relics were taken
to Milan and later to Cologne where today they are to be
found in the cathedral of that city in a chest of gold
incrusted with jewels.
The article of food which comes first to mind for this feast
is the famous Twelfth Day cake, baked and eaten in many
lands. In France the "Galette des Rois" is cut carefully so
that there will be one more piece than there are guests at
the table. This, called "la part de Dieu," goes to the first
poor person who comes to the door. In Greece this is a
double feast day for it is also that of Saint Basil, and the
first piece of cake is cut for Christ, the next for Our
Lady, and the third for Saint Basil.
When the cake is not divided according to purely religious
custom, it is often considered a cake of luck. A bean is
hidden in the cake, among other fortune-telling trinkets,
and whoever finds this is crowned king or queen of the
feast. France, in fact, has a proverb which comes directly
from this finding of the lucky bean: "Il a trouve la feve au
gateau."
On the eve of the feast in Austrian homes, a blessing is
invoked on the house and on each room individually. One of
the family, carrying a shovel filled with coals and incense,
goes from room to room followed by all the rest. When every
room has been blessed, the household marches to the barn to
bless the home of the animals too. And on that night the
Christmas tree is lighted for the last time.
At Drury Lane Theatre in London a custom prevailed called
"cutting the Baddeley Cake." A comedian of that name left
the provision in his will that on each Twelfth Night the
performers at the theater be served cake and wine from the
interest of a fund he bequeathed for that purpose. So each
year the cake was cut with great ceremony on the stage. And
it is also from England that we have the best recipe for a
Twelfth Day Cake.
Twelfth Day Cake
1 cup butter 4 tablespoons citron
3/4 cup sugar 4 tablespoons orange peel
3 eggs 4 tablespoons shredded
1/4 cup milk almonds
3 cups flour 1/4 teaspoon allspice
3/4 cup currants 1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup sultanas
Cream the butter with the sugar. Add the eggs one at a time
and beat after each addition. Add the milk and beat all
thoroughly. Mix a little of the flour with the various
raisins and peels. Sift the flour with the spices and fold
into the mixture. Finally add the fruits and almonds. Bake
in a pan lined with waxed paper for two hours in a slow oven
at 250 degrees F. Formerly this cake was baked two or three
months before it was to be used, then it was covered with
almond paste and a thin white icing.
Traditionally Lamb's Wool was always served with Twelfth Day
Cake.
Lamb's Wool
Add the pulp of 6 baked apples to 1 quart of strong hot ale,
together with a small quantity of freshly ground nutmeg and
some powdered ginger. Add granulated sugar to sweeten to
taste. The mixture must be stirred "assiduously and let it
be served hot."
January 15: Feast of Saint Paul the Hermit
Of the many men who during the early Christian centuries
fled to live in the desert, Saint Paul the Hermit was the
earliest. We have this on the testimony of none other than
Saint Anthony who came there thinking that he himself was
the first. Then, as "The Golden Legend" of Jacobus de
Voragine tells the story, "he learned in a dream that
another anchorite, better than himself, had a claim to this
homage. Therefore, Saint Anthony bent every effort to
discover the whereabouts of this other hermit. And searching
through the forests, he came first upon a hippocentaurus,
half man and half horse, who told him to go to the right.
Next he met an animal who was carrying some dates; the upper
part of his body was that of a man, but he had the belly and
feet of a goat. Anthony asked him what he was; and he
answered that he was a satyr, that is, one of those
creatures which the pagans mistook for wood-gods. Finally
Saint Anthony came face to face with a wolf, who led him to
the cell where Saint Paul dwelt. But he, being aware of the
approach of a man, had closed his door. Anthony besought him
to open to him, declaring that he would die on the spot
rather than go away. And Paul, yielding to his prayers,
opened the door, and at once the two hermits embraced each
other with great affection.
"When the noon-hour drew near, a crow flew down, bearing a
loaf formed of two halves. Anthony wondered at this, but
Paul told him that God provided him daily with food in this
manner; this day the quantity was doubled, on account of
Anthony's visit. Thereupon they disputed piously over which
of them was more worthy to divide the loaf. Paul wished that
Anthony should do it, since he was the guest. Anthony
insisted that it be Paul, who was the older. In the end both
took hold of the loaf, and broke it in two."
De Voragine does not go on to state the nature of the loaf,
but we like to think of it as one of the simplest and best
of whole wheat loaves.
Whole Wheat Bread
1/2 cake yeast 3 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour (No shortening, sugar, or milk)
Moisten the yeast with a little tepid water and allow it to
stand for ten minutes. Add it to the flour and enough tepid
water, together with a pinch of salt, to make a good dough.
Let it stand until it doubles in bulk. Then punch it down,
knead again, and put it into small bread pans. When it rises
again to double its bulk, bake in a moderate oven at 350
degrees F. for a full hour or more. Slice very thin.
January 21: Feast of Saint Agnes
Saint Agnes' day is the feast of a saint about whom there
are many legends, although little is known historically save
that she was very young and a martyr. On her feast day lambs
are blessed in Rome, and from their wool is woven material
for the pallia which the popes send to a new archbishop.
In some countries Saint Agnes is the saint of maidens,
especially those who are looking for husbands. The eve of
her feast is considered an auspicious time to find out who
will be one's future mate, and there are several old-time
ways said to achieve this. In England a girl took sprigs of
thyme and of rosemary, sprinkled them three times with
water, put one on each side of her bed, and then recited:
Saint Agnes, who's to lovers kind
Come ease the trouble of my mind.
In her dreams then she saw the face of her future husband.
Sometimes a maid ate instead a salt-filled egg from which
the yolk had been removed. In that case her future husband
came to her in her dreams and offered her water. In certain
parts of England, young women made cakes of flour, salt, and
water (surely a fasting rather than a feasting dish), which
were called "dumb cakes" because without saying a word the
young woman would go upstairs with one of these cakes--
backwards, to make it harder--get into bed, eat her cake,
and pray fervently to Saint Agnes. There seems to be no
record of disappointments, and we trust that all of those to
whom Saint Agnes showed the dream face of her future got her
man. Nor is there any record of how these cakes were made.
FEBRUARY
February 1: Feast of Saint Bridget
FEBRUARY is the shortest of months, one with few feasts, and
usually beginning the year's greatest fast, Lent. The name's
origin is from Februarius, the Roman feast of purification,
but it is still a fitting name for this most Christian
season.
The first feast in February is that of Saint Bridget, known
lovingly in her own land as "Mary of the Gael." According to
the scholars the name is rightly Brigit, but the common
spelling is Bridget, and hers is the name borne by more
girls in Ireland than any save one, that of Mary. In many
legends she is associated with Saint Patrick, who is said to
have baptized her and who had her help in converting
Ireland; when he died it was she who stitched his shroud.
Born about 450, she founded the nunnery of Kildare, the
first on Irish soil.
In Celtic lands the dandelion is called "Saint Brigit's
flame," so every time you see this flower think of that
bright flame of faith, Saint Bridget, who carried on the
work of Saint Patrick and whose watchword was "mercy." In
the hearts of the Irish, Bridget stands for all that is
sweetest and best and most human in women. An old story
tells that she was born of a slave mother and taken from her
at birth, but when she was older she set out to rejoin
the lonely old woman and found her "at a mountain dairy
having twelve cows with her, and she collecting butter."
This legend doubtless explains why Bridget is considered the
protectress of dairy workers and also this verse of "The
Prayer of Saint Brigit":
O my Prince of Heaven!
Bless a prayer unbidden--O pure Whiteness
Bless a kitchen that hath butter!
It is told that "everything Bridget put her hand to
increased and grew beautiful," and in old stories she is
shown feeding her hungry hounds with the table meat and
brewing ale for the churches. Baskets filled with apples and
fragrant bread are "Brigit alms," and it is said she left to
her countrywomen her gift of simple healing--for most Irish
women have some elementary knowledge of medicine and herbal
remedies.
Bridget is well known not only in Irish households but also
in English, for she was a favorite saint in the Britain of
an early day. In London an ancient well, named Saint Bride's
Well in her honor, lent its name to the nearby Brideswell
Palace which Edward VI turned into a workhouse for the poor
in later years.
On her feast special cakes were served with ale, called
"Barinbreac," and sometimes "Barmbrack" or "Barnbreak."
Barinbreac
4 oz. butter 2 tablespoons currants
1-1/2 lbs. flour 1 tablespoon caraway
2 teaspoons baking seeds
soda sugar
buttermilk
Rub the butter into the flour which has been sifted with the
soda. Add the currants and the caraway seeds and a very
little sugar. Add sufficient buttermilk to make a wet dough-
-one that will drop into the pan. Bake at 300 degrees F. for
two hours.
Irish women are in general great makers of delectable cakes
and breads for special occasions--of ash cakes (little
scones rolled in cabbage leaves) baked in the ashes on the
hearth and when done sopped in rasher gravy; of tea scones
made with golden meal and baked on the griddle, delicious
eaten with jelly or jam; of white bread and brown, Indian
meal and bran loaves; of seedy cakes and Sunday cakes.
They were also adept at making the jellies and jams that
fill the odd places on a well-set Irish table--sloe jelly,
rowanberry jelly, haw-and-apple jelly, damson preserves and
blackberry jam, to mention but a few. And since the
daughters of Saint Bridget are great believers in natural
remedies, they are apt to insist that the children eat
Parsley Jelly
Take 3 bunches of parsley and set to boil with sufficient
water to cover. Boil for about twenty-five minutes and
strain through a jelly bag. Return the strained liquid to
the fire and simmer for an additional ten minutes. Measure
your juice and allow 1 pound of sugar for each 2 cups of
liquid, boil together until jelly sets or drops from the
spoon. Peel 1 lemon thinly, tie in a bit of cheesecloth, and
add during last ten minutes of cooking. Pour into hot,
sterilized jars and cover with paraffin.
February 2: Candlemas Day or Feast of the Purification
The feast which falls on this day is known both as Candlemas
and the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin. It
was begun in order to counteract the pagan observances of
ancient Rome at that season, when the whole city was lighted
with candles and torches in honor of the Roman goddess
Februa. It was likewise the month dedicated to the gods of
the underworld, and candles also represented Ceres who was
trying to find her daughter Proserpina, stolen from her by
Pluto and carried by him to the lower world.
At first a pagan religious celebration, it grew into an
occasion of mere merrymaking and night-long revels, and at
last Sergius, one of the early popes, changed the festival
into a Christian feast in honor of the purification of the
Virgin Mary.
On that day candles for the year are blessed in Christian
churches and lighted ones carried in procession. It is very
natural that long ago in England it received its name of
Candle Mass. To Christians the candles are symbolic of
Christ, the light of the world, and of Simeon's reference to
the Child brought by Our Lady to the Temple as "a light to
the revelation of the Gentiles." The candles blessed on this
day are in many places given to the faithful, and carefully
kept for use in time of need, as during childbirth and at
the hour of death.
In England in olden times there was a belief that if
Christmas greens were left up longer than this day, as many
goblins would appear and trouble the house as there were
leaves or branches remaining. One would think that all
Christmas decorations would have been disposed of by this
time, but perhaps sentimental souls left theirs hanging long
beyond the classic day for taking them down-the day after
Epiphany. One can sympathize, for it is much more pleasant
to put up a symbol of joy than to remove it. No doubt this
superstition was created to make such soft souls face duty
and put down lingering regret.
In some parts of Mexico on this day godparents entertain a
group of guests, and in other places the party is given by
the guest who found the little replica of the Christ Child
in his slice of the "Rosca de Reyes," which is none other
than our old friend the "Galette des Rois," the Twelfth Day
Cake.
February 3: Feast of Saint Blaise
Saint Blaise, who is invoked against diseases of the throat,
was a bishop of an early century who was driven to the
mountains by persecution and took refuge in a cave infested
with wild beasts. But Saint Blaise so subdued them that each
morning they came to him to ask his blessing. After a period
of peace he was discovered, dragged before the prefect, and
condemned to imprisonment and eventual death. But even while
a captive he healed a child choking to death from a fishbone
and made a wolf give back to a poor woman the pig it was
stealing from her.
He is a much beloved saint and always willing to help those
in trouble. In the Middle Ages it was a common thing to
"call upon God and remember Saint Blaise."
On his feast day the heads of households among the Basques
of the Pyrenees bring to the church garlic, salt, apples,
and chocolates for Saint Blaise's blessing, and later give
these to their children and their animals for protection
against throat ailments. Of their own throats, the adults
take less care, for the great Basque festival dish is
"loukinkas," a regional sausage highly seasoned with
peppers. These sausages are served with fresh raw oysters,
and the height of gastronomic delight is to eat a loukinkas
and follow it with a cool fresh oyster to take away the
burning sensation.
Pre-Lenten Festivals
Unless Easter is very late indeed, the beginning of Lent
falls in February. Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after
the full moon which occurs on or next after March 21st; it
therefore always falls on some date between March 22nd and
April 25th inclusive.
In various countries there are customs for these days which
have survived the centuries and are still lovingly observed.
And nearly always there is some special dish that is
prepared during this time.
In Poland high feasting takes place on the Thursday before
Lent, and the day's specialty is "Piczki," rich fried
doughnuts. In Syria the Thursday before Lent is known as
Drunkard's Thursday because eating and drinking reach top
form on that day. A sheep is slaughtered and roasted and
served with rice-stuffed grape leaves and figs stewed in
molasses.
Dolmas (Stuffed Grape Leaves)
grape leaves 2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup rice 1 tablespoon parsley
1/2 cup chick-peas salt
1 onion pepper
Blanch the grape leaves in boiling water for about five
minutes. Combine the rice with the chick-peas (either canned
or cooked), the minced onion, garlic, parsley, and
seasoning. Place a tablespoon of this mixture on each leaf,
roll up and press together with your hand. Cook them for
about thirty minutes with enough water to cover, or some
tomato juice seasoned liberally with lemon. They may be
eaten hot or cold. If you have no grape leaves, cabbage
leaves (remove the spine) or even lettuce leaves may be
used.
On the Friday before Lent, in Ponti in Italy the people of
the town celebrate the feast of "Polentone" when an enormous
dish of "polenta", weighing more than a thousand pounds, is
prepared and with it an omelet said to contain six thousand
eggs, put together by the best cooks in town. We should like
to see with our own eyes an omelet of six thousands eggs
being turned over, since turning one made of only six is
quite a trick, but no doubt the cooks of Ponti have had
experience. These huge dishes are given to the poor.
Evidently the cooking is the thing in this case; the eating
is secondary to the wonder of constructing the dishes. This
recipe makes a quantity considerably smaller than the wonder
of Ponti but equally good.
Pasticcio di Polenta (Corn Meal Pie)
1 cup yellow corn meal cream
butter Parmesan cheese
bread crumbs salt
handful dried mushrooms
In the morning of the day this dish is to be served, cook
the corn meal in only enough water to make it very stiff.
Turn out to cool in just the shape of the dish in which it
was cooked. When preparing the "pasticcio," butter the same
dish in which the corn meal was cooked and sprinkle with
bread crumbs. Cut the molded corn meal in horizontal strips
about 1/4 inch thick. Lay the top slice in the bottom of the
dish where it fits. Dot with a little butter and 3 or 4
dried mushrooms which have had boiling water poured over
them and have soaked for several hours. Moisten with cream
and sprinkle with grated Parmesan. Repeat slice by slice
until the shape is complete. Put in a moderate oven at 300
degrees F. and bake for three hours.
In Paris, Carnival, as it is called, is limited to the three
days preceding Ash Wednesday; on the last day there is a
procession of the "Boeuf Gras" through the streets. In
Switzerland during these days children receive cakes
flavored with caraway seeds.
But it is in Denmark that children come into their own
during this time. The Monday before Ash Wednesday is a
holiday known as "Fastelaven." While their parents are still
in bed, the children of the family, armed with twigs called
Lenten birches, come into their parents' rooms where the
latter are supposedly asleep, but no doubt wide awake and
ready to make sure their offspring do not become too violent
with the instruments of punishment in their hands. "Give
buns," shout the young, and the parents produce for them the
"Fastenlavensboller." We take if for granted that parents
may then take one more bit of slumber, at least for the time
it takes the children to consume their buns. They are
toothsome morsels.
Fastenlavensboller (Lenten Buns)
1 yeast cake 1/2 teaspoon cardamon
3/4 cup sugar seeds
1-1/2 cups lukewarm milk 3/4 cup butter
3-1/4 cups flour 1/2 cup raisins
1 egg
Let the yeast stand with a little sugar in a little lukewarm
milk. Sift the flour with the rest of the sugar and the
ground cardamom seeds, and stir in the milk and butter which
has been melted. Combine with the yeast mixture and raisins,
and work until smooth. Let it stand and then knead, roll out
fairly thick and cut out buns with a round cutter. Let rise
again, brush with beaten egg, and bake in a moderate oven at
375 degrees F. for half an hour.
Collop Monday
In England the Monday before Lent is known as Collop Monday,
so called because it was the last day of eating meat before
the fast began. In an earlier day fresh meat was cut into
collops, or steaks, for salting or hanging until after Lent
was over. It is still customary to have eggs and collops, or
eggs and bacon on this day.
English Eggs and Bacon
Cut strips of bacon in 3-inch lengths, place them in a
baking dish, and pour over them 3 tablespoons of cream. Bake
in a moderate oven until the bacon is brown on one side, and
then turn it over and brown the other. While the bacon is
cooking, poach your eggs and serve on the bacon. This could
be attractively done in individual ramekins.
Italians in many rural areas who celebrate a pre-Lenten
"Carnevale" lasting for four weeks before Lent, begin on
this Monday the last and gayest days of all. They are called
"The Two Days of the Shepherds," and all work is suspended
while feasting, dancing, and merrymaking take place in the
public squares, ending with a masquerade on the night of
Shrove Tuesday. Traditional during these two days of
festivity is a dish called "Salsiccia con Peperoni" (sausage
with green peppers).
Salsiccia con Peperoni (Sausage with Green Peppers)
Take 2 to 2-1/2 pounds of Italian sausage and see to it that
it remains in one piece. Curl in broiling pan and broil
about 5 inches from flame for about half an hour. Saute 4
green peppers and 1 sweet onion, both cut up, in a little
olive oil and serve with the sausage which should be well
browned by this time. Be sure to prick the sausage once or
twice while it is cooking.
Shrove Tuesday
All other pre-Lenten celebrations pale when one comes to
Shrove Tuesday. The name comes, of course, from the practice
of confessing one's sins on that day, of being shriven in
preparation for the season of penance to come. But in many
parts of the world, especially in olden times, people had a
great deal else on their minds on Shrove Tuesday, that is, a
great deal on the subject of food. The cooks outdid
themselves on special dishes, ignoring completely the fact
that the way to come to a long fast would be to taper off,
as is done with drugs.
In pre-Reformation times in English towns the church bell
was rung on Shrove Tuesday and came to be known as the
"shriving bell." This in time was called the "pancake bell,"
so closely identified was the day with that article of food.
Pancakes and fritters,
Say the bells of Saint Peter's,
runs the old rhyme about the bells of London. And in an
almanac for 1684 we find:
Hark I hear the pancake bell
And fritters make a gallant smell.
But pancakes were by no means all they ate in Merrie England
on Shrove Tuesday; they enjoyed hogs, barbecued whole,
basted with wine, and stuffed with spicy meals. Yet pancakes
were the day's specialty--pancakes of all kinds, thin like
modern ones; or fat, rich fritters with fruit cut into them
for flavor.
Later in England the Puritans looked upon such observances
with a jaundiced eye, and an English cookery book of the
seventeenth century describes pancakes as made with water,
eggs, "spices and magical, tragical enchantments" and of
"sweet bait which ignorant people devore very greedily."
Even "Crepes Suzettes" would hardly rate such harsh words.
But it is clear that the Puritans regarded the pancakes as
merely one more popish dish and so came out against it. One
feature of the custom should have pleased their economical
souls, since the pancakes used up all the fat in the
household, as at that time none could be used for the next
six weeks.
The French eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday too; however, they
make them folded, not flat as we do. To them a cold pancake
is as good as a hot one, and with these cold pancakes they
drink wine. However, "Crepes Suzettes," their most famous
and sophisticated version, are not only served hot but
flaming.
Today in England and the United States the pancake is
traditional, and much attention is given to the feat of
turning them deftly from side to side. In our country in
earlier days, when the mother of the family fried the
pancakes, she was watched critically to see how well she
could "flap" them--the origin of the word flapjack.
Buttermilk Pancakes
4 cups flour 1/2 teaspoon cream of
1/2 teaspoon baking soda tartar
1 tablespoon sugar 4 tablespoons butter
pinch of salt buttermilk
Sift the dry ingredients and rub in the butter. Add just
enough buttermilk so that the batter pours easily, like
heavy cream. An egg may be added if desired. Bake on a
lightly greased griddle.
The Irish Boxty Pancakes are always made with buttermilk,
and are eaten hot with butter and sugar as fast as they come
from the pan. They are made of grated raw potato, flour,
salt, soda, buttermilk, and eggs. And into the ingredients
are dropped little charms, wrapped in paper: a ring for the
one first to be married, a thimble for an old maid, a button
for a bachelor, a cross for the one who would enter
religion, and a sixpence for riches. These pancakes are
usually served at tea time with a black brew of Irish tea.
Some lands scorn the pancake, and in Scotland, perhaps just
to be different, people eat Crowdy on Shrove Tuesday. A
description of this dish sounds much like the usual fare of
the Scots, for it is made by pouring boiling water over
oatmeal and stirring it a little. Perhaps the butter and
milk that went over it is not for every day. And there is
another variation: into the porringer of one unmarried
person in the house is put a ring, and whoever finds this in
his or her bowl will be the first to be married.
In Germany "Fastnachtskuchen," doughnuts and not pancakes,
are eaten on the eve of the Lenten fast, and the
Pennsylvania Germans in the United States follow this same
custom. Here is their recipe:
Fastnachtskuchen (Shrove Tuesday Doughnuts)
2 cups milk 1 cup sugar
1 cake yeast 3 eggs
1/2 cup water 1/4 cup lard
6 cups flour 1 teaspoon salt
Scald the milk and allow to cool. Dissolve the yeast in the
water which should be warm and add 1/2 cup of flour, sifted.
Mix thoroughly. Add this to the milk with a little of the
sugar. Then add 3 cups of flour, sifted, and let rise,
preferably overnight. Beat the eggs well and add with the
lard and the rest of the sugar. Mix well. Stir in enough of
the remaining flour to make a stiff dough. Let it rise
again. Turn out on a floured pastry board and roll to 1/4-
inch thickness. Cut out and let the doughnuts rise to double
their bulk. Fry in deep fat at 360 degrees F. for three to
four minutes, turning as they fry. Drain on absorbent paper.
The Swedes make a rich yeast bun for Shrove Tuesday. After
baking, the top of the bun is cut off, the inside scooped
out, and the hollow filled with almond paste. The buns are
put in soup plates and eaten with hot milk flavored with
almonds and vanilla sugar. These have become so popular that
Swedish folk serve them every Tuesday all through Lent.
These buns are known as "Fet Tisdays Bullar."
Filling for Fet Tisdags Bullar (Fat Tuesday Buns)
1 cup blanched almonds 3/4 cup sugar
heavy cream
Scoop out about two tablespoons from one bun after the top
has been cut off and mix with blanched almonds, which have
been finely chopped or ground, and the sugar, preferably
confectionery sugar. Add sufficient heavy cream to make a
soft paste. To flavor the hot milk which is poured over
these buns, steep a two-inch piece of vanilla bean in the
milk for ten minutes. (Usually a few bitter almonds are
included in the paste.)
In the Netherlands is eaten the "Worstebrod" that looks like
a plain loaf of bread, but the inside is filled with sausage
meat, the last eaten before Lent. In Belgium "Waterzoei,"
essentially a Flemish dish, is popular on this day as well
as throughout Lent. The recipe is flexible and can be
adapted to one's personal taste.
Waterzoei (Fish Soup)
2 lbs. fish white pepper
3 tablespoons butter salt
1 carrot wine and water
1 onion 1 lemon
3 cloves sprig of parsley
thyme
The fish used in "Waterzoei" (it is called "Waterzootje" in
Dutch) is traditionally carp, eel, tench, roach, perch, or
barbel but any combination may be used. Cut off the heads
and tails of your fish and fry them lightly in butter,
adding the minced carrot and onion, the herbs and the
spices. Add 1/3 water and 2/3 dry white wine to generously
cover. Let this bouillon simmer for half an hour, then add
your fish, cut in 2-inch lengths, and cook quickly for
another twenty minutes or until the fish is done. Just
before serving add a peeled lemon, cut into thin slices and
with the seeds removed. The soup is served with thin slices
of brown bread spread with butter. Our informant adds, "For
some tastes, the heads and tails should be removed before
serving the dish"--with which we would agree heartily.
In the southern part of the United States, Mardi Gras--Fat
Tuesday--has long been extravagantly celebrated. Many of the
inhabitants of New Orleans particularly are of French
descent, so it is not strange that the Shrove Tuesday
festivities of Paris were brought to the New World, and even
improved upon. In New Orleans these end a gay season of
parades and balls, very costly in general, and organized by
groups known as "krewes." The king of the whole Carnival is
chosen by the Rex "krewe" and takes a leading role in the
parade and in the revelries and feasting that follow.
Private and public dinners are given before the grand ball
on the evening of Mardi Gras, and among other items of
excellent creole cookery is certain to appear
Creme Brulee Creole
8 eggs 2 tablespoons white
2 cups light cream granulated sugar
brown sugar pinch of salt
Beat your eggs well into the cream, adding the granulated
sugar and salt. Cook slowly in a double boiler, stirring
constantly until as thick as custard. Pour into a baking
dish and set aside to cool. When the custard has set, cover
with 1 inch of brown sugar. Place under a preheated broiler
for about five minutes, taking care that the sugar does not
burn. When cold, place in refrigerator until ready to use.
Ash Wednesday
We have finished with the feastings of Shrove Tuesday now,
and they are a memory only, a haunting aroma, a vanished
delight. We have come to Ash Wednesday, "dies cinerum," the
beginning of Lent.
The origin of the Lenten fast, historically considered, is
very obscure. It may have evolved from an ancient one-day
fast, which preceded every Sunday, into the forty-day fast
which precedes the greatest feast of the Christian year. But
this fast is very old in time and dates back almost to
Apostolic days. The number forty has many analogies--the
number of days of the fast of Elias, of the years of the
wandering of the Israelites; of the days of the Flood, of
Moses on Mount Sinai, and of Christ in the desert. Saint
Irenaeus mentions variations of its length--a day, forty
hours, several days. The one day which was always kept as a
fast day is that of Good Friday.
In early times, as now, food eaten during Lent was a matter
of deep interest--what to eat and what not to eat. One
historian of the fifth century says that "some abstain from
every creature that has life, but that others eat fish; that
some eat also birds because in the account of the creation
these too sprang from the water. And some eat no fruit with
a hard shell and some eat no eggs, and some eat dry bread
only and others hardly that."
We have fasters of that intense sort today too. There is a
super-observance and an under-observance, depending on the
person. We know a woman who carefully weighs the amount of
bread she eats during Lent so that she does not eat a crumb
too much. She has the right idea no doubt because your eyes
might give you another piece but your scales won't!
None of us, of course, fast today as they did in long-ago
centuries, when eggs and butter were taboo and when often
the standard diet for Lent consisted only of bread, salt,
and water. We doubt whether we could get through a day on
bread only, and this is strange, for the people of other
days were really better trenchermen than we. Any ancient
cookery book will prove that. Why is it then that the modern
quails at a diet of bread when this was the sole food taken
on any fast day in medieval times?
The writer of a recent article, Julie Bedier, gives one
explanation. She says, in an article in "The Commonweal," it
is because in those days bread was always bread. She writes
of the bread of the peasant, a meal in itself, dark brown
and solid and substantial, as compared with the urban white
bread that is "like a nice, tender paper towel." She feels
it would be quite easy to keep a fast on such bread, a
complete meal with vitamins intact for desk workers and
laborers alike. She may be right at that.
We would add one other food item to hers--a good big salad
at least once a day. And, of course, plenty of hot coffee.
If those three foods make a fast, we are for it. The only
problem that remains is how to get simple peasant bread out
of a modern bakery.
One thing, however, is certain, and that is that fish is a
standard food for Lent. The range of choice is certainly
wide here, with simple recipes for simple folk and
complicated recipes for complicated people. A cookery book
of over a hundred years ago mentions two varieties for
different castes: for the ordinary you and me there is
suggested salt fish with parsley and egg sauce; for the
epicure, a dish of turbot with wine gravy and capers.
Egg and Parsley Sauce
2 hard-boiled eggs white sauce
1 tablespoon parsley lemon juice
onion juice
Chop the eggs coarsely and mix with the finely minced
parsley. Add this to your white (or cream) sauce which has
been flavored with lemon and onion juice.
In our democratic way, we can range from a plain slice of
codfish to lobster thermidor. An unusual sauce hailing from
the Mediterranean is "Aioli," which is really mayonnaise
made with garlic, and at times, with bread crumbs. It is
served with many things but usually with boiled fish.
Aioli
3 cloves garlic salt
2 egg yolks mustard
pepper 1-1/3 cups olive oil
lemon juice
Start by pounding 3 cloves of garlic and then add the egg
yolks, seasonings, and then the oil, drop by drop, just as
you would in making mayonnaise. A few drops of lemon juice
are added at the end.
There is still another group of persons who do not like fish
in any form, and to them fish is just fish no matter how
regal its birth or how great a chef prepares it. These folk
might ponder on Saint Corentinus, patron saint of Quimper, a
hermit of the sixth century. He lived in a forest, close to
a stream; each morning a fish, sent by the angels to nourish
him, swam to the bank where he lived. Corentinus cut a slice
off of it for his daily meal. Then the fish swam away,
evidently feeling happy about the whole thing. Next day he
returned promptly to be again amputated.
The Irish have a good substantial dish for Lent which is
fishless. With them Champ is a favorite dinner for the
Lenten season. It is composed of freshly boiled, peeled
potatoes, drained and then pounded with a beetle (Irish for
potato masher). While the potatoes are being pounded, a
vegetable such as nettles, or scallions, or perhaps parsley
or chives, which have been boiled in milk, is added. Each
person is given a large plateful, a hole is made in the
center, and into this a large lump of butter is put. Champ
is eaten from the outside with a fork or spoon, dipping it
into the melting butter in the center. The whole is washed
down with freshly churned buttermilk.
Ash Wednesday is observed as a day of absolute fast in many
parts of the world. It is not in any case a day for varied
menus, but rather one for church attendance and dietetic
simplicities. In Spain on this day a strip of pork is cut in
the shape of a fish and buried with pomp and ceremony, to
signify that there will be less meat on the table for some
time to come, and this is called the "entierro de la
sardina."
England had a pudding for this day--Stir-up Pudding. It was
considered wrong to spend time cooking on Ash Wednesday, and
this pudding was one which could be stirred up in a hurry,
for it consisted only of milk and flour and fruit syrups.
Later it was called Hasty Pudding and so the English call it
today.
Austrians make a pretzel for this day called "Fastenbrezel."
This is very appropriate, for the pretzel had a religious
origin. In other centuries these were made in monasteries
and were shaped like a ring with a cross above them. They
were known by the Latin name "pretiolum," which means a
little prize. The monks, so the story goes, gave them as
prizes to good students and sometimes to all in their
schools who had been good children. From this Latin word has
evolved our plebian word pretzel, and of course it is easy
to see from its shape that it might well have started in
life as a circle and a cross.
February 14: Feast of Saint Valentine
During this month, sometimes within Lent and sometimes
before it begins, comes a festival that is everyone's day--
Saint Valentine's. It is the day of lovers' meetings and
lovers' greetings. Whether the custom still exists, we don't
know, but in our school days we had a box into which
everyone put "valentines" for those toward whom he felt a
tender passion or even a small affection. It led to unhappy
results, for when the box was opened and the children's
names were called, the flip little party with golden curls
and vacuous blue eyes had her desk piled high, while the
good little girl, who cleaned the blackboards after school,
had uninteresting braids, and wore glasses, got only one or
possibly two.
Life, it is true, may be just like that, but perhaps more
than one female of uncertain age is telling her
psychoanalyst about one of those valentine boxes.
At all events, Valentine's Day is a day of love. In the
Middle Ages there was a belief that on this day the birds
began to mate, and Chaucer speaks of
Seynt Valentyne's Day,
When every foul cometh to choos hys mate.
The identity of the saint who started all this is really not
known. There were three Valentines, all saints and martyrs,
and all honored on this day. One died in Rome, one was a
bishop at Terni, and one came from Africa. It is the bishop
who is usually associated with the celebration of this day.
Certainly, whoever he may be, he has made it a pleasant
feast, and Charles Lamb calls him "the great immortal go-
between."
In Leicestershire, England, lozenge-shaped buns, made with
caraway seeds and currants, called Valentine Buns were
formerly given to old people and children. The old-fashioned
Valentine cookies, cut into heart shapes, sprinkled with red
sugar, and decorated with red and white frosting, or even
gilt, have also gone out of style. They should be revived.
Saint Valentine Cookies
2-1/2 cups brown sugar 1 tablespoon ginger
1-1/2 cups cream 1/2 grated lemon rind
1 cup molasses 8 cups flour
3 teaspoons soda
Beat the sugar into the cream until it is thickened but not
stiff; then add the molasses, ginger, and lemon rind and mix
thoroughly. Sift the flour with the soda and add this to the
first mixture. Knead until smooth and chill several hours,
or better still, overnight. Roll out dough 1/8 inch thick,
cut into desired shapes (hearts of course!) and bake at 275
degrees F. for fifteen minutes. Allow to cool before
removing from sheet. Decorate!
MARCH
March 1: Feast of Saint David
THE FIRST day of March marks the day of a saint who would
seem to have no association with the culinary art but who is
known to have had the leek as his symbol. The figure of
David, the principal patron of Wales, is shrouded in legend,
but he is said to have been a monk and a bishop; he is
popularly supposed to have been a nephew of King Arthur.
It is told that when his people were engaged in a bitter
battle against the Saxons, both armies looked alike in
battle dress, and so close was the fighting that it was very
hard to distinguish between friend and foe. David suggested
that the Welsh soldiers wear a leek in their hats so that
they could be readily identified from the enemy. They obeyed
and won the battle. Thereafter the leek became the national
symbol of Wales, and it is still worn by Welshmen on this
day. The wearing and eating of the leek is a way of
designating the true Taffy even away from home, and at Jesus
College, Oxford, much frequented by Welshmen, Saint David's
Day is marked by the undergraduates wearing real leeks; and
a dinner is given, attended by the Fellows, who wear
artificial ones in their buttonholes.
There is an excellent soup which has this vegetable as its
chief ingredient.
Welsh Leek Soup
4 large leeks 1 onion
4 potatoes butter
6 cups water 2 egg yolks
salt 1/2 cup cream
pepper
Carefully wash the leeks and cut them into narrow strips.
Peel the potatoes, slice them, and cook them in the water
with a pinch of salt until soft. Mince an onion, mix with
the leeks, and saute in a little butter till soft but not
brown. Add to the potatoes. When the vegetables are quite
soft, put them through a fine sieve and return to the
liquid. Beat 2 egg yolks and mix with the cream; put in a
tureen and add a little of the hot soup, stirring all the
while. Season to taste. Add the rest of the soup and serve.
March 17: Feast of Saint Patrick
The great Irish Patrick follows the Welsh David in our roll
call of the saints. His name means the patrician, and he was
the son of highborn Roman parents who were Christians, his
father holding the office of "decurio" in Gaul or Britain.
Captured by Irish marauders when he was a lad, he was taken
to Ireland and sold into slavery; after six years he escaped
and returned to his native land. But he had grown to love
the Ireland of his captivity, and he set his heart on its
conversion to Christianity. Serenely he went ahead with his
mission and prepared himself under the guidance of a
relative, Saint Martin of Tours, at the island monastery of
Lerins. Arriving in Ireland to begin his work, Patrick was
bitterly opposed by the Druids, but he preached and taught
there for many years and succeeded in establishing the
Christian faith.
His feast is one of high celebration not only in the Ireland
of his love and labors but in the United States as well. In
fact, one admiring Irish visitor, seeing the celebrations of
this day in New York City, gave the highest praise he could
when he remarked that they "excelled those in Dublin
itself."
And no doubt he had little difficulty in finding in New York
the potato dish he would have eaten on that day in his own
Dublin. This, called Colcannon, is one of Ireland's
favorites, since for the Irish "a day without potatoes is a
day without nourishment"; and he would have doubtless
covered it with a rich brown gravy of some kind.
Colcannon
1 lb. cold boiled potatoes 4 tablespoons bacon fat
1 onion 2 cups boiled cabbage
salt and pepper
Mash the potatoes. Mince the onion and fry lightly in the
bacon fat (butter may be substituted). Mix potatoes, cabbage
which has been chopped, and the onion and season with salt
and pepper. Grease a baking dish, pour in the mixture, and
bake for thirty minutes in a moderate oven at 350 degrees F.
And he would certainly try to find:
Irish Soda Bread
2 lbs. flour 1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt 1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
Sift the flour and the dry ingredients into a bowl. Make a
hole in the center and stir in the buttermilk. If too dry,
add a little more milk. Make a rather stiff dough, divide
into 2 loaves, and bake on a greased pan in a moderate oven
at 350 degrees F. for forty-five minutes.
Back in his own country our Irishman would have eaten (for
all fast-day laws are suspended on Saint Patrick's Day)
succulent chops, boiled ham, roast chicken, or good roast
beef and these he could easily find in New York too. But he
would have had trouble locating an Irish extra-special dish
such as this eaten only on great occasions:
Jellied Pig's Head
Clean the pig's head thoroughly, split it in two, and allow
it to pickle for four days in a brine made of one part salt
to nine parts water. Then put into a large pot, cover with
water, and add 1 large onion quartered, a clove of garlic
(optional), the rind of 1 lemon, 1 bay leaf, 6 whole
peppercorns, and 6 whole cloves. Bring to a boil and then
allow to simmer for three to four hours, that is, until the
meat is tender but unbroken. The most delicate part of the
next operation is removing all of the bones while still
retaining the shape of the head. The tongue may be cut up
and inserted in various places where the cooking has caused
a loss of fat. Place the head in a deep bowl and cover with
the stock, adding salt if necessary and a little white
vinegar, just enough to make it tart. Set in a cool place
until the stock has jellied. Unmould and cut in very thin
slices. Serve with a necklace of parsley.
March 19: Feast of Saint Joseph
Two days after the feast of the great Irish saint comes the
day of the carpenter of Nazareth, Saint Joseph, "the just
man," of whom the Gospels say little but whom the world has
taken to its heart. Although he is often pictured as an aged
man, bearded and bent with years, we incline to the concept
of a younger Joseph, more fitted to his role as protector of
the young Mary and her Child.
Saint Joseph is patron of many places and many trades. He is
the patron of the spiritual home of Christians, the Church,
and of their material homes as well.
Generosity marks this day, as it did the character of Joseph
himself. In many nations it is a day of sharing with the
poor and needy, and nowhere is this better carried out than
in the nation which perhaps loves San Giuseppe the most--
Italy. In many Italian villages, and especially in Sicily,
everyone of any means contributes to a table spread in the
public square as a thank offering for favors received from
prayers to this kindly saint. The bread made for this day is
often shaped like a scepter or a beard; villagers
representing Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are guests of honor at
the feast, and other guests are the orphans and widows and
beggars. After Mass all go in procession to this festive
table and, after the priest blesses the feast, everyone
falls to with shouts of "Viva la tavila di San Giuseppe!" At
the end of the meal every guest is given something to take
home. At these feasts a good soup is usually served,
preferably "Minestrone."
Minestrone
1/2 lb. salt pork 2 tablespoons butter
2 qts. water 1 cup dried beans
1 clove garlic (soaked overnight)
2 sprigs parsley salt and pepper
2 carrots rice
2 stalks celery 1/2 cup peas
1/2 small head of cabbage
Cut the rind from the pork and set it to boil in cold water.
Cut off a small piece of the pork and pound it in a mortar,
with the garlic and the parsley. Slice the carrots, the
celery, the cabbage leaves (remove ribs), and add with the
butter, the dried beans, salt and pepper to the boiling
water. Then add the rest of the pork and allow to simmer for
two and one-half hours. Then add a handful of rice for each
person to be served together with the peas. Cook until rice
is done.
Although all kinds of lentils and dried beans are eaten on
Saint Joseph's feast, the cheese, usually so popular a part
of the Italian diet, is not served, and instead of the usual
grated Parmesan the minestrone would be served with dry
toasted bread crumbs.
The traditional dessert is a cream puff known as "Sfinge di
San Giuseppe."
Sfinge (Sphinx Puffs)
1 cup pastry flour 1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup butter 4 eggs
1 cup water grated orange peel
salt grated lemon peel
Filling
1 lb. ricotta (Italian 2 tablespoons sugar
pot cheese) orange peel
2 tablespoons chocolate creme de cacao
To make your puffs, combine flour, butter, water, salt, and
sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook and stir until
the mass leaves the side of the pan. Add eggs one at a time,
beating well after each addition. Add a little grated orange
and lemon peel. Drop by tablespoon on a baking sheet; bake
at 400 degrees F. for ten minutes and then reduce heat to
350 degrees F. for another twenty-five minutes.
Stir until smooth the "ricotta," chocolate, sugar, a little
grated orange peel, and a generous dash of "creme de cacao"
and use this to fill your puffs when they have cooled.
A special dessert made in Bologna for this feast is "Ravioli
di San Giuseppe." Made in the same way as other dumplings
but with puff paste or short crust, they are filled either
with marzipan or some kind of jam, and either baked in the
oven or fried in oil to a rich golden color. In Naples
"Zeppole" or cream fritters are traditional.
In Russia "Blini" are served with sour cream, and in Sweden
a bun with cream and butter and bits of marzipan. Again in
Italy little cakes filled with jam are hawked at street
corners on Saint Joseph's Day. Sold right from the kettles
in which they are cooked, they sometimes make the whole city
smell like one vast bakeshop.
March 21: Feast of Saint Benedict
We are told that when a youth of only fifteen years,
Benedict fled from the gay life of Rome to the silence and
solitude of a great forest. Young as he was, he knew exactly
the life he wanted to lead, and it was that of a hermit.
However, since he had not taken thought as to how to provide
himself with food to sustain life, his childhood nurse
insisted on following him and preparing for him the food she
obtained by begging. Once when she broke a sieve which she
had borrowed, Benedict by a miracle made it whole again.
But after some years of these ministrations, Benedict fled
from her too, this time to a cave at Subiaco. There a hermit
named Romanus brought him food for a while, but when Romanus
died, there was no one to serve him. Then an angel took over
and guided to the saint's cave a priest who carried with him
a considerable store of provisions which he shared with the
hermit of Subiaco.
Later, Benedict had to leave his beloved retreat for God
needed him elsewhere, and at Monte Cassino, where had been
altars to Venus and to Jupiter, he erected a great monastery
and founded a great order and a rule of life described as "a
monument of wisdom," and which has survived the centuries.
But in his early days Benedict was certainly the most
waited-on saint in all the long list of hermits!
Since Saint Benedict's feast day falls in Lent, we suggest
for his feast Eggs Benedict, although we are fully aware the
saint did not invent this dish.
Lenten Eggs Benedict
Follow the usual procedure for Eggs Benedict using 1/2
toasted muffin and 1 poached egg for each portion. Before
placing the egg on the muffin spread this generously with
anchovy paste stirred with enough heavy cream so that it
will spread easily. Then add your egg, cover with a good
hollandaise, and place a thin slice of truffle or about 6
capers on top.
March 25: Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
This feast celebrates the actual moment of the Incarnation,
when the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary in her home in
Nazareth--a scene so often commemorated in art and story and
marked by every ringing of the Angelus bell. In old
calendars it is called Feast of the Incarnation, Beginning
of the Redemption, Annunciation of Our Lord. It is now held
as a feast in honor of Our Lady in the Western Church,
although the Church of the East makes the day rather a feast
of Christ.
This day, also known as Lady Day, has long been observed
with high honor in many parts of the world. In Russia it was
considered so solemn a feast that, according to popular
tradition, "even the birds do not mate on this day." It is
also the day of the years when, according to belief in the
Tyrol, the swallows return from their winter sojourn. And
they will tell you too that on September 8th, which is
Mary's birthday, they will once again fly southward.
In Sweden this day is familiarly called "Vaffelsdagen"
(Waffle Day), and here is a favorite recipe.
Swedish Waffles
1-1/3 cups flour 2 cups sour cream
1/2 teaspoon salt 3 tablespoons water
1/2 cup butter
Sift the flour with the salt and add to the cream together
with the water which should be ice cold. Keep this batter in
the refrigerator for one to two hours. Then melt the butter
and add to the batter. Heat the waffle iron and bake your
waffles as usual. Serve with lemon juice, sugar and
cinnamon, or stewed lingonberries.
MID-LENT
Laetare or Mothering Sunday
Mid-Lent is marked by Laetare Sunday, a name given the day
because this word, meaning rejoice, is the beginning of the
Introit of the Mass. It is a break in the long weeks of Lent
with their dark liturgical vestments and flowerless altars;
on this day the vestments are rose in color and the altar is
decked with blossoms.
It is called Rose Sunday too, because it is the day on which
in Rome the Pope blesses the Golden Rose, an ornament made
of gold and precious gems, with a receptacle within the
blossom into which is poured balsam and powdered musk. The
Pontiff prays that the Church may so bring forth the fruit
of good works and "the perfume of the ointment of the Flower
sprung from the root of Jesse." These Golden Roses are given
from time to time to churches or cities or to persons who
have been of great service to the Church.
This day is also known as Mothering Sunday, either from a
reference in the Epistle read on the fourth Sunday of Lent
or because of the former custom of visiting the cathedral,
that is, the mother church, on that day. And there grew up,
especially in England, the idea of visiting one's own mother
and taking her a gift, a custom which has grown to very
secular heights today in our country on Mother's Day. It
began with the praiseworthy idea of wearing a flower in
honor of one's mother and, though the practice is still
followed, the simple posy has grown into expensive purchases
of flowers and gifts of other kinds. Perhaps it would be
better to forget this new notion and go back to the old
custom of visiting the church, since by honoring Mother
Church one honors all mothers. And a single flower and a
prayer is surely better than a fine bouquet and no prayer.
Braggot was a favorite drink for this feast day, and the
word comes from the Welsh words for malt and honey. Braggot
was made by boiling a variety of spices in ale, and often
honey was added. Though originally a Welsh drink, it became
popular in many countries and was quaffed everywhere until
tea replaced it.
One delicacy especially associated with Mothering Sunday is
the Simnel Cake, a yeast cake very yellow in color because
of the saffron and candied peel it contained. The simnels
were wrapped in cloth and boiled, then brushed with egg and
baked, making a very hard cake indeed, and giving rise to
the story of the lady who used one for years as a footstool.
The name simnel seems to be derived from the Latin word for
very fine flour, "simila." Long before the above boiled and
baked cake came into being, there was made an unleavened
wafer of the same name. In those days the recipe was
apparently very simple, calling only for fine wheat flour,
for honey and anise to sweeten and flavor, and cold water to
make a thin batter which was stamped with a wafering iron.
The later simnel cakes were much more complicated of
structure, but they remained very popular despite the
complaints of the bakers that too much hard work was
involved in making them.
Candy, spice, eggs must take--
Chop and pound till arms do ache.
So runs one old rhymed recipe for simnels. And Herrick says
of these cakes:
I'll to thee a simnel bring
'Gainst thou go a-mothering;
So that, when she blesses thee,
Half that blessing thou'lt give me.
There is a modern version of this cake which is quite good
and worth the effort.
Simnel Cake
3/4 cup butter 1/3 cup shredded lemon
2 cups sugar and orange peel
4 eggs 1 cup currants
2 cups flour almond paste
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cream the butter and sugar till smooth. Add the eggs one at
a time, beating after each addition. Sift the flour and
salt, and add to the first mixture. Dust the peel and the
currants with a little flour and add to the batter. Line a
round cake tin with wax paper and pour in half of the dough.
Add a layer of almond paste, then the remaining dough. Bake
at 300 degrees F. for one hour. Ice with a thin white icing
flavored with a few drops of almond extract.
Passion Sunday, also called Carling Sunday
This Sunday marks the beginning of Passiontide, the two
weeks between this day and Easter especially commemorating
the Passion or sufferings of Christ, the time when pictures
and statues in churches are veiled in purple.
There is no food connected with the idea of the Passion, but
there is with an event said to have taken place on this
Sunday and which gave the day its second title of Carling
Sunday. According to the story, a famine in Newcastle,
England, was relieved when on that day there came into the
harbor a ship with a cargo of peas commonly known as
carlings. Some authorities hazard the guess that the name
came from a penitential Lenten practice of wearing hard peas
within the shoe--certainly a most uncomfortable custom.
The peas from which the day takes its secondary title are a
variety of gray or brown pea prepared sometimes as a soup,
sometimes fried in butter after being steeped in water all
night--"until they be tender got." To modern palates the
soup would no doubt be far more palatable.
Pea Soup
1 cup split peas 2 diced carrots
1 stalk celery 1 sliced onion
6 peppercorns 1 bay leaf
8 cups water salt
1/2 cup cream
Wash and soak the peas overnight or use the quick-cooking
variety. Place with the remaining ingredients except the
cream, to boil, or rather simmer for about two hours. Mash
through a fine sieve and add more water if necessary. Mix a
little flour with the cream and stir slowly into the soup.
Serve with buttered croutons.
Another dish served in some countries on this Sunday was
Frumenty, a very ancient dish indeed. It consisted of
wheaten meal boiled in water and sweetened with sugar. There
is a legend that this is the food with which Joseph regaled
his brethren and that he gave a double portion to the one
brother who had been kind to him, the young Benjamin.
Palm Sunday
This day in observance of Christ's triumphant entry into
Jerusalem is everywhere commemorated. In Rome at the
Basilica of Saint John Lateran, "the mother and head of all
the churches in the city and in the world," are blessed
branches of palm and olive trees, and in churches of every
country palms or green branches of some kind are blessed and
distributed to the congregation. These palms are saved
carefully, later to be burned to ashes for the next year's
ceremonies of Ash Wednesday.
Palm Sunday was sometimes called Hosanna Sunday in past
years, and was also known as the Flowery Festival because
blossoms were intertwined with the palms. One of our
American States owes its name to this custom: Florida was
discovered on Palm Sunday of 1512, and the Spanish therefore
named the day "Pascua Florida."
In Sicily dust from the church floor is swept up on this day
and spread over the fields, and in Russia boughs of pussy
willow are blessed and waved over the grain as protection
against the elements. In other countries very elaborately
decorated "palms" are constructed by young men and their
lasses. All week long they collect flowers, fruit,
honeycombs, and other edibles, which are hung on a large
cross and what is left over is fastened to a pole. Of course
the most heavily laden of these prove most popular the
couple who constructed them.
In the Tyrol it is the children who make elaborate "palms"
woven with ribbons and decorated with apples, candy, and
flowers. The structure is topped by a bunch of pussy
willows, and these are called "palm kittens" by the
Tyrolese. After the palms have been proudly displayed in the
church and through the village, the creators of the fine
affairs take them home and eat all that is edible.
In various parts of England this day is sometimes called Fig
Sunday. Rich and poor eat figs on this day, and the markets
of years ago were filled with this fruit on the eve of the
feast. A rather odd item of the 1860's describing this
custom says that "even the charity children are in some
places regaled with them."
Why the custom of eating figs on this day came into being no
one knows for certain, but some authorities suggest it may
be from the tradition that Christ ate figs after His entry
into Jerusalem. This is connected with the withering of the
barren fig tree, related shortly after the account of the
triumphant entry into Jerusalem in Saint Matthew's Gospel.
Fig Pudding
1/2 cup sugar 1 teaspoon baking
1/3 cup butter powder
2 cups bread crumbs cinnamon
1 cup milk nutmeg
4 eggs cloves
1/4 cup flour 1/2 cup figs
1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup seeded raisins
Cream the sugar and butter, add the bread crumbs and milk,
and mix thoroughly. Add the beaten eggs, the flour sifted
with salt and baking powder and a pinch of each of the
spices, the figs which have been chopped, and the raisins.
Fill a greased pudding mold three-quarters full, cover
tightly, and steam for three hours. Serve with hard or lemon
sauce.
Maundy Thursday
Maundy or Holy Thursday is of course the day commemorating
the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist. The
derivation of the word "maundy" has been given as the Saxon
word "maund," for the hamper originally used to hold
provisions to be given to the poor, for it was a day of
almsgiving and generosity to those in need. The word is also
said to come from the old French word "maundier," to beg.
Most likely of its explanations is that it was named from
the antiphon of the ceremony of the Washing of the Feet
which takes place on that day: "Mandatum novum do vobis"--"A
new commandment I give to you," words spoken by Our Lord to
His disciples on the eve of His death.
A custom was prevalent in certain European countries that
greens should be eaten on this day, coming no doubt from the
Charoseth or Jewish meal of bitter herbs, and the day is
sometimes called Green Thursday. Among the Pennsylvania
Dutch, spinach and dandelion greens are still eaten on Holy
Thursday to prevent spring illness, an idea no doubt brought
from Germany where it is an ancient belief. Perhaps this was
considered a tonic after the Lenten foods, vitamins for a
system which for some weeks had been underfed and might be
open to attack by some germ or virus. Since the idea seems a
good one, we offer a spinach dish for this day.
Holy Thursday Spinach
Prepare your spinach in the usual manner. Chop it finely--do
not put it through a grinder. Mince an onion, fry it lightly
in 2 tablespoons of butter, dust with a little flour, and
stir into your chopped spinach. Then add 1 cup of sour
cream, stirring thoroughly. Boil 2 eggs until hard, slice,
and place over your spinach in the shape of a cross.
In Czechoslovakia children are given for breakfast on Maundy
Thursday what are called Judases, rather gruesome cakes
shaped like a rope in commemoration of the tragic end of the
betrayer. In Picardy the children who chant the hours of the
services are rewarded with eggs.
In Macedonia little cakes are made called Turtledoves in the
form of a bird and having cloves for eyes. Another custom
followed there on Holy Thursday is the coloring of the eggs
for Easter. The mother of the family, after decorating the
first Easter egg and making with it the sign of the cross
over her children, places it close to the icon of the
"Panagia"--the Greek word for The All Holy, the common Greek
name for Our Lady, a contraction of her full title: All Holy
Mother of God.
Good Friday
In the Eastern Church this day is known as Great or Holy
Friday. The Western title is supposed to be a corruption of
the phrase "God's Friday," the day on which Christ died. On
this day the bells are silenced, and in France the children
are told that they have flown to Rome to return only on Holy
Saturday. In Italy on Good Friday children are even warned
not to laugh when playing, because of the solemnity of the
time.
In certain places this day is observed by so strict a fast
that it is often called the Black Fast, because many do not
eat at all until sundown. However, one article of food is
intimately associated with and eaten on this day, and that
is the Hot Cross Bun.
Hot Cross Buns originated in England, and more than one
nursery rhyme and ballad contain references to them. Saffron
plays a part in the better-class English Hot Cross Bun, but
as a rule they are small and plain, well browned and with
icing on top in the form of a cross.
Hot Cross Buns
1 yeast cake 1 egg
1/4 cup lukewarm water 1/4 cup shredded citron
1 cup milk 1/4 cup seedless raisins
1/2 cup sugar 3 cups flour
1/2 cup shortening 1/2 teaspoon salt
Soften the yeast in the lukewarm water. Scald milk, add
sugar and shortening, and cool. Add the beaten egg, the
yeast, citron, raisins, and the flour sifted with the salt.
Knead and let rise to double its bulk. Shape into buns,
place on greased baking sheet, and let rise until light.
Brush with a little milk and bake at 375 degrees F. for
about twenty minutes. When done, cover with powdered sugar
in the shape of a cross or do the same with a thin icing.
There were many superstitions concerning this bun. In some
families one was put aside and kept during the following
year. If someone fell ill, a little of the bun was grated
into water and given to the sick person to aid his recovery.
And so much has this bread become a symbol of friendship
that if two people break a bun between them and eat it, the
English tradition runs:
Half for you and half for me,
Between us two shall goodwill be.
Perhaps if the warring nations, the ones for whom Good
Friday was once a holy day observed by the Truce of God, and
the ones to whom it still represents a basic fact in the
life of the spirit, could be persuaded to break a Good
Friday bun instead of each other's heads, the world might
again progress in amity and friendship. They might all know
Him again in the breaking of bread.
In many parts of Germany it is customary to eat only
"Spatzle" and stewed fruits for the evening meal on Good
Friday.
Spatzle (Dumplings)
1-1/2 cups flour 1/2 cup milk
pinch of salt 1/2 cup water
2 eggs bread crumbs
1/4 lb. butter
Sift the flour with the salt into a bowl. Add the eggs and
the milk and water. Stir until smooth. Then, with a fork
dipped in boiling water, cut the dough in small pieces into
boiling water. Boil for a few minutes until they rise to the
top. Cover with bread crumbs fried in butter. Serve with
warm stewed prunes or other dried fruits.
APRIL
April 1: Feast of Saint Hugh of Grenoble
APRIL is the "opening month," the month of expectation of
spring and new hope. Centuries ago April was considered the
year's actual beginning, and in some ways this seems more
fitting than our present arrangement. For the earth that has
been hard and cold with winter is growing soft again with
rain and sun, and in garden and woodland the early flowers
are in bloom; the great resurgent mystery which we accept as
commonplace is again before us. Even though Easter sometimes
comes earlier, this month is, in truth, the month of the
Resurrection and Risen Love.
There is a saint for this day, Hugh of Grenoble, who lived
in the twelfth century and who sometimes left his bishopric
to live for a time in a Carthusian monastery as a simple
monk. Once, on arriving, he found the monks assembled in the
refectory but with nothing to eat. He was told that some
benefactor had indeed given them fowl but their rule forbade
the eating of meat. When Saint Hugh saw their predicament,
he promptly made the sign of the cross and changed the fowl
into turtles.
Could there be anything more appropriate for this day, then,
than Mock Turtle Soup?
Mock Turtle Soup
1 calf's head pinch of cayenne
butter pepper
2 veal bones 6 cloves
1 lb. beef pinch of mace
6 onions pinch of basil
2 shallots 1/2 glass sherry
rind of 1 lemon juice of 2 lemons
Plunge the calf's head into boiling water, let it remain for
one minute, then remove and rub with a coarse towel. Bone the
head, put it into a saucepan, cover with cold water, and skim
several times as it boils. Butter the bottom of a soup kettle;
add the veal bones which have been cracked and 2 quarts of cold
water. Cover and reduce until almost all the water has boiled
away, leaving a sort of glaze. Add the calf's head, beef,
onions, shallots, lemon rind and the seasoning and herbs, with
water to cover generously and boil until the calf's head is
done. Strain and let it cool; then remove all of the fat. Put
back in the kettle, add the meat of the calf's head and the
tongue cut in small cubes. Add the sherry and the lemon juice.
Heat to the boiling point but do not boil.
Holy Saturday
In the early centuries of the Church, the lengthy office of
Holy Saturday was recited at midnight on the eve of Easter.
The ceremonies of the lighting of the new fire and
illumination of the Paschal candle, the blessing of the
baptismal font, and the prophecies and litanies ended, as
was reasonable, at the first Mass of Easter morning itself.
Today we have all this on the morning of Holy Saturday, but
there are signs that we will return to the earlier way. Lent
is considered to end at noon on Holy Saturday. Not only is
the fast ended, but there takes place the dropping of the
veils from the statues, the swift replacing on the empty
altar of candles and flowers in preparation for the glorious
drama of the Resurrection.
The "anticipation" of Easter is observed in various
countries on Holy Saturday by religious processions, the
lighting of new fires and other local customs. Sometimes a
large bonfire of burning logs is made before the cathedrals
of Germany and Austria and used for the new fire of the
liturgical ceremonies. From these the children take home
pieces of burning wood, from which is lighted the fire for
cooking the Easter food.
In Italian homes various customs are observed. The parish
priest passes from house to house blessing each with holy
water. At dinner the head of the family blesses the table
with a palm branch kept from Palm Sunday, and special cakes
and a pizza made with eggs are eaten.
Casatiella (Egg Pizza)
1 lb. flour 1 cup lukewarm water
1 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons olive oil
1 yeast cake or lard
4 hard-boiled eggs
Sift flour and salt on a board and add the yeast which has
been dissolved in the lukewarm water. Knead well and work in
2 tablespoons of olive oil or lard; knead again until
smooth. Set aside in a warm place to rise for about three
hours or until doubled in bulk. Then spread the dough about
3/4 inch thick in your largest pie pan. Make eight holes at
regular intervals, insert half a hard-boiled egg, and press
surrounding dough over it to cover. Brush with a little oil
or butter, sprinkle with salt, and bake for about twenty
minutes in a 400 degrees F. oven.
Most interesting customs are observed in Poland where the
"Swiecone" or Easter repast is laid out in order on the
table, sometimes enough food for the whole of Easter week,
and blessed by the priest who makes the rounds to the homes
of his flock on Holy Saturday. On this table one finds hams
and legs of veal and lamb twined around with linked
sausages. In the center is a mould of butter or a cake
shaped like a lamb and circled with cakes and colored eggs.
The moulded lamb is apt to carry a Polish flag--it is
typical of Poland to bring the symbol of its beloved land to
this great spiritual feast.
The Moravians brought early to this country from Bohemia by
way of Germany their special observances of Holy Saturday.
The Unitas Fratrum, or followers of Huss, settled in
Pennsylvania in 1740, and at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, among
other places, their early customs are still faithfully
observed.
In Bethlehem, in the late afternoon of Holy Saturday a band
of trombone players mount to the steeple of the church,
where traditional hymns are played. Afterward, following a
"love feast," a choir, accompanied by the trombonists, goes
from house to house singing, and this continues until early
morning. After a breakfast of Moravian sugar cakes and
coffee, the entire congregation returns to the church for a
pre-sunrise meeting. Then in slow procession all go to the
burial ground, where the graves of the departed have been
decked with flowers; there, facing the east, the trombones
greet the rising sun. There is a short service, and a very
joyous one, for the Easter day has dawned.
Moravian Love Cakes
2 cups honey 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 oz. chopped almonds pinch of cloves
1/2 lb. chopped candied rind of 1 lemon
peel 2 tablespoons sherry
1/2 teaspoon baking soda or rum
flour
Boil the honey and sugar for five minutes. Add the chopped
almonds and boil for another five minutes; then add the
chopped candied peel, the soda, the nutmeg freshly grated,
cloves, cinnamon, lemon rind grated, and the sherry. Add
enough sifted flour to make a dough that will roll out
thinly, cut into oblongs, and bake in a 300 degrees F. oven
for about twenty minutes. Ice with sugar.
EASTER SUNDAY: Feast of the Resurrection
The greatest feast of the Christian Church takes its name,
strangely enough, from that of Eastre, the Anglo-Saxon
goddess of the dawn. For this statement we have the
authority of the learned Venerable Bede.
The feast, however, has another name, the "Pasch," the Greek
word coming from the Hebrew "pesakh," the Passover. This is
the term for the feast which is used in nearly every
language save English and German, and even these two use the
words Paschal candle and Paschaltide. In the churches of the
Eastern Orthodox the feast of Easter comes somewhat later
than in the Western calendar, but the observance is as
great, if not greater.
Among Orthodox Russians two people meeting on the street at
Easter exchange greetings that give in two short phrases the
essence of the day. "Christ is risen," says one, and the
other responds, "He is risen indeed."
The Orthodox ceremony of Easter includes an early morning
procession to a church which is in utter darkness; the
Resurrection is announced to the congregation by the
ceremony called "the Assault of Heaven," which takes place
before its closed doors. Then the procession enters, but now
into an edifice brilliantly lighted, for all know that
Christ has, as the phrase has it, risen indeed.
In the older Russia Easter was a day of great feasting. On
long tables were placed roasted pig and sausages and sweet
tarts. And there was especially the "Paskha" of cheese and
the "Koulich," the latter a bread so delicate that pillows
were put about the pan in which the dough was rising so that
it would not fall; anxious housewives kept husbands with
heavy boots and frolicking children out of the kitchen until
the "Koulich" was safely out of the oven. Deep in the top of
this cake were formed the letters "X V," the initials of the
words meaning "Christ is risen."
Take the cream cheese (or pot cheese) which should be quite
dry and mix it well with the butter, sour cream, the sugar,
the blanched, chopped almonds, the candied peel and the
raisins. The mixing is essential and may best be done with
an electric beater. Traditionally the "paskha" is pressed in
a wooden mould. However, it can be placed in a strainer
lined with a piece of moistened cheesecloth and left to
drain for at least half a day or overnight. Turn out your
"paskha" and decorate it with almonds and raisins in the
form of a cross.
Koulich
1 cup white raisins 1-1/2 cups scalded milk
3 tablespoons rum 7 eggs
1-1/2 yeast cakes 1 cup sugar
1/2 cup warm water 3/4 lb. butter
10 cups flour 1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon saffron
Soak the raisins in the rum. Soak the yeast in the lukewarm
water. Mix 5 cups of the flour with the milk which has been
cooled; combine with the yeast and beat well. Allow to rise
for three hours in a warm place. Beat the yolks of 5 eggs
with the sugar. Mix with the batter. Melt the butter, mix
with the salt and the raisins, and add to the batter. Sift
the rest of the flour with the saffron. Mix into the batter
and knead well. Bake in a pan that should be about 12 inches
high (a lard pail will do). Brush with butter and set to
rise again till double in bulk. Brush top with egg yoke;
bake in a 400 degrees F. oven fur fifteen minutes and then
reduce heat to 350 degrees F. for another forty-five minutes
or until done.
The "Koulich" of Russia becomes the "Babka" of Poland; the
name derives from the word meaning old woman, because the
cake, tall and wide, looks like an old woman with wide
skirts. For this feast the tables of Hungary were formerly
as laden as those of Poland, and the various dishes served
were very similar.
In Italy the Easter customs concerning food are many and
varied. Even for breakfast are prepared special dishes of
eggs with vegetables and herbs. There are many holiday
breads, and on the dinner table appears inevitably
"Agnellino" (roasted baby lamb) always accompanied by
roasted artichokes.
Carciofi Arrostiti (Roasted Artichokes)
6 artichokes 2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chopped salt and pepper
parsley 6 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup water
After removing the tough outer leaves of your artichokes,
soak them for half an hour, heads down, in a bowl of well-
salted cool water. Make a paste of your parsley, garlic, and
salt and pepper and spread between the leaves of your
artichokes. Place in a saucepan so that they will stand
upright with half the oil at the bottom of the pan and the
rest poured over the vegetables. "Roast" for five to six
minutes over a high flame, taking care that they do not
burn. Add a little water and cook until the water has
evaporated. Then add the rest of the water and continue
cooking, about half an hour in all or until the outer leaves
come off easily.
In Switzerland a plain coffee cake is made in the form of a
small wreath in the center of which is imbedded a colored
egg. When the baking is finished, the egg seems to be neatly
resting in a brown nest. The custom also exists in Italy,
but in bringing it to America the form of the cake has been
changed. Often now we see it in the shape of a rabbit with
colored eggs stuck in various places. This effect is
ridiculous, but the little Swiss wreath is charming. From
Italy comes for this feast a wonderful soup called "Brodetto
Pasquale."
Brodetto Pasquale (Easter Broth)
1 lb. lean beef 3 leeks
1 lb. breast of lamb herb bouquet
1 veal bone spring marjoram
1 beef bone peppercorns
3 qts. water salt
3 carrots egg yolks (1 per portion)
1 stalk celery lemon juice
Parmesan cheese
Put the bones and the meat in the soup kettle with cold
water. Bring to a boil and skim carefully. Add the
vegetables, herbs and seasoning. Cover with a lid partially
open (this helps to keep the broth clear) and simmer for
about three hours. Break as many egg yolks in a dish as
there are to be portions served and beat with a little lemon
juice. Gradually add the soup, hot off the fire, stirring
continuously. Place back on the fire and allow to thicken
but not boil. Serve in a tureen, with narrow strips of toast
dusted with grated Parmesan.
In Finland there is a very special Easter dish called
"paasiasismammi," a porridge which from its name might well
be called Proofreader's Despair, and from which even the
trained and etymological eye can discern easily only the
first part, evidently meaning Pasch. This porridge is as
complicated as its name; it is made of rye flour, orange
peel, and malt, and mixed with water, boiled very slowly,
and eaten cold with cream. It is an indispensable Easter
item on every Finnish table.
As in so many other lands, Greece prefers the lamb for
Easter dinner to all other meats, though there is a very
special bread called the Bread of Christ, marked with a
cross and decorated with red Easter eggs, which is also a
required item. But the important thing is lamb. In fact,
there comes from Macedonia this proverb, "Easter without
lamb is a thing that cannot be."
Greek Easter Lamb
Prepare your leg of lamb as usual. When it is ready for the
oven, make three or four incisions and insert in each a
clove of garlic. Rub with salt and pepper, lemon juice, and
a generous portion of marjoram. Wild marjoram is used in
Greece and is called "rigano". If you can get dried
"oregano," use this instead of the marjoram. In Greek
"origanon" means "the joy of the mountains." Since leg of
lamb is inclined to be dry, most cooks advise leaving the
skin, or fell, around it. However, then the seasoning does
not penetrate as well as it should. Should your lamb be dry,
rub it well with 2 tablespoons of butter before applying the
seasoning. Lamb should be well done, in a moderate oven, and
basted from time to time with the pan juices. It may be
served with rice or potatoes or eggplant. If using potatoes,
slice them thin and add them to the roast, with a cup of
tomatoes, half an hour before the roast is done. If using
rice, this may also be added to the roasting pan but see
that it has been cooked for about ten minutes previously;
instead of tomatoes, use 2 cups of tomato juice which will
be absorbed by the rice. Small eggplants, cut in half
lengthwise (do not peel), can be added with the potatoes and
tomatoes. The roasting time depends upon the size of your
leg of lamb, but thirty to thirty-five minutes to the pound
will suffice.
To the lamb Greece adds jellied fish in a cross-shaped
mould, "Dolmas" and "Callalou" and a delicious rose leaf
jam.
Rose Leaf Jam
Take the petals only of dark red roses, taking care not to
include any of the pollen, and an equal amount of sugar. To
a pound of each allow the juice of 2 lemons and a little
water. Set in the sun until the sugar is completely melted.
Then boil for twenty minutes and put in jars.
Not in any one country but in nearly every land we find
another specific article of food for this day, and that is
the Easter egg. The coloring of eggs for spring festivals is
a very ancient custom and long pre-dates Christianity. The
Egyptians and the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans, all
colored eggs. In every land the egg is the symbol of
fertility; the coloring on them is sometimes merely
adornment but sometimes it has a deeper meaning, as in
countries where they are colored red as a symbol of the
blood of Christ.
In Poland colored eggs are called "pisanki," from the word
to write, because the Easter egg is one on which are written
symbols. Perhaps the most beautiful of all are the diagramed
eggs of the Russians, works of true art and almost too
beautiful to be broken and eaten in plebeian fashion.
The Easter eggs one sees today in many homes in the United
States are not the colored eggs of an earlier day. The
little pellets pasted on a card and dissolved in old cups
are too pastel for some of us oldsters. We remember eggs
that were far from pallid as these are, and that were, in
fact, exactly like the vivid foreign eggs.
One of us remembers how her mother made her own dyes. She
boiled the skins of yellow onions for hours and produced
with the liquid glorious orange eggs. She made the red ones
by boiling red yarn in water. The green came from little
bottles of color bought at the drug store, but occasionally
she made this too from young spinach, washed, squeezed, and
boiled. Often these colors were dappled on the hot egg with
a new lampwick. And then, while they were still hot, all the
eggs were rubbed with a cloth dipped in butter. These bright
shells were, as Browning says somewhere, "reds and greens
indeed." The pastel product of today is too pale and insipid
for those who remember the vivid bowls of eggs in the center
of the dining room table.
These early American eggs and the fine ones in Slavic
countries are the only Easter eggs worthy of consideration--
the marvelously designed and intricately drawn Russian one
and the old-fashioned and deeply colored American egg. But
never the heresy of one with a bunny stamped on it; never
the pallid copy made with pellet dyes; and never the ones
whose insides have been blown out through a pin hole with
the shell only surviving as a symbol. Symbol indeed! The
symbol is a bright egg which is to be eaten and enjoyed, a
well-cooked egg which is also a delight to the palate.
April 23: Feast of Saint George
Among saints honored in the month of April there is Saint
George, of whom little is known, for all his popularity,
except that he was born in Cappadocia, that he was a soldier
and suffered martyrdom. The crusaders brought his fame to
the West, where he is the patron of England, Aragon,
Portugal, and certain sections of Germany. Before the
Conquest many English churches had been named for him and
the story of his brave deeds was sung everywhere.
His best-known deed is legendary, but it was of course his
slaying of the dragon, a feat he carried out in order to
save a maiden who had been vowed to a monster. Saint George
transfixed the dragon with a spear and then told the maiden
to lead the monster about the city, after which he put an
end to him. He was well known by that time as a man of God
and a confessor of His works, and on that day, after
witnessing the miraculous slaying of the dragon, twenty
thousand people were converted to Christ.
The king begged this wonderful dragon slayer to stay, "If
you will remain with us you shall have the half of my
kingdom." But Saint George refused the fine offer. "I must
ride on," he said, "to take care of God's churches and honor
the clergy and have pity on the poor."
Saint George is especially honored in England as its great
patron, and flags are still floated there on his feast; in
other times the celebration was more elaborate and
processions, jousts and races were held. The dishes served
on this day should be without doubt favorites of that
country such as roast beef and its famous accompaniment,
Yorkshire pudding.
Roast Beef
Have the roast at room temperature about an hour before
cooking. Season with salt and pepper and dredge with flour.
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. and place the roast, fat
side up, in a roasting pan. Should the roast be very lean,
cover with a thin strip of suet or salt pork. Roast at this
temperature allowing about eighteen minutes to the pound for
rare, twenty-two minutes for medium, and thirty minutes for
a well-done roast. If the roast has been boned and rolled,
allow an additional five minutes per pound in the cooking
time. Formerly the Yorkshire pudding was cooked in the same
pan with the roast. But it is best to cook it in a separate
pan since we now roast beef at a much slower temperature
than formerly.
Yorkshire Pudding
1 cup flour 1 cup milk
2 eggs 1/2 teaspoon salt
Make a smooth batter of the flour, eggs, milk, and salt.
Twenty minutes before the roast is done, remove from the pan
and pour off half the grease for gravy. Pour the batter into
the pan, place a wire rack over it, set the roast on the
rack, and return it to the oven until the Yorkshire Pudding
is well crisped around the edges. Cut into squares. Arrange
the roast on a platter. Serve with gravy. There is an old
rule that Worcestershire sauce should be added, 1 drop for
chicken and veal, 3 for beef and lamb, 5 for pork.
In Allier, a wine-growing "departement" of France, where the
vineyards are objects of great solicitude, a curious custom
is observed on Saint George's Day. If frost has not touched
before that date the precious vines, a clean, soft little
towel is offered to the statue of the saint and his feet are
washed in wine amid cries of "Vive Monsieur Saint Georges."
If harm has befallen the vineyards, however, Saint George is
not so popular, and though his feet are still washed, a
rough, coarse cloth is used.
April 25: Feast of Saint Mark
One other well-known saint of this month is Mark, a favorite
disciple and companion of Saint Paul. He founded the first
church in Alexandria and was slain by pagans of that city.
For years his tomb was a shrine for the faithful but,
according to tradition, in 815 a Venetian trader buying
wares in Alexandria obtained the body of Saint Mark and
brought it to Venice. And there it is today in the great
cathedral in the city of which he is patron.
On this day in Hungary people go in procession to have the
fields of wheat blessed. And on the return home each carries
a sprout of wheat, which has been blessed so that "fog shall
not strangle, hail shall not destroy, storm shall not
trample, fire shall not consume the only hope of the
people."
Since Saint Mark is so particularly honored in Venice, where
the specialties are such seafood as sea trout, eels, sole,
shrimp and sturgeon, we suggest an excellent Venetian fish
sauce for this day.
Venetian Sauce
1 tablespoon flour 1/2 cup fish stock
1/2 cup butter 1 tablespoon chopped
1/2 cup meat stock parsley
pinch of white pepper
Blend the flour in half the melted butter in a saucepan; add
the meat and fish stocks, mixing well and cooking for about
five minutes. Add pepper and the rest of the butter, beating
constantly. When all is well mingled, add the parsley and
serve with boiled fish.
April 30: Saint Walburga's Eve
The last day of April was first celebrated as a druidic
feast of some importance in honor of spring's return, and
bonfires were lighted to frighten away the spirits of
darkness which might prevent the arrival of the joyous
goddess of the springtide. For Christians it became the
feast of Saint Walburga, the daughter of a Saxon king of the
eighth century, who went to Germany at the call of her
uncle, Saint Boniface, to aid in the work of evangelizing
the Germanic tribes and remained to found and rule
monasteries and convents. The Abbess of Heidenheim was given
great veneration in the Low Countries and Germany during her
lifetime and was honored after her death for her learning
and the many miracles she wrought. But the observance of her
feast, or rather its eve, "Walpurgisnacht," came to be held
with many of the pagan traditions peculiar to the day, so
that it grew to resemble the celebration of Halloween. At
its best, it is the night when protection is invoked against
murrains of fields and crops and the spirits of evil; at its
worst, it is a night when witches ride and dark deeds are
done.
The original pagan feast, celebrated as the Eve of Beltane
in the British Isles, was accompanied by lighting of new
fires and feasting on certain foods retained by later
customs in Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. We are told that
Beltane Cakes, large and scalloped, were set against hot
stones to bake while a caudle (custard) was eaten, and beer
and whiskey consumed. Many customs were connected with these
cakes, among them that the person drawing a piece blackened
by the fire became the "carline" who must be sacrificed to
the fire. Later in Wales when cakes were cooked on ordinary
stoves, light and dark oatmeal cakes were made, and the one
who drew the dark cake was required to jump three times
through the flames of the lighted bonfire.
We have been unable to trace any authentic recipes for
Beltane Cakes, and everyone knows how to make a custard or
caudle. However, on this eve one might well anticipate the
day to come by brewing the first "Maibowle."
Maibowle
Take 1 quart of strawberries, washed and hulled, sprinkle
them with several tablespoons of powdered sugar, and steep
them in 1 quart of good white wine. After three or four
hours, place the berries and their liquor in a large punch
bowl, place a large piece of ice in the center, and pour in
3 more bottles of white wine and 1 bottle of champagne. (The
champagne can be replaced by soda water.) There are many
classic and traditional "bowlen" in Germany, and peaches,
pineapple, or "waldmeister" (woodruff) may be used instead
of strawberries. Serve with a bit of the fruit in each punch
glass.
MAY
May 1: May Day
The first day of May has been for centuries a beloved
holiday in England where "bringing in the May" has been sung
by poets great and small. In France May is called "le mois
de Marie," in honor of Our Lady; it is the month of First
Communions, of solemn little boys in Sunday suits and little
girls in white dresses and veils, all walking in procession
to the churches. Yet, for all the devotions to Mary with
which this month is filled not only in France but in many
other countries, it remains for many the first day of the
month when spring has come to stay.
Originally May 1st was a Roman festival dedicated to Flora,
the spring goddess who in Greece was known as Maia. Ever
since the Romans brought their "Floralia" to the isles of
Britain, England's celebrations of May Day have been the
most elaborate. After Britain became a Christian land and
Whitsuntide had replaced the celebration to Flora, it was
easy to continue the pleasant old customs of Maypoles and
May dances on the green, of May Queens and processions, all
so joyous that it made Spenser sing:
To see these folks mak such a joyissance
Made my heart after the pipes to dance.
Despite the fact that much feasting and many joyful customs
were exiled from Merrie England by the followers of Calvin
and Cromwell, they could not take away this celebration from
the British, nor could the solemn men who came to America to
found New England. Right before the eyes of Governor
Bradford who called it "an idoll Maypole," one such pole was
set up in 1628 in Plymouth Colony, and the young people
celebrated in a way described by a chronicler as the dancing
of "good May songs, dancing hand in hand around the Maypole
and performing exercises in a solemn manner, with revels and
merriment after the old English custom." The proceedings
were altered a bit to fit Puritan decorum, but the important
thing was that May Day was being celebrated still, and in
the New World. Those who have been born in Arcady must
return there for at least one day of the year to keep the
spirit and the heart alive.
And ever since the "Floralia" when Romans gathered spring
blossoms to offer to their goddess, flowers have figured
preponderantly in the May Day celebration. In France
"muguets," lilies of the valley, are worn and sent to
friends to wish them luck--the saying goes that a wish made
while wearing these fragrant blossoms will come true. And
these flowers, carefully pressed and dried, are sent to make
known good wishes to faraway friends and loved ones.
In the America of some forty years ago we remember that on
May Day children made little baskets, often woven with
strips of paper or raffia, filled them with flowers from the
woods--trillium and bloodroot, violets purple and white,
adder's-tongues, anemones. Only to repeat the names of these
blossoms brings back the memory of days when we filled May
baskets, hung them on the doorknobs at the homes of our
friends, and then ran home to find others on our own door.
Round about Paris on May Day morning one still drinks May
milk, which is thought to be better than in other months.
Russians decorate birch trees with streamers and flowers,
and sometimes eggs and meat pies are set beneath the trees.
In the celebrations of the South Germans there are customs
involving the planting of trees and Maypoles, and in some
sections eggs, sausages, and cakes are hidden in the
branches. A traditional luncheon or breakfast dish is
"Bauernfruhstuck."
Bauernfruhstuck (Peasant Breakfast)
3 strips bacon 1 egg
1 boiled potato salt and pepper
chives
Cut the bacon in small pieces and fry over a low flame until
completely done. Cube the potato and brown with the bacon.
Finally, break an egg over the whole (do not beat
previously) and stir it slowly into the bacon and potato
until set. Season and sprinkle with finely cut chives. This
is for one portion and can be multiplied at will.
We find certain traditional May dishes in our own United
States. In Maryland it is customary to serve hot rolls for
breakfast on May 1st. In New England "Baptist Cakes" are
eaten. These are made of bread pulled from the loaf dough
and patted into balls, fried in a pan, and served with maple
syrup.
Ascension Thursday
This day falls on the fortieth day after Easter when Christ
disappeared from view of His followers--"and a cloud
received Him out of their sight." In addition to its
religious observance there are many customs and even
superstitions connected with this feast, to insure good
crops and good luck.
In Rome a fine custom was observed not so long ago on the
feast of the Ascension: the milkman brought a gift of milk
and rennet to his customers, and from this was made
"Giuncata." The recipe sounds exactly like the junket we
make from little tablets and which, when properly cooled, is
a favorite dessert for children. The Roman recipe however
contains an addition that takes this out of the children's
class and makes it more interesting for grownups. The Romans
add to it sugar and rum or brandy. Whether anyone on this
side of the Atlantic has thought of doing this or dismissed
junket as an insipid dish we do not know.
In parts of France on Ascension Day, children go around
begging for flour to make "Beignets."
Beignets de Pommes (Apple Fritters)
2 eggs 2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup milk
1 tablespoon brandy 4 apples
Work the egg yolks together with the salt and brandy into
your flour until all is thoroughly mixed. Add the milk and
stir until smooth. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold
into the batter. Peel and core the apples and cut into thin
rounds. Dip apple in batter and fry from four to five
minutes in deep fat at 375 degrees F. Dust with sugar or
serve with a soft custard, or vanilla sauce. Apricots,
bananas, peaches, pineapples, or plums may be substituted
for the apples.
May 19: Feast of Saint Ives
Sancto Yvo etat Brito,
Advocatus et non latro
Res miranda populo.
So runs the popular verse in Brittany, where in the
thirteenth century Saint Ives followed the profession of
lawyer and judge with distinction, as the verse says of him:
Lo! a marvel past belief
A barrister who's not a thief!
Although possessed of wealth, he lived as a Franciscan
tertiary, dressed in coarse clothing, and cared for the poor
and unfortunate, keeping, it is said, up to seven orphans in
his family manor of Kermartin. His benefactions to the poor
continued after his death, and it is not surprising that his
feast is observed in Brittany by one of the many Pardons or
local religious pilgrimages of this Celtic part of France
called the Pardon of the Poor at Minihy.
After his death, Saint Ives' manor was left to the poor, and
here they continued to come especially on the eve and day of
his feast. We read that on one occasion in the nineteenth
century so many beggars presented themselves that no one
knew how they would be fed. But no matter how much was
dipped out of the kettles on the hearth, they were always
found filled to the brim with good, nourishing soup.
No record is made of just what went into these kettles, but
in honor of Saint Ives, the saint of the poor and the patron
of (reformed?) lawyers, we suggest "Potage Paysanne."
Potage Paysanne (Peasant Soup)
2 carrots 1/4 head cabbage
2 potatoes 6 cups stock
2 leeks stale bread
1 turnip salt and pepper
Dice the carrots, potatoes, leeks, and turnip and cut the
cabbage into slivers; cook in 2 cups of the stock until the
vegetables are done. Add the remaining stock and boil for
ten minutes. Take rounds of stale French bread and brown
them a bit in the oven, place in a tureen and pour the soup
over them.
Pentecost or Whitsunday
In the Jewish calendar Pentecost, meaning "fiftieth day,"
marks the Feast of Weeks or "the fiftieth day from the next
day after the Passover." In the same way the Christian
festival celebrates the fiftieth day after Easter, for we
remember that the Resurrection was closely connected with
the feast of the Passover.
For the Christian world this is a major feast and one of
rejoicing, for the descent of the Paraclete in tongues of
fire strengthened the faith and courage of the Apostles and
insured the future of Christianity. As a Christian feast it
dates back to the first century, and in early times
catechumens in their white robes were baptized on this day;
hence our English name of Whitsunday. In Italy, however, it
is also known as "Pascha rossa" because the vestments worn
at Mass on this Sunday are red. In other parts of the same
country, especially Sicily, Pentecost has still another
name, "Pascha rosarum," because rose leaves are scattered
from the ceilings of the churches to commemorate the miracle
of the tongues.
All through Western Europe this feast was greatly celebrated
in medieval times. In France a sequence to the Mass of the
day was written by King Robert. Trumpets were blown during
the religious ceremonies to symbolize the roaring of the
winds as the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles. Law
courts were forbidden to sit for an entire week and little
servile work was done.
In England during the reign of King Arthur there were
magnificent tournaments at Whitsuntide. Miracle or mystery
plays were given, and we learn that Roswitha, the celebrated
nun-poetess of the tenth century, wrote one of these,
performed at Chester.
Many other customs grew up in England around this feast.
English farmers gave milk on this day to all who asked for
it. "Smoke money" was paid to the church, based on the
number of chimneys on the house owned. There were morris
dances in every parish, and the old looked on while the
young danced; everyone ate the food he had brought and
purchased "Whitsun ale." Shakespeare had doubtless this in
mind when he wrote:
It hath been sung at festivals,
On ember eves and holy ales.
The Whitsun Ales, so called by the people, had their origin
in the agapae or love feasts of the early Christians, and
the drink was made by the churchwardens who bought the malt
and brewed it in advance. The profits of these Ales were
given to the poor, according to a Christian rule that all
profits would be spent in alms.
In addition to ale, custards, cheese cakes, and huge roasts
were typical of this feast in England, and another favored
dish was Gooseberry Pudding.
Gooseberry Pudding
3 cups gooseberries 4 tablespoons sugar
1 cup bread crumbs 3 eggs
3 tablespoons butter short pastry
Top, tail, and wash the gooseberries. Cook them in a light
sugar syrup until done and then press them through a sieve.
Add the bread crumbs, butter, sugar and beaten eggs. Line
the edges of a dish with a good short pastry, pour in the
mixture, and bake at 375 degrees F. for about forty minutes.
Whitsuntide is also observed in various sections of the
United States, and in New York St. George's Church holds a
fair annually on this day.
JUNE
June 8: Feast of Saint Medard
Should Saint Medard's day be wet
It will rain for forty yet;
At least until Saint Barnabas
The summer sun won't favor us,
is a saying in France, and particularly in Picardy where
Saint Medard was born in Merovingian times. He was bishop of
Noyon and a great missionary who worked for the conversion
of the Franks. When Queen Radegunde left her murderer-
husband, King Clotaire, she fled to Medard for refuge and
was clothed by him in the religious habit.
The stories of how he became a "weather saint" are many and
varied. One day, says the legend, Saint Medard gave away one
of his father's finest colts to a poor peasant who had lost
his horse. Immediately after this took place there was a
torrential rain, and everyone was soaked to the skin except
the generous youth. "It is Saint Medard watering his colts,"
say the French farmers when the June rains come and help up
their work. Later, when he was a bishop, Saint Medard was
known for his kindness to the farming people and especially
to the poor among them.
He set aside the income from twelve acres of his own land to
be given to the most virtuous girl of his diocese, and it
was he who started the "feast of the rose queen." For many
centuries in French churches a crown of roses was placed
upon the head of the girl who had most edified the parish.
The custom of crowning the rose queen still exists in some
of the working districts in the suburbs of Paris, but the
feast has become a secular one and takes place in the local
"salle des fetes" with the mayor and civil officials in
attendance.
Rose Potpourri
1/2 oz. violet powder 1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 oz. orrisroot 4 drops oil of roses
1/2 oz. rose powder 10 drops chiris
1/2 oz. heliotrope powder 20 drops oil melisane
1/2 teaspoon mace 20 drops oil eucalyptus
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 10 drops bergamot
2 drams alcohol
Gather rose petals when the roses are in their richest
bloom, but not when the dew is on them, and pack in a jar in
layers two inches deep, sprinkling about two tablespoons of
fine, dry salt upon each layer. Continue this until the jar
is full, adding fresh petals and salt daily. Keep in a dark,
dry, cool place. A week after the last relay is gathered
turn out the salted petals upon a broad platter, mix and
toss together until the mass is loosened. Then incorporate
thoroughly with the ingredients given above; pack in a clean
jar, cover lightly, and set away to "ripen." It will be
ready for rose jars, etc., in a fortnight, and, if kept
covered, will be good and fragrant for twenty years.
June 9: Feast of Saint Columba
A long-ago saint whose feast comes in June is Saint Columba,
a missionary from Ireland to the Picts, a name given to the
Scots in the sixth century. He was in his forty-fourth year
when with twelve companians he crossed the sea in a
"curragh," a boat of wickerwork covered with hides, and
landed at Iona on the eve of Pentecost in the year 563. He
spent most of the remaining years of his life among the
inhabitants of the glens and straths of northern Scotland.
The stories of him that have come down to us show him a kind
and gentle man who founded many monasteries and churches and
got along well with the Scottish shepherds and sheep
raisers. When he died it was at the foot of the altar before
which he had spent much of his life.
On his day, even at the present time in various parts of
Scotland, an oaten cake is baked in his honor, and in the
dough is placed a silver coin. To the child who receives the
coin in his share of the cake goes the honor of being put in
charge of the new lambs for the next twelve months, an
office very popular with small shepherds.
The cake to which we refer is known as a Bannock from the
Gaelic "bannach," meaning a cake; that is, a large round
scone or oatcake. It is a thing of substance and may be made
of oatmeal, wheat, or barley flour. We give here a popular
variety.
Bannock
2 oz. almonds 4 tablespoons sugar
1 lb. flour 2 oz. candied orange peel
1/2 lb. butter
Blanch and shred the almonds and mix them with the flour,
sugar, and orange peel on a pastry board. Make a well in the
center into which put the butter and knead until it is well
blended. Roll out and form into round cakes, pinching the
edges, and prick the centers with a fork. Bake on a greased
baking sheet in a 375 degrees F. oven for one hour.
June 13: Feast of Saint Anthony
Few are the saints more beloved and invoked than Saint
Anthony of Padua. A Franciscan of the twelfth century, many
of his achievements have been forgotten because of his
reputation as a saint who has the special ability to help
find things which have been lost. Despite the humility that
made him sweep each day the floor of the monastery and slow
to speak for himself, he was an eloquent and stern preacher
against error, so much so that he was known as the "hammer
of heretics." He could speak many languages, and evidently
all his sermons were not of the fiery kind, for we are told
that even the fishes listened to him with delight.
In statues we see him holding the Infant Jesus, because of a
vision he had of the Child, his devotion to whom no doubt
had much to do with making him the helpful, kindly saint he
is to the world today. Lighted tapers are always to be found
burning before his statue and altar in churches. In fact, so
much is he appealed to, that it is sometimes hard to find a
candle unlighted--so many, many things go astray in this
world.
Saint of the lost, who may not stay nor stand
While one child wanders from his mother's hand,
wrote one modern poet of him. He is reputed able to find
anything, from money and papers and jewelry to lost
children, from lost gloves to lost love.
There are some who feel that he does too much, especially
when he retrieves the belongings of careless people whose
possessions should perhaps justly stay lost because they
take no care of them, but evidently this is not Saint
Anthony's code.
Dear Saint Anthony, please come round--
Something is lost and must be found,
runs another rhyme.
For his feast day we suggest a dish with a name we are sure
would delight his heart, for no doubt a saint who finds lost
things for people must be one saint who hates waste of any
kind. We refer to "Pain Perdu," which is made of stale
rolls.
Take rolls that are stale and grate off all of the crust,
setting aside the crumbs. Divide the rolls in two and soak
them in the milk which has been mixed with the sugar. After
about fifteen minutes, take them out and squeeze them
gently. Dip them in the beaten egg yolks and then in the
crumbs grated from the crusts. Fry them a light brown in
butter and serve with sugar and cinnamon, currant jelly, or
a vanilla sauce.
June 24: Feast of Saint John the Baptist
The great feast of this month, one common to many lands and
celebrated since very early times, is the Nativity of Saint
John the Baptist, also known as Midsummer. In many places
bonfires are lighted in Saint John's honor, just as long
before the Christian era fires were lighted on this day to
celebrate the summer solstice. Especially in Ireland and in
England these bonfires had their origin in the Druidic fires
lighted in honor of the god of the sacred wood. But today
they are everywhere known as the Fires of Saint John,
although a few pagan customs remain in connection with the
celebration. When the lassies of Ireland and Poland drop
melted lead into cold water to foretell their future, they
are following a custom that stems from the Druidic methods
of soothsaying.
In Finland the cities are all but empty on Saint John's Eve
for everyone is out in the country celebrating the Midsummer
or Saint John's festival. Of course in many places no pagan
or even secular meaning is attached to the feast. In France
the bonfires are built as close as possible to one of Saint
John's own chapels. It is considered important that a lad
named Jean or a girl named Jeanne provide a wreath to throw
onto the fire. When vesper services are over, the priest
kindles the blaze, and the evening is given over to dancing
and singing which last till far into the night.
In Germany the more daring of the young men leap through the
"Johannesfeuer," and sometimes in Hungary betrothed couples
leap through the flames together; if they succeed without
being parted they know they will always remain together, and
to make their success sure, the rest of the company dances
about the two and sings:
May God send a shower
To wash these two together
Like two golden twigs.
In Mexico Saint John's feast is his and his alone, and the
summer solstice has no slightest share in it. He is the
Mexicans' dearly beloved saint, especially the saint of
waters; and on his day wells and fountains are bright with
ribbons and flowers. At midnight on the eve, everyone
bathes: in the country in lake or pool or river; in large
cities the festivities center around the fashionable
bathhouses where swimming contests and exhibitions of diving
skill take place.
Saint John's Day in Mexico is definitely also a day of
feasting. Everyone brings food to the bathing places--cakes
and sweets, but also chicken tamales and stuffed peppers,
pork "tacos" and "empanadas."
Tortillas de Harina (Flour Tortillas)
2 cups flour 1 tablespoon lard
1 teaspoon salt cold water
Sift flour and salt together and cut in the lard and
sufficient cold water to make a stiff dough. Knead on a
floured board, divide into small balls and roll out to 1/8-
inch thickness. Cook on a lightly greased griddle.
Grind the pork and fry it in 2 tablespoons of the lard.
Grind 1 onion, the pepper, and 1 tomato and add to the meat.
Simmer for a few minutes and then add the raisins, the
sherry, and the mashed boiled egg. Cook the second onion
with the remaining tomatoes in 2 tablespoons of lard and add
enough water to make a good sauce. Simmer for about ten
minutes. Moisten each tortilla in the sauce, place a
tablespoon of the meat mixture on each, and roll it up.
Place tortillas in a greased baking dish, cover with the
sauce, sprinkle with grated cheese, and bake in a 375
degrees F. oven until the cheese is melted.
Empanadas de Orno (Meat Pies)
3 onions 1/2 can cream corn
1 green pepper 1/2 cup ripe olives
butter 1/2 cup raisins
1 lb. ground beef salt and pepper
1/2 can niblet corn pie dough
2 hard-boiled eggs
Chop onions and pepper and fry in a little butter until they
begin to brown. Then add the meat and fry for about ten
minutes. Add the corn, the pitted ripe olives, and raisins,
with salt and pepper to taste. Roll out your favorite pie
dough and cut into rounds. Place a tablespoon of the mixture
on each, lay a slice of hard-boiled egg on top; fold pastry
over and pinch the edges. Sprinkle brown sugar on top and
bake in a 400 degrees F. oven until done.
In Spain many are content to walk through the dew on Saint
John's Eve, but others bathe in the sea; there are the usual
bonfires and fortune-telling, and heart-shaped cakes are
purchased by every swain for his senorita.
In Latvia carolers, singing the praises of the saint, go
door to door on Saint John's Eve, quite as they do Christmas
Eve. To have the singers come in and give the household a
special concert is considered a high honor, and the singers
are openly lured to enter. As the group approaches a house,
the enterprising housewife stands holding out to them bread
and cheese, and behind her, her husband offers mugs full of
a sweet light beer, made especially for the occasion.
In England a similar custom prevailed for many years: on
Saint John's Eve householders in towns and villages called
to passers-by to stop for a bite and a sip. In some places
the bread and cheese and beer were placed on little tables
outside the front door. We highly approve this idea of
having people stop for a little hospitality, whether they
are strangers in town or old friends, and we think old
English custom sounds wonderfully inviting in lieu of
cocktail parties in tight airless rooms.
Some food connected with Saint John has always had a
doubtful sound to many of us. We read that John himself when
in the desert fed on locusts and wild honey. The latter
seems fine, the other not so good. But etymologists tell us
these locusts were not bugs but beans; in fact in the
Southwest of the United States there is a bean called
"algarroba," in common parlance locust beans. With much
relief, remembering an early Sunday school vision of Saint
John crunching grasshoppers which even wild honey could not
have rendered palatable, we accept this pleasanter version.
June 29: Feast of Saint Peter
The last day but one of this month celebrates the feast of
Saint Peter. Mrs. Jameson in her monumental work, "Sacred
and Legendary Art," says that "all saints are, in one sense,
patron saints; either as protectors of some particular
nation, province or city, or of some particular avocation,
trade, or condition of life; but there is a wide distinction
to be drawn between the merely national and local saints,
and those universally accepted and revered." Surely Saint
Peter belongs in the latter category.
Peter is usually depicted as a robust man, of undaunted
countenance: he is given the broad rustic features befitting
a pilot of the Galilean Sea and is shown with a short,
curled beard and a bald head.
One of the badges of Saint Peter is the cock, an allusion to
the crowing of that bird which caused the saint to go out
and weep bitterly for his denial of Christ; but when he is
distinguished by a fish, the symbol is of double
significance Peter's avocation as a fisherman and his
mission as a fisher of men.
In many sea-coast towns of England he is regarded as chief
protector and his day made one of high festival. Boats are
decked in ribbons and flowers and often repainted in honor
of the occasion. Races and feats of seamanship take place
before an admiring crowd on shore, and everyone gathers
together for a feast of which the chief dish is always fish.
Mince the onion and green pepper and cook in a little butter
till soft. Cut up the tomatoes and add to the onion and
pepper. Simmer for about ten minutes. Stir the flour to a
paste with the cream, add to the sauce, and cook a bit
longer. If too dry, a little more tomato juice may be added.
Bring to a boil, put in your fillets and cook for about ten
minutes.
JULY
July 4: Independence Day
THIS MONTH holds for Americans the celebration of our
glorious Fourth, Independence Day, a great national holiday
not connected with the feast of a saint (as is Saint
Andrew's Day in Scotland and Saint George's in England), or
with a festival of the Church. And yet can it be said that
the anniversary of the birth of a nation is ever an entirely
secular affair? In this case we do not believe it is so. In
man's aspirations for freedom, there is always a spiritual
element, and this was especially true in the thinking of the
American signers of the Declaration of Independence at
Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. On Thanksgiving Day we give
thanks to God that He has provided our citizens with food
for the body; at this other particularly American
celebration we give thanks that He has allowed our spirit to
live.
For years the Fourth of July has been marked in every city
and town of the United States by patriotic gatherings,
parades, and speechmaking in the principal square; the
national anthem and other songs are sung (which sound
especially well when shrilled by young and untrained
voices); and martial airs are played by the local band. But
the firecrackers of our childhood are no more, a pity and a
blessing too. The slogan of a safe and sane Fourth is now
becoming a fixed rule everywhere, and in these days the
fireworks are set off at night by competent and careful
manipulators.
Last Independence Day we attended such a display--one of
many thousands throughout the country--and sat on a hilltop
watching the fireworks. Around us children chattered and
lighted sparklers; when some particularly dazzling skyrocket
burst red and blue and white against the night sky, there
was clapping from the crowd. Last of all appeared the usual
"set piece"--the American flag with Roman candles clustered
about it.
All stood up as a voice in the crowd began "The Star
Spangled Banner"; the singing grew louder and louder as more
people joined in. The peaceful evening and the rockets'
harmless glare, the voices of free people singing a free
song, the knowledge that that freedom had been defended in
the past and might have to be defended again on nights far
from peaceful and with weapons far from harmless--all
produced an emotion that could perhaps be called
sentimental. But devotion to the truth that made us free,
and alone will keep us free, was still there, right in the
midst of the sentiment.
Independence Day food is often of the picnic variety, as is
right for a holiday usually spent in the open. But there are
traditional dishes originating in George Washington's
Virginia. One such is a breakfast specialty, Rice Waffles.
Rice Waffles
2 egg yolks 1 cup hot boiled rice
1 cup milk 4 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup flour 2 egg whites
Mix the egg yolks with the milk; add the flour, rice, and
melted butter. Finally fold in the stiffly beaten egg
whites. Bake as usual and serve with the following sauce:
Sauce for Rice Waffles
1/2 lb. strained honey 2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup maple syrup caraway seeds
Beat together thoroughly 1/2 pound of strained honey 1/2 cup
of maple syrup and heat slowly in a double boiler. Add 2
teaspoons of cinnamon and a few grains of caraway seeds.
Serve hot.
Another dish of the day is poached salmon with egg and caper
sauce, served with green peas and mashed potatoes. Not only
is this the traditional time for serving the first salmon of
the season, but we learn that this menu of soft foods was
prepared for the Father of our country because of the
discomfort caused him by his ill-fitting set of false teeth!
Poached Salmon
1 cup white wine 4 sprigs parsley
2 qts. water 2 shallots
2 tablespoons vinegar 6 peppercorns
2 chopped onions 1 clove garlic
2 carrots 2 whole cloves
1 stalk celery salt
salmon
Bring the wine and water to a boil. (It is classic to use
half wine and half water but this may prove too expensive
for most pockets.) Add the vinegar, the vegetables, and
spices and simmer gently for about half an hour before
adding the fish. Unless you have a fish boiler it is
advisable to wrap your salmon in a piece of cheesecloth to
facilitate handling. Simmer, never boil, the fish, allowing
twelve minutes to the pound. Remove skin and serve on a warm
platter.
Egg and Caper Sauce
4 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons capers
4 tablespoons flour 2 tablespoons chopped
2 cups hot milk parsley
1/2 cup heavy cream few drops lemon juice
2 hard-boiled eggs pinch of salt
pinch of paprika
Melt the butter and gradually stir in the flour and cook for
several minutes. Then add the hot milk and stir constantly
until the sauce is thick. Add the cream, the chopped hard
boiled eggs, capers (carefully drained), parsley, lemon
juice and finally the salt and paprika. Stir until smooth
and serve hot.
And of course the day's dessert everywhere has long been a
triangle or a circle of watermelon. Never, never, we hope,
will it become the small new variety just developed, we hear
with a sense of shock, with no seeds at all. The color
combination surely should all be kept in the true
watermelon--the black seeds, with the red, the white, and
the green.
Further, we hear, the experts are working not only to
produce a seedless watermelon, but one with a very thin
green rind. When that happens, what will happen to one of
the nation's delicacies, the watermelon pickle? Before that
dread day, we hasten to offer here a recipe for this truly
American relish:
Watermelon Pickle
rind of 1 large 8 cups sugar
watermelon 4 cups cider vinegar
salted water 4 teaspoons whole cloves
4 cups water 4 teaspoons whole allspice
8 sticks cinnamon
Peel and remove all the green and pink portions from the
rind of 1 large watermelon. Cut into squares, oblongs, or
any desired shape and soak in salt water to cover, allowing
1 tablespoon of salt to 1 cup of water. Soak for about
twelve hours or overnight. Drain, cover with fresh water,
and cook gently until almost tender. Make a syrup of the
water, sugar, vinegar, and spices (tied in a cheesecloth
bag) and boil for about twenty minutes. Remove the spice
bag, add the drained watermelon, and cook until clear and
transparent. Pack at once in sterilized jars and seal.
Another dessert in favor on the Fourth of July from the very
beginning of these United States is the Independence Day
Cake. This very properly had its origin in Philadelphia, and
every heirloom cookery book has its recipe. Tall and frosted
in white, it is surrounded with a wreath of gilded leaves,
made in early days of the boxwood so popular in colonial
hedges. It is a cake of victory, of snowy purity, its wreath
reflecting the gold of the seal of the Declaration, well
suited to a day which made this a free land for free men.
Independence Day Cake
1 yeast cake 1-1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup lukewarm water 3 eggs
4-1/2 cups sifted flour 1 jigger sherry
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon 1 jigger brandy
1-1/2 teaspoons cloves 3 oz. citron
1 teaspoon nutmeg 1 cup currants
1 cup butter 1 cup seedless raisins
Crumble the yeast cake in the lukewarm water and stir until
dissolved. Sift the flour with the spices. Cream the butter
and then add the sugar, beating until smooth. Add the eggs,
one at a time, beating until light after each addition. Add
the sherry and brandy and mix thoroughly. Then add the
citron, currants, and raisins. Add half the flour and stir
until smooth; then add the yeast, stir again, add the
remaining flour, and stir again until mixed. Turn into a
greased, floured tube pan and let stand in a warm place
until it rises--for about two hours. Bake at 350 degrees F.
for one and a half hours.
July 15: Saint Swithin's Day
We are entering now the period known as "dog days" and which
in many places marks the beginning of the rainy season. We
would therefore like to speak first of St. Swithin's as one
of the "weather saints," for as the saying goes,
Saint Swithin's Day, if thou dost rain,
For forty days it will remain;
Saint Swithin's Day, if thou be fair,
For forty days 'twill rain nae mair.
Saint Swithin's connection with the weather, and
particularly with the rain, doubtless comes from the legend
that in his humility he asked to be buried outside his
cathedral, where passers-by would step over his grave and
raindrops from the eaves would fall upon it. He lived in the
ninth century and was for a time one of the counselors of
Egbert, a Saxon king. Later be became Bishop of Winchester,
where great devotion to him long prevailed. Little else is
known of him save that his feast is celebrated on the date
when his relics were removed from the humble grave he had
desired and placed, nearly a century after his death, in a
new shrine built for him, where many miraculous cures took
place.
And while we are on the subject of "weather saints," it
might be pointed out that similar prophecies on certain days
are made in various European countries although there is a
difference of opinion as to the particular date in question.
In France, for example, the feast of Saint Medard on June
8th, and the day of Saints Gervasius and Protasius, which
falls on June 19th, have a similar character ascribed to
them, as demonstrated by the verse:
S'il pleut le jour de Saint Medard,
Il pleut quarante jours plus tard;
S'il pleut le jour de Saint Gervais
et de Saint Protais,
Il pleut quarante jours apres.
We have already spoken of Saint Medard on his feast day. We
know little about Gervasius and Protasius other than that
they were revered as the first martyrs of Milan, that they
were the sons of another martyr, named Vitalis, and that
they were put to death in Nero's time. Though they died in
the first century, it is said that Saint Ambrose discovered
their relics while digging the excavations for his cathedral
in 386 A.D. and had them interred there.
Belgium has its rainy saint, namely Saint Godelieve, of whom
little is known other than that she was a holy woman in
Flanders who was cruelly treated, and finally murdered, by
her inhuman husband. Ever since her death in the eleventh
century she has been venerated as a martyr in Belgium, and
particularly in Ghent.
The Germans ascribe a similar character to the day of the
Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, July 19th. The story of the
persecution of these saints under Decius in 250 A.D. is too
well known to be repeated here. In fact, they were so
notable that the Greek and all other Eastern Churches list
them in their catalogues of saints and even Mohammed
introduced into his Koran a myth borrowed from them.
To return to Saint Swithin, besides the rain, his specialty
is apples.
He blesses Bramley Seedlings
For dumplings or pie;
Blenheims will keep till Christmas
If lofted cool and dry;
And scarlet crabs for jelly
And Coxes ripe from Rent
Shall round an English belly
To apple-fat content,
says Elizabeth Sewell in a delightful poem published in
"Duckett's Register." And she ends:
High in the Heavenly Places
I see Saint Swithin stand.
His garments smell of apples
And rain-wet English land.
So in honor of Saint Swithin we may make
Apple Dowdy
Peel and quarter firm, tart apples and place them in a
baking dish. Sprinkle light brown sugar over them, the
amount depending upon the sweetness of the apples. Dust with
a very little cinnamon, and grate nutmeg over the top. Dot
generously with butter and pour over 1/2 cup of warm water.
Cover the top with a rich biscuit dough, rolled about 3/4 of
an inch thick, slash a few holes to allow the steam to
escape, and bake in a 300 degrees F. oven for three hours.
Serve with thick, unwhipped cream.
July 16: Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Celebration of the feast of Our Lady of Carmel goes back to
the fourteenth century. Originally a feast of the
Carmelites, it took its name from that order's first
monastery on Mount Carmel in Syria, and it became in the
eighteenth century a feast of the universal Church.
Devotion to Our Lady of Carmel is great in various European
countries, and this title of the Blessed Virgin has given
rise in Spain to such baptismal names as Carmen and Carmela
and in Italy to Carmine and Carmelo. The Italians especially
are devoted to Our Lady of Carmine. She has long been the
patroness of Naples.
Often in the cities of the United States where Italian
immigrants have arrived in large numbers during the years,
one can see today, carried on as in the homeland,
celebrations of this beloved feast. In the Italian section
of New York City windows and balconies are everywhere
decorated with red and green and white bunting and
streamers. The streets are a sea of booths, and outside
altars are constructed, sometimes two and three stories
high. Among the gay crowds in the streets, carts are being
pushed along laden with "Torrone" (nougat) and frosted cakes
and candies of such bright colors that to the unaccustomed
eye they suggest indigestion if not death. But evidently Our
Lady of Carmine takes good care of her clients: there is a
saying that no one will ever be taken ill on her day or as a
result of its celebration.
Since she is reputed to heal ailments of all kinds, we find
booths displaying replicas of various portions of the human
anatomy, and their sale is brisk. Among the surging crowds
we see people holding high in the air a waxen arm or leg to
keep it from being broken. They are on their way to church
to beg for the relief of some ailment or to place their wax
offering before a shrine in thanksgiving for a cure. And
somewhere in the long procession which crowns the
celebration is the Virgin's statue so covered with money--
some crackling new bills, others long saved and full of
creases--that one can hardly see the image of the Lady in
whose honor all this is done. The celebrations usually last
for three or four days and, in New York before the last war,
was regularly climaxed by a strange bit of pantomime. Stout
wires were stretched from a fire escape on the fourth or
fifth floor of one building to the fire escape of another
across the street. At a given signal, shortly before
midnight, a little girl gaudily attired in pink and
furbished with a huge pair of waxen wings was propelled
along the wire from each fire escape. As the two met in mid-
air, they paused for a few minutes and then continued on
their way to safety. The look of anxiety on the children's
faces and that of admiration and ecstasy on the part of the
onlookers was indeed something to behold. In addition to
"Torrone," "Granita di Caffe" is a favorite sweet sold at
tables and from carts along the streets.
Torrone (Nougat)
1 cup honey 1/2 lb. hazelnuts
2 egg whites 1 oz. candied orange
1 cup sugar peel
2 tablespoons water 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon
1 lb. almonds rind
Put the honey in the top of a double boiler over boiling
water and stir for an hour--until the honey is carmelized.
Beat the egg whites stiff and add slowly to the honey,
mixing well. In a small saucepan boil the sugar and water
until it also carmelizes, but do not stir. Slowly add the
sugar to the honey and mix thoroughly. Cook for about five
minutes more or until a little dropped into cold water
hardens. Add nuts (the almonds having been blanched and the
hazelnuts toasted in a hot oven for a few minutes), the
candied peel, and the lemon rind. Mix quickly before the
mixture hardens. Pour into well-oiled small loaf pans and
after about twenty minutes cut into strips about two inches
wide. Traditionally the top and bottom of the "Torrone" is
covered with wafers which can be purchased at Italian
confectionery stores. These wafers are called "Ostia."
Granita di Caffe (Coffee Ice)
3/4 cup sugar 1/2 cup lemon juice
2 cups warm water 2 cups strong coffee
Stir the sugar into the warm water until it is melted and
add the lemon juice, stirring for about five minutes. Add
the coffee, strain, place in a freezing tray, and freeze,
stirring frequently, until it becomes a mush.
July 25: Feast of Saint James the Apostle
Tradition says that after the martyrdom of this son of
Zebedee and Salome, the body of Saint James was placed in a
rudderless boat with no steersman and allowed to float to
sea. Under the guidance of angels it came to shore at
Compostela in Spain. Later this town became the most famous
place of pilgrimage in Christendom save for Jerusalem and
Rome.
Saint James is the patron saint of Spain and of pilgrims in
general. His symbol is the cockleshell, which has become the
universal symbol of all pilgrims, and shellfish are
especially connected with his feast. There is an old saying
that he who eats oysters on Saint James' Day shall never
lack for money. If a comfortable livelihood could really be
so easily achieved, surely the lovers of the bivalve would
be legion. But then the oyster beds would be emptied and the
world would have to go to work again; so many circles that
look pleasant in Utopia turn out to be vicious in our modern
society.
In earlier days the street boys of London built grottoes of
oyster and cockleshells on this day, and held out the
largest one they could find to beg pence from passers-by.
Since cockleshells are so particularly associated with this
Apostle, we suggest as a most appropriate delicacy for this
feast day Coquilles Saint-Jacques.
Coquilles Saint-Jacques (Scallops or Cockles in the Shell)
12 scallops 2 cups cream
4 oz. butter 4 egg yolks
salt and pepper 3 sprigs chopped parsley
1/2 lb. mushrooms lemon juice
4 tablespoons sherry bread crumbs
2 tablespoons tomato puree
Cut each scallop in two. Put them in a pan with the butter,
salt and pepper to taste, and cook for about ten minutes. In
another pan saute the mushrooms in a little butter. When the
mushrooms have cooked for about five minutes, add them with
the sherry and the tomato puree to the scallops. Stir in the
cream and the egg yolks but do not let the mixture boil. Add
the chopped parsley and a little lemon juice. (If desired,
add also a little finely chopped garlic.) Fill the mixture
into scallop shells, cover with buttered bread crumbs, and
run under the broiler for a very few minutes. (Note: Cockles
and scallops are not of the same family. However, we suggest
scallops here since they are much more easily procured.
Incidentally, one of the French names for scallops is
"pelerine," meaning pilgrim.)
Saint James' feast was long pleasantly celebrated in rural
England by the blessing of the new apple crop. The rector of
the town was expected--and of course this was in the
rationless seventeenth and eighteenth centuries--to
distribute from his rectory "pyes" of mutton or beef to
those who came to ask for them. The recipes are still at
hand, and here is one high in favor in happier days.
Cut the steak into 1-1/2-inch cubes and slice the kidneys.
Melt the butter and brown the onion lightly. Add the steak
and stir well until all sides are browned. Add the stock (or
3 cups boiling water with 3 bouillon cubes), cover, and
allow to simmer for about one and a half hours. Then add the
kidneys and cook an additional twenty minutes. Season with
Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. Place in a baking
dish, cover with piecrust, making a slit for steam to
escape, and bake at 450 degrees F. for about twenty to
twenty-five minutes or until crust is done.
July 26: Feast of Saint Anne
This is the day set aside by the Western Church to celebrate
the feast of one who is not mentioned in the Gospels but who
is set down in tradition as well as in the hearts of
thousands as Saint Anne, the mother of Mary.
She is especially beloved in France where, according to one
ancient account, "la bonne Sainte Anne" was born. She is
said to have gone from the land of Brittany to the land
where she gave birth to Our Lady; and later, for love of her
own country, she returned to Brittany to live, when her
daughter was grown up and married to Joseph. All over France
there are many churches in her honor and many harbor relics
of Saint Anne.
The patroness of Brittany, a little saying sums up the
feelings of every Breton about her: "C'est notre mere a
tous." Religious processions and other celebrations take
place on her feast and, since the gastronomic specialties of
Brittany are all sorts of fish and crustaceans, they are
always served on her day.
Boil a medium-sized lobster and allow it to cool. When cold,
split it in two and dice all of the meat. Heat 2 tablespoons
of butter and saute the lobster meat in it for several
minutes. Add the sherry, the cream sauce, and then the cup
cream. Simmer gently for about ten minutes and then add the
beaten egg yolks mixed with the remaining butter and cream.
Mix all thoroughly and fill the lobster shells. Bake in a
hot oven until lightly browned, or, while still hot, run
under the broiler. (Note: Although the original recipe calls
for crawfish, this is not easily nor always obtainable, and
lobster may be substituted.)
France has carried its devotion to Saint Anne to the New
World and in the little town of Beaupre in Canada she is
held in especial reverence. Devotion to her goes back to the
year 1650 when in the first house of the town was built a
tiny altar in her honor. Eight years later a small chapel
was erected to her, and it is told that she showed her
appreciation by healing a crippled old man who had carried
bricks for her building.
Today, on either side of the doors of the great Basilica of
Saint Anne de Beaupre, piles of bandages and crutches are
left by hundreds of her grateful clients. Pilgrims by
thousands stream through the little town sometimes called
"the Lourdes of Canada."
In Hungary Saint Anne's day is a great feast and is known as
Mother's Day. It was formerly a holiday when the rich
indulged in fine Anna balls, the peasants in folk dances and
merrymaking of all kinds, and when the traditional Anna
Fairs were held in towns and villages.
July 29: Feast of Saint Martha
Saint Martha, one of the best loved saints in the calendar,
is called by the French "la travailleuse de Dieu"--the
worker for God; this we know she was always and in more ways
than one. The Italians know her as "l'albergatrice de
Cristo"--the hostess of Christ.
She is the patron of cookery and of housewives. We all know
the familiar story of how, as she was busied with preparing
the dinner, her sister Mary sat at the feet of their Guest
and listened to His words of love and wisdom. Martha, who
was no doubt preparing a very special meal in His honor,
needed help, and who, she reasoned, could better give it
than Mary, sitting there with idle hands? Once the meal was
served, she no doubt thought, there would be plenty of time
to fold one's hands and listen to conversation--and perhaps
her irritation came from the fact that she too wanted to
hear the Words that were being spoken in the other room.
We are certain that every housewife, though she might;
prefer being a Mary, has a sneaking sympathy for Martha. For
is it not very true that there are more Marthas than there
are Marys in the world? And if there were not, please tell
us who would feed everyone, including the Marys? There is
something touching in the complete forgetfulness of Mary,
her total absorption in unworldly things. But what if Martha
had added herself to the company and listened too? Instead
she remained with her task, and we are sure produced a good
meal for that reason, so it is to her that housewives ought
to turn.
In honor of her feast why should we not reproduce some of
the ancient Jewish dishes, prepared in the same way as they
were in Our Lord's day?
The Jews have a Hebrew expression about good food in
general, but about Purim sweets in particular, "Tahm Gan
Eden," which means the taste, or flavor, of the Garden of
Eden. One of the Purim sweets is the Poppy Seed Cooky.
Poppy Seed Cookies
1/2 cup milk 1 teaspoon baking
1 cup poppy seeds powder
1/2 cup butter 1 cup currants
1/2 cup sugar 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1-1/2 cups flour pinch of salt
Scald the milk, cool, and then soak the poppy seeds in it.
Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the remaining
ingredients, mixing well. Drop from a teaspoon on a greased
cooky sheet. Bake at 350 degrees F. for about twenty
minutes--until lightly browned on the bottom. To brown the
tops, run under the broiler for a few seconds, watching that
they do not burn.
One of the traditional Jewish dishes always to be found at
the Passover Seder is "Charoses," a mixture of nuts and
apples moistened with wine, to represent the morsel of
sweetness to lighten the burden of unhappy memory.
Charoses
1/2 cup walnuts sweet red wine
1/2 cup almonds 1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup grated apple 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Chop the nuts and apple together or run them through the
food chopper. Mix with sufficient wine to form a paste. Add
sugar and cinnamon.
There is a tradition that after Martha and Mary lost their
beloved Friend, they were driven, with their brother
Lazarus, from their own country and were placed with other
followers of Christ on a little vessel which bore them
through stormy seas safely to Provence. There, the story
goes, Lazarus became a bishop and was eventually martyred.
Mary became a contemplative, shutting herself away on the
heights of La Baume, and giving herself to penance and
prayer. Martha, however, remained with the people in the
valley, and is said to have founded the first convent for
women at Aix. We are told that she bent the knee a hundred
times a day at her devotions and as many times during the
night. At last she, too, had time to pray. For her day there
is really no need of recipes since she is the patroness of
all cookery. But here are three excellent hors d'oeuvre that
hail from Provence.
Ratatouille
eggplant green peppers
zucchini 2 cloves garlic
tomatoes salt and pepper
olive oil
Take equal amounts of eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, and
peppers. Cut the eggplant and the zucchini into round slices
as thick as a silver dollar. Peel the tomatoes and cut them
into sections. Cut the peppers into ribbons, first removing
the seeds, of course. Mix all together in an earthenware
casserole. Finely chopped onions may be added but this is
optional. But garlic is essential and two cloves of it
should be used, whole (to be fished out later), chopped, or
mashed. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cover generously
with olive oil. Cover the casserole and simmer gently for
about three hours, taking the lid off during the last hour
so that the vegetable liquid boils down to a syrup. Serve
cold.
Poireaux a la Provencale (Leeks a la Provence)
3 lbs. leeks 12 black olives
3 tablespoons olive oil juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper 1 teaspoon chopped
1/2 lb. tomatoes lemon peel
Clean the leeks thoroughly and chop into half-inch lengths.
Put the oil in a shallow casserole and, when it is heated
but not too hot, add the leeks, season with salt and pepper,
and simmer for about ten minutes. Add the tomatoes cut in
half, the olives which have been stoned, the juice of the
lemon, and the lemon peel, and simmer for another fifteen
minutes. Serve cold.
Provencal Salad
Mix equal amounts of shredded celery and chopped water
cress, the grated peel of 1/2 orange, 3 sprigs of chopped
parsley, 6 stoned black olives, chopped, and 2 sliced
tomatoes. Make a dressing of one part lemon juice and two
parts olive oil. Toss just before serving.
AUGUST
August 1: Lammas Day--Feast of Saint Peter in Chains
SO OFTEN in the course of centuries what was once a pagan
festival became a Christian one, and various heathen
observances were transplanted by early workers in the
Christian vineyard and made to bear new fruit. Such a feast
is Lammas Day, which replaced in early Britain the druidic
feast of the Gule of August, marking the reaping of the
first fruits of the year and particularly the earliest
harvest of grain. Today scarcely observed at all, it was for
many centuries a festival of importance on the Church
calendar, and marked and still marks the feast of St. Peter
in Chains. We are told this feast was instituted "to replace
a harvest celebration of heathen origin," and in honor of
the dedication in the fourth century of the Roman church of
St. Peter Advincula on the Esquiline Hill where we may still
find preserved small remnants of the chains that bound the
Apostle in prison.
In Britain the Christian observance was called Lammas (Lamb-
mass), some think from the custom of presenting a lamb to
the church on this date in honor of St. Peter. It is more
probable that the name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon
"hlaf-mass" (loaf-mass), for a loaf made from the first
ripened grain was the more usual offering. We incline to
this second explanation, because the origin of the word
"hlaf-diga" has always been one of our favorite bits of
etymology. "Hlaf-diga" means loaf-giver and the dispenser of
bread, hence the mistress of the home. This title was
softened to our gentler word, lady, and we wonder if there
could be a better definition than this for the term.
In suggesting a special dish for this day we go back to the
early custom in the British Isles of placing the first
sheaves of corn over the church doors on Lammas Day and of
carrying in procession effigies of the Corn Spirit called
"corn maidens."
Corn Bread
3/4 cup flour 3/4 cup yellow corn meal
2 teaspoons baking 1 egg
powder 3 tablespoons melted
2 tablespoons sugar butter
pinch of salt 3/4 cup milk
Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt and add the
corn meal. Beat the egg, butter, and milk. Pour the liquid
into the dry mixture and combine rapidly. Butter an 8 x 8
inch pan and place in the oven until piping hot. Pour the
batter into the hot pan and bake for about twenty-five
minutes at 425 degrees F.
August 6: Feast of the Transfiguration
The origin of this Christian festival has been attributed to
Saint Gregory the Illuminator who flourished in Lower
Armenia during the fourth century. He is said to have
substituted it for a pagan feast of Aphrodite called
"Vartavarh" (the flaming of the rose) and the old name was
retained, in that region at least, to designate the
Transfiguration, because "Christ opened his glory like a
rose on Mount Thabor."
In Armenian villages the day is still celebrated with
unusual ceremonies in the course of which peasants lead to
the church a sheep with decorated horns, on each tip of
which is placed a lighted candle. Flowers, fruit, and
sheaves are also brought and laid before the altar.
Following this ceremony a fair usually takes place; there
are races and games, and a crown of roses is the customary
prize. During the feasting that follows is likely to appear.
Pilaff
3 cups cracked wheat 6 cups stock
4 cups minced cooked 1/2 cup melted butter
lamb pepper
salt cinnamon
Soak the cracked wheat (cracked barley may be substituted)
overnight. Drain the wheat, mix with the meat, and salt to
taste. Place in a large kettle, add about half the stock
(water and bouillon cubes may be used, allowing one cube for
each cup of water), and heat slowly. Cook for about an hour,
stirring almost constantly and adding stock as necessary.
Serve in hot, deep plates, pour melted butter over each
serving, and dust with pepper and cinnamon to taste.
The Feast of the Transfiguration was slower to be observed
in the Western Church and is not mentioned until the ninth
century. It was made universal by Rome on the day when
Hunyady gained his victory over the Turks on August 6, 1456.
It is now the titular feast of the Church of St. John
Lateran, and on this day the Pope presses a bunch of ripe
grapes into the chalice at Mass or uses new wine. Also in
Rome raisins are blessed on the Feast of the
Transfiguration, and the Greek and Russian Churches too
conduct a special ceremony for blessing grapes and other
fruits.
Since the grape is given so much prominence on this feast,
we may give the following recipe:
Wash, remove from stems, and drain the grapes. Put half of
them in a preserving kettle, add the vinegar, cinnamon, and
cloves and then the rest of the grapes. Cook gently for
about fifteen minutes or until soft. Strain through a jelly
bag without pressing so that the juice remains clear. Take 1
cup of sugar for each cup of juice, boil to the proper
consistency for jelly, pour into hot glasses and cover with
1/2 inch of paraffin.
August 10: Feast of Saint Lawrence
We have come to the day of one of the great martyrs of early
Christian times, said to have been roasted to death on a
gridiron and to have laughed and joked even as he underwent
this torture. He was, according to the legends, a gay and
likeable young man, kindly and charitable to all.
Some say that the Perseids, which appear on his feast in the
heavens, are sparks from St. Lawrence's gridiron; others say
they are his tears. We incline to the latter explanation,
for despite his general good spirits, he was a man who
sorrowed over the poor. He was a deacon and became the chief
personage of the Christian community upon the martyrdom of
Pope Sixtus II, having in his keeping the modest funds of
the persecuted Church. Threatened with arrest, he begged for
a day to put his affairs in order, and in due course, having
distributed all In his possession among the poor, he
appeared before the Roman magistrate followed by a crowd of
beggars. When it was demanded that he turn over the treasure
within his keeping, it is told he pointed to the outcasts
and said, "Behold the poor--they are the treasure of the
Church." And the anger of the judge was so great that
Lawrence was condemned to be burned to death over a slow
fire.
Saint Lawrence's Day is celebrated all over Italy. In
Florence, every home and restaurant serves
Lasagne
1/2 lb. ground beef 1 can tomato paste
1/2 lb. ground pork 1 cup tomatoes
1/2 lb. ground veal 2 cups water
2 tablespoons olive oil salt and pepper
1 minced onion 1 lb. lasagne
1 clove garlic 1 lb. Mozzarella cheese
1 teaspoon minced 3/4 lb. ricotta cheese
parsley grated Romano cheese
Brown the various meats in the oil, together with the onion,
garlic, and parsley. Add the tomato paste (use the kind with
basil in it), the tomatoes, and the water, season to taste
with salt and pepper, and simmer from one and a half to two
hours.
Immerse your lasagne, one piece at a time (to prevent
sticking), in a large amount of salted, boiling water and
cook for twenty minutes or until tender. Arrange a layer of
lasagne in a baking dish, then sauce, then some Mozzarella,
then some ricotta; continue this process until all the
lasagne is used, ending up with ricotta on top. Sprinkle
with grated Romano (or Parmesan) and bake in a 375 degrees
F. oven for about twenty minutes.
Although Lawrence died in Rome, he is said to have come from
Spain, and is also greatly honored in that country. When
Philip II won a battle over the French in 1557, he built in
thanksgiving a monastery in honor of Saint Lawrence--and
shaped it like a gridiron. This is the famous Escorial, so
noted in Spanish architecture and history, and the burial
place of the kings of Spain.
San Lorenzo's Day is honored all over the nation, and he is
the patron of many Spanish towns. At Huesca in Aragon his
image is carried in a procession through the streets. In and
out of the line of marching dignitaries, but without
interfering with them in any way, weave the dancers of an
intricate morris dance. (It is interesting to note that the
word morris is a corruption of Moor.) When this procession
is over, the statue of San Lorenzo is returned to his shrine
and everyone attends a bull fight held in his honor. This is
followed by one of the many-course Spanish meals which are
the despair of foreign visitors, but they will surely like
Gazpacho (Cold Spanish Soup)
4 slices white bread dry mustard
1 clove garlic 1 tablespoon caraway
1 onion seeds
1 cucumber olive oil
2 green peppers 2 tablespoons vinegar
salt juice of 1/2 lemon
freshly ground pepper 6 cups water
ice cubes
Remove the crusts from the bread, cut into cubes, and place
in a soup tureen. Mince the garlic, slice the onion and
cucumber, shred the peppers, and add to the bread in the
tureen. Season with salt, freshly ground pepper, and a
little dry mustard. Add the caraway seeds. Cover all
generously with olive oil and mix thoroughly. Add the
vinegar and lemon juice to the water and pour over the bread
mixture. Put on ice for three or four hours. Serve in the
tureen with ice cubes (about 6 or 8) floating in it.
In Paris there flourished for many centuries at the Halles,
or market, the fair of St. Laurent, opening on the saint's
feast and lasting for eight days thereafter. Here pleasure
and commerce were combined in the most agreeable manner, and
in our day as in that of Villon, the French visitor to the
Halles is apt to demand "escargots."
Escargots (Snails)
Snails are cooked for about half an hour in rapidly boiling
salted water. Drain in a colander, remove the snails from
the shells (which are reserved), and remove intestines. Then
place the snails in another kettle, add a "bouquet garni"
made of parsley, bay leaves, and thyme, a sliced onion, and
a glass of cognac or other brandy. Cover with cold water,
season with salt and pepper and, tightly covered, simmer for
about three hours.
In the meantime scrub the shells and dry them thoroughly.
Place a snail in each and cover the opening with garlic
butter. Arrange the snails on a baking tin and place them in
a medium-hot oven until the butter begins to run and the
snails are heated through. The snails are served, ring-
shaped, on a large platter without any garnish.
Garlic Butter for Snails
Pound 2 cloves of garlic in a mortar and remove any shreds
(a garlic press is better if you have one) so that only the
oil remains. Place 1/4 pound butter in the mortar and work
the garlic oil into it as well as you can. Then add a
handful of parsley, chopped, a little salt, freshly ground
pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg. Work all together until well
incorporated.
Incidentally, Saint Lawrence is a patron of cooks and
restaurant-keepers, a protector of vineyards, and invoked
against fire and lumbago.
August 15: Assumption Day
The great feast of this month is that of the Assumption of
the Blessed Virgin--the Day of the Great Lady, as it is
called by a saint whose feast also comes in August: Stephen,
the first king of Hungary. In the Orthodox Church the feast
is known as the Falling Asleep of the All Holy Mother of
God.
This is not only Mary's greatest festival, but one of her
oldest, for belief that she was taken up bodily into heaven
after her death goes back to the early Christian ages, even
though only recently has it been defined as a dogma of
faith. "How shall Paradise not take her up who brought life
to all mankind?" asks Saint Augustine, speaking of it as an
accepted belief in his day.
Everywhere the day has its charming customs. In Eastern
countries all women bearing the name of Mary, or a name
derived from one of her attributes, keep open house in Our
Lady's honor and welcome all who come.
In Poland the day is known as the Feast of Our Lady of
Herbs, for the peasants take to church sweet-smelling
bouquets of their finest blossoms mixed with the green of
herbs. And Poles in America also honor the feast as that of
Our Lady of Flowers; at church children sing hymns both in
Polish and English, and later to the lively music of a
polonaise the grown-ups swing into the dances of their
motherland.
In many parts of Italy, the statue of Our Lady is carried in
procession through the streets to the cathedral or church.
And in Siena there takes place a noted race called the
"Palio" (Standard) in honor of the Assumption of the Virgin.
This race is held in the splendid public square of the city,
shaped like a scallop shell and surrounded by ancient and
beautiful buildings draped with banners for the occasion.
Each ward or parish sends to the race a horse, which is
first taken past the cathedral door to receive the bishop's
blessing. The medieval costumes of the pages and grooms, of
the captain and standard bearers, the furious race of the
bareback riders around the stone-paved square, the crowds of
onlookers from adjoining streets and balconies, make of this
a memorable occasion. The winning parish or ward carries on
a celebration after the race.
Scaloppine al Marsala
1-1/2 lbs. veal cutlet 2 tablespoons butter
salt and pepper 1/2 cup marsala
flour 2 tablespoons stock
Have veal cut as thin as possible and then give it an
additional pounding. Cut into serving pieces, salt and
pepper, and dust lightly with flour. Melt the butter and
brown the pieces quickly on both sides over a quick fire.
When brown, add the Marsala and cook a few seconds more.
Place on a warm platter, scrape the juices in the pan
together with the stock and pour over the meat.
In Portugal the "Romeria," as the festival held on the
Assumption is called, is marked with the playing of a brass
band and of drums and bagpipes. And the statues of Mary,
Queen of the Angels, are crowned in the churches.
In Armenia there is the Blessing of the Grapes on the Sunday
nearest the feast of the Assumption. Great trays of the
fruit are brought into the churches, and after they are
blessed each member of the congregation carries a bunch
home. Feasts are held in the vineyards, and at this time the
first grapes of the season are eaten.
In France August 15th is in general a day for parties and
excursions into the country. At Quimper in Brittany, there
is held the Feast of the Soul, dedicated to Mary as the
great consoler. It is here considered a day for betrothals,
when young men and women come to ask her blessing on their
future. The image of the Virgin is placed at the church door
during the day, and at night carried into the village
square, later to be returned in procession to her shrine.
Then to the light of bonfires and the music of bagpipes, the
young people dance and make merry. A Quimper specialty is:
Crevettes a la Bechamel (Shrimps with Bechamel Sauce)
Boil shrimps, about 1 pound, in heavily salted water for ten
minutes. Remove from the shell and cut out the intestines.
Heat in a bechamel sauce and serve in patty shells or in
scallop shells.
Bechamel Sauce
2 tablespoons butter pinch of salt
1 tablespoon chopped 4 peppercorns
onion 2 sprigs parsley
1/4 cup flour pinch of nutmeg
3 cups hot milk (optional)
Melt the butter, add the onion, and cook until soft but not
brown. Add the flour, mix thoroughly, and cook, stirring all
the while, until the flour begins to turn golden. Add the
milk, a cup at a time, stirring constantly. Add salt,
peppercorns, parsley, and nutmeg (if desired). Cook for
about twenty minutes, or until the consistency of heavy
cream. Strain through a fine sieve.
August 16: Feast of Saint Roch
Saint Roch was born in France, but he is much venerated in
other countries, especially in Italy where he spent a part
of his life, and where San Rocco is highly honored in many
towns and parishes. This saint lived in the thirteenth
century, and came of a well-to-do family of Montpellier in
southern France. Orphaned when young, he distributed his
goods to the poor and donned the coarse habit of a pilgrim.
His destination was Rome, and along the route he stopped at
hospitals to care for the sick and to carry on other tasks
of mercy. On his return he himself was stricken with the
plague and lay dying of hunger and disease in a forest near
Piacenza when there came into his life a faithful companion.
"It is Saint Roch and his dog" is an expression as
proverbial as "Damon and Pythias" to designate two
inseparable beings. In the forest Saint Roch was aided in
his distress by a dog which each day brought him a piece of
bread stolen with measured regularity from the table of his
master. Becoming suspicious, this man followed the animal
into the forest, found the dying pilgrim, became his friend
and was led by him to a better life.
When Saint Roch returned to his native city after many
years, he was so disfigured by his sufferings and
mortifications that he was mistaken for a spy and thrown
into a dungeon, where he died. Only after his death was he
recognized, and a great devotion to him sprang up. Italians,
at home and abroad, celebrate his feast. In Paris it was
long a holy day of obligation. In Italy, Germany, and
France, Saint Roch is considered the patron of surgeons,
old-clothes dealers, wool carders, and of several other
professions, and a protector against diseases of men and of
animals.
Santo Roque is also honored in Spain, and here a special
dish is named for him.
Saint Roch's Fingers
4 egg yolks 2 cups scalded milk
1/4 cup sugar 1 tablespoon brandy
pinch of salt ladyfingers
Beat the egg yolks slightly and add the sugar and salt. Pour
in the scalded milk slowly, stirring all the while, and
place over a slow fire. Cook until mixture begins to thicken
but do not allow it to boil. (It is safer to use a double
boiler.) Strain and, when cool, flavor with 1 tablespoon of
brandy. Arrange ladyfingers on the bottom and around the
sides of a glass serving dish, pour in the custard, and
serve when thoroughly chilled.
August 20: Feast of Saint Stephen of Hungary
This is the greatest Hungarian holiday, the feast of the
first king and the patron saint of his country, converted
from paganism to Christianity in the year 985. He made of
Hungary a Christian nation and placed it under the patronage
of the Mother of God. His feast was celebrated with special
grandeur in Budapest, where until several years ago a most
magnificent procession took place yearly, in which was
carried aloft for public veneration the reliquary containing
the incorrupt right hand of Saint Stephen.
Today these processions are only a memory in Hungary,
although the day is celebrated by Hungarian exiles in other
parts of the world. In happier times in Budapest, peasants
from miles around poured into the city the night before his
feast to await the procession. It started from the Chapel of
the Royal Palace, where the relics were kept, and included
hundreds of marching children, members of religious
organizations, military leaders, and splendidly garbed
officials of Church and State. Acolytes in white and red
accompanied the last prelate bearing aloft the gold-
encrusted reliquary. The line of march proceeded through the
streets to the Matthias Church where Mass was celebrated,
and returned afterwards to the Royal Chapel.
The festivities that followed often lasted the night
through, and not until several days later had all the crowds
departed. As usual in the old Hungary of better days, there
was no lack of good food. Vegetables and fruit were
plentiful, especially melons. And the people feasted on such
dishes as "Paprikas Csirke" and "Gesztenye Krem."
Paprikas Csirke (Paprika Chicken)
2 broilers salt
1/4 lb. butter 1 cup chicken bouillon
3 onions, chopped paprika
flour 2 cups sour cream
Cut the broilers into serving pieces. Melt the butter in a
large frying pan and saute the onions until lightly browned.
Add the chicken and continue cooking for about fifteen
minutes. Turn the pieces from time to time so that they cook
evenly. Remove chicken, add a little flour to thicken, and
then the chicken bouillon, stirring until the sauce is
smooth. Return the chicken to the pan and cook for another
fifteen minutes or until tender. Remove pan from the fire
and add paprika, anywhere from 1 to 2 teaspoonfuls until the
desired sharpness and color is obtained. The sauce should be
decidedly pink. Blend in the sour cream and return to stove
but do not allow to boil once the cream has been added.
Strain the sauce and pour over chicken. Serve with noodles
or dumplings.
Gesztenye Krem (Chestnut Cream)
1-1/2 lbs. chestnuts 1 cup cream, whipped
1 cup water 1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sugar milk
Remove the outer and inner skins of the chestnuts and boil
until soft with sufficient milk to cover. Pass through a
sieve. Combine the sugar and water and cook for about ten
minutes. Mix the chestnut puree and the sugar syrup and,
when cool, add the vanilla and the whipped cream. Pile high
on a serving dish and serve very cold.
August 24: Saint Bartholomew's Day
Of Saint Bartholomew it is said in "The Golden Legend" that
he went to India to convert the pagans, as is told also of
another Apostle, Saint Thomas. He was later martyred in
Armenia, after telling the king who ordered him to adore the
idols, "I shall fritter thy gods and thou shalt believe in
mine." And at his words, the image of Baldach, the god, fell
to the earth in its own temple. According to some,
Bartholomew was beheaded, others tell that he was flayed
alive and then crucified. On account of this latter legend,
we often see him represented in art, as in the Last Judgment
of Michelangelo, holding in his hand his own skin.
Bartholomew's remains, the story continues, were tossed into
a casket and set afloat and came ashore in Sicily, and after
many centuries they were brought to Rome and are thought to
be preserved in the Church of Saint Bartholomew-on-the-
Island.
According to an Austrian legend, many years after his death
Saint Bartholomew was seen walking through a field where a
woman was working on his feast day. He chided her for this,
but the woman was so upset to see the saint bleeding
profusely and with his flayed skin over his shoulder, that
she ran into the house and brought back some butter to
anoint Saint Bartholomew's skin. Since that day Saint
Bartholomew's butter is blessed on his feast in Austria.
In medieval times, Saint Bartholomew's Day was the occasion
of a famous fair in England, first held in 1133. Henry the
First granted a charter to hold this fair to a former
minstrel who had become a monk and founded the Priory of
Saint Bartholomew near London. It was opened on the eve of
the feast and lasted for many days.
In later years, Barthelmy's Fair became a more raucous
celebration, the center for strolling players to present
their shows, and the rowdy merrymaking became so
unrestrained that in the eighteenth century the fair was
discontinued. But for many years it was a great occasion of
fun and feasting. Carts and booths at the fair were heaped
high with cakes and comfits; two specialties were gilt
gingerbread and spiced nuts which the swains bought for
their maids and the crofter for his wife and bairns.
White Gingerbread
1 lb. flour 1/4 lb. butter
1 teaspoon ginger 6 oz. sugar
1 teaspoon soda 2 eggs
1-1/3 cups milk
Sift the flour, ginger, and soda. Cream the butter with the
sugar; add the eggs, then the sifted flour, and finally the
milk. Let dough rest for a half an hour after mixing well,
and bake at 350 degrees F. for about thirty-five minutes.
August 25: Feast of Saint Louis of France
Against this great and good king, one of the principal
patrons of France, one finds nowhere an unkind word uttered.
His biographers emphasize his indifference to his own
comfort, his deep and humble devotion to God and to the
poor. He not only governed his nation in an admirable
manner, but went as a crusader to the Holy Land with mind
intent only on freeing the Holy Sepulcher from the hands of
the infidel.
In the midst of wars, Louis was a lover of peace, and was
often called upon to mediate between other Christian
princes. Under the oak at Vincennes, he delivered wise and
equitable judgments; his constant endeavor was not to appear
imperious. Never impersonal about his charity, he fed
beggars from his own table and daily gave meals to a hundred
poor. He founded many hospitals and refuges, among them one
for penitents and another for the blind.
Under his patronage, Robert de Sorbonne built in Paris the
university which still bears his name. Louis appreciated and
fostered learning, and there is the well-known story of an
occasion when he invited Thomas Aquinas to dine at the
palace. The huge philosopher sat in his place and said
nothing at all, while about him the French conversation went
on--"the most brilliant and noisy clatter in the world,"
says Chesterton, who tells the story with relish. Suddenly
the table shook under the impact of a great fist. There was
a startled silence as the company stared in amazement at
Thomas. Unaware of them, and with another blow on the table,
he said loudly, "And that will settle the Manichaeans!" Then
it was that King Louis leaned over to one of his
secretaries. "Take a note of this," he whispered, "and of
anything more that he says. He might forget it and no doubt
it is an important argument and a true one."
Louis was smitten by the plague and died in the East at the
age of fifty-five, during the second crusade. He had been a
good husband and father, devoted to his wife, Marguerite of
Provence, and to his family of eleven children. Always at
his side, to counsel him, had been his mother, Blanche of
Castile, and on some occasions this great adviser had acted
as his cook. For with her own hands, we are told, she was
wont to prepare for Louis his favorite dish of lampreys, or
eels. The recipe we have chosen is taken from "Le Cuisinier
Francois" by Le Sieur de La Varenne, written in 1658 and,
quite possibly, it was in this manner that good Saint Louis
enjoyed his eel.
"Pate d'Anguilles" (Eel Patty)
Cut the eel in rounds. Mix with it yolks of eggs, parsley,
mushrooms, asparagus, soft roes, verjuice, or gooseberries
if in season, and do not stint either butter, or salt, or
pepper. Spread this on an undercrust and cover it with
pastry. In order to hold it together, butter narrow bands of
paper, and putting them around the pastry, bind them lightly
on. Bake the pate and, when it is cooked, mix the yolks of
three eggs with a dash of verjuice and a little nutmeg; and
when you are ready to serve, pour in your sauce into the
pate and mix it well. Open the pate and serve with the crust
cut in four.
SEPTEMBER
September 1: Feast of Saint Giles
THIS IS the feast of a saint as appealing as any in the
calendar. Saint Giles, so identified with France, was,
according to some, a Greek of the eighth century named
Aegidius who passed over to Gaul and became a hermit, later
founding a famous monastery under the Benedictine rule.
In his first retreat, his legend runs, he had little to eat,
so God sent him a hind to feed him with her milk. One day
the Frankish king of the land was out hunting, and coming
across the hind, he prepared to shoot it with an arrow. But
the animal ran to Giles for protection and the arrow meant
for her pierced the leg of Giles. So, a cripple himself, he
became the patron and protector of the lame. His relics are
honored at Saint-Gilles in France, the town that sprang up
around his abbey, where pilgrimages take place even today.
He is also honored especially in other parts of France, in
Germany, Poland, Spain, and the British Isles. Frequently
depicted in art, his symbol is the hind.
In England, churches named for Saint Giles were built so
that cripples could reach them easily, and he was also
considered the chief patron of the poor. That in his name
charity was granted the most miserable is shown from the
custom that on their passage to Tyburn for execution,
convicts were allowed to stop at St. Giles' Hospital where
they were presented with a bowl of ale called Saint Giles'
Bowl, "thereof to drink at their pleasure, as their last
refreshing in this life." Once in Scotland during the
seventeenth century his relics were stolen from a church and
a great riot occurred.
In Spain the shepherds consider Saint Giles the protector of
rams, and on his feast it was formerly the custom to wash
the rams and color their wool a bright shade, tie lighted
candles to their horns, and bring the animals down the
mountain paths to the chapels and churches to have them
blessed.
A similar custom prevails among the Basques. On September
1st, the shepherds come down from the Pyrenees, attired in
their full costume, sheepskin coats and staves and crooks,
to attend Mass with their best rams, in honor of Saint
Giles. This is the beginning in the Basque country of a
number of autumn festivals, marked by processions and
dancing in the fields.
Soupe Basque
1/2 lb. dried beans 1 cup chopped cabbage
2 cups chopped onions 1 clove garlic
1 cup pumpkin pieces salt and pepper
8 cups stock
Soak the beans overnight, then rinse and drain. Brown the
onion in a little bacon grease, then add the pumpkin,
cabbage, beans, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper and
add the stock. Simmer for about three hours in a covered
soup kettle.
September 24: Schwenkfelder Thanksgiving
Late in September is celebrated in the United States a day
of Thanksgiving quite apart from the national holiday. It is
held by the Schwenkfelders, a Protestant group who came from
Germany in the year 1724 seeking religious freedom. In their
wanderings they had met with persecution in many places and
many of them had perished. Eventually those who survived,
about forty families in all, came to settle in Pennsylvania.
Worn and weary and poor, they reached Philadelphia on
September 22nd, and two days later held a feast of
thanksgiving. It was a very simple feast, consisting of
bread and apple butter and water--nothing more.
Today the descendants of the Schwenkfelders are well able to
hold a costlier celebration. But they still adhere to the
old custom of a meal on this day, eaten after a thanksgiving
service, of bread and apple butter and water.
Boil the cider for about fifteen minutes or until reduced by
half. Wash, peel, and cut the apples; drop into the boiling
cider and cook until tender. Press the apples and juice
through a sieve or food mill. Add the sugar and spices and
cook to the consistency of a thick paste. The apple butter
must be stirred frequently to prevent burning. (In olden
times it was customary to put a handful of well-scrubbed
marbles in the bottom of the pan. This was supposed to help
prevent scorching, but stirring was still necessary.)
Traditionally, the apple butter was stored in earthenware
crocks in a cool cellar. This quantity can be filled into
hot sterilized jars and then processed for about ten
minutes. And as the Pennsylvania Dutch would say, "make
tight shut."
September 29: Michaelmas Day
To many, Saint Michael the Archangel, "Captain of the
Heavenly Host," is best known as that dauntless spirit who
vanquished his peer among the angels, Lucifer, once called
"the Star of the Morning." Michael is a star of the love
than conquers pride. Sometimes he is pictured as a winged
angel in white robes, but oftener as the armed warrior on
the errands of God, about his head a halo and under his foot
the demon, prone and helpless. He was honored in Jewish
tradition, and became the champion of Christian warriors as
well, although in early ages he was also given the
protection of the sick.
Of his early sanctuaries, the best known is Monte Gargano in
Italy, where he appeared in the fifth or sixth century to
the Lombards and insured their victory over the Greek
Neapolitans.
In the Middle Ages Michael became in Normandy the patron of
mariners. His shrines were built in high places, facing the
sea, and Mont-Saint-Michel on its rock is the greatest
example of devotion to him, a place of pilgrimage a thousand
years ago as it still is today. In the early days much food
was sold around the shrine "bread and pasties, fruit and
fish, birds, cakes, venizens," according to an old
description. The fare is simpler today but a visitor to
Mont-Saint-Michel will eat a famed and favorite dish:
Mere Poulard's Omelet
1/4 lb. butter 8 eggs
Melt the butter in a heavy frying pan (traditionally never
used for any other purpose and never washed, merely being
rubbed clean with salt after use) until it begins to froth
and becomes a light golden brown. Beat the eggs with a fork
slightly, just enough to mix the yolks and whites. Do not
overbeat! Pour the eggs into the pan and cook gently,
bringing the edges of the omelet as it cooks to the center
of the pan, lifting the mass slightly so that the uncooked
portion can run underneath. Increase the heat for about one
minute, moving the pan about so that the omelet will slide
in the pan. Invert on a platter and, when half is out of the
pan, flip the pan quickly so as to cover with the remaining
half. Do not salt as the quantity of butter used is
sufficient to season the omelet properly. It is an old
wives' tale that this omelet can only be properly prepared
over a wood fire!
England long observed Michaelmas with many special
ceremonies and customs. The Michaelmas daisy was named in
the saint's honor, and village maidens in other days
gathered crab apples on his feast. These were carried home
and put into a loft, so arranged as to form the initials of
their supposed lovers. The initials that were still perfect
on old Michaelmas Day (October 11) were supposed to show
where true love was. Another curious belief was that it was
unlucky to gather blackberries on the feast of Saint
Michael.
The outstanding and most persistent custom connected with
Michaelmas was the eating of a goose at dinner. This seems
to have originated with the practice of presenting a goose
to the landlord when paying the rent. According to a
sixteenth-century poet:
And when the tenants come to pay their quarter's rent,
They bring some fowl at Midsummer, a dish of fish in Lent,
At Christmas a capon, at Michaelmas a goose
And somewhat else at New-year's tide, for fear their lease
fly loose.
We read that Queen Elizabeth was eating her Michaelmas goose
when she received the news of the defeat of the Spanish
Armada. Obviously, this is apocryphal, for the "invincible"
Armada was defeated in July and the news reached Elizabeth
long before Michaelmas. But certainly the custom persisted
in high places and low throughout Britain.
The Michaelmas goose was eaten in other places besides the
British Isles, although in most countries of the Continent
this custom was more apt to be connected with the
celebration of Saint Martin's Day (November 11th). The
Germans believed they could foretell the weather from the
breastbones of the Michaelmas goose--a belief that traveled
to America with immigrants of German stock, and which still
exists today among the Pennsylvania Dutch.
To Roast a Goose
No doubt the very best way to cook a goose is the English
way. The old recipes speak of roasting it before an open
fire, and we may assume that the fat would then be in the
fire and the goose flesh free of it. (However, they did have
pans underneath to catch the drippings.) For modern cookery,
the stuffed goose should be pricked all over; then put in
the oven; after an hour drain off the fat, prick it again,
and after a while again drain off the fat. Today there are
still many too many who throw away the goose grease, and any
housewife of ye olde dayes reading of this would surely
recommend that those who do so should be hung high on
Tyburn. In the olden days it was carefully kept and used for
a variety of purposes. In fact, even in the United States
oldsters will tell you what a wonderful relief was goose
grease for chilblains in their own young days--an injury far
more prevalent when children plowed through wet snow to
school than today when they ride royally in busses. Roast in
an uncovered pan at 325 degrees F., allowing twenty-five
minutes to the pound.
Peel and cube the potatoes and parboil for about five
minutes. Saute the onion in the butter and add the potatoes,
sausage meat, and parsley. Season with marjoram and pepper,
and salt lightly because of the sausage meat. Apples may be
substituted for the potatoes but in that case omit the
marjoram.
Chestnut Dressing
6 cups chestnuts salt and pepper
1/2 lb. melted butter 1 cup chopped celery
4 tablespoons chopped 2 cups bread crumbs
parsley 2 tablespoons grated onion
Shell, skin, and boil the chestnuts in salted water until
tender. Mix with the remaining ingredients and, if the
stuffing appears to be too dry, moisten with 1/2 cup heavy
cream.
In Ireland, Michaelmas was one of the most important feasts
of the year, and people prayed especially on this day for
protection against sickness. A goose or a sheep or a pig was
especially killed and eaten at Michaelmas at a feast of
thanksgiving, connected by some with a miracle of Saint
Patrick performed with the aid of Michael the Archangel. And
the Irish made a Michaelmas Pie into which a ring was
placed--its finder was supposed to have an early marriage.
In Scotland, Saint Michael's Bannock was made on his day, as
well as a Saint Michael's Cake, that all guests, together
with the family, must eat entirely before the night was
over.
OCTOBER
October 4: Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi
FROM HIS early biographers we learn a charming incident in
the life of the Little Poor Man of Assisi which deals with
food even for this most abstemious of saints.
It was in the year 1212 that Saint Francis became acquainted
with a young woman of the Roman nobility, Lady Jacoba di
Settesoli, widow of the knight Gratiano Frangipani. The name
Frangipani had been given the family because an ancestor had
saved the Roman people from famine by giving them bread--
hence the name "Frangens panem."
Jacoba, a very devout woman and noted for her great
generosity, often gave lodging to the Poverello when he came
to Rome. So impressed was he with the energy and the
capability of his friend that he called her "Brother
Jacoba," by which title she passed to posterity. She not
only saw that Francis' clothing was in decent order, but she
served in her home a sweetmeat of which he was very fond.
"Frangipane" it was called in later years--a concoction of
almonds and sugar, for which the saint expressed perhaps the
only compliment on cooking in his life.
Because Brother Jacoba was so good to him, Francis gave her
a lamb which he had cherished and allowed to accompany him
about, in honor, says Saint Bonaventure, of Our Lord Jesus
Christ, the gentle Lamb of God. The lamb adopted Jacoba in
the same way and "it would follow its mistress to church,
lie down near her when she prayed, and return home with her.
If Lady Jacoba overslept in the morning, the lamb would come
to awaken her and would bleat in her ear to compel her to go
to her devotions."
When he lay dying, Saint Francis thought of Brother Jacoba.
"She would be too sad," he said to Brother Bernard, "to
learn that I had quitted the world without warning her," and
he dictated a letter, telling her the end of his life was
near, that she was to set out as quickly as possible for
Assisi to see him once more, and to bring with her a piece
of haircloth as a shroud for his body and whatever else was
necessary for his burial. "Bring me also," he ended, "I beg
thee, some of those good things thou gavest me to eat in
Rome when I was ill."
But the letter was barely finished and still unsent when the
noise of horses was heard. Jacoba entered with her two sons
and her servants, having been inspired to set out for Assisi
from Rome. When one of the Brothers told Francis he had good
news and before he could say more, Francis spoke. "God be
praised. Let the door be opened, for the rule forbidding
women to enter here is not for Brother Jacoba."
She had brought everything he needed--the veil for his face,
the cushion for his head, the haircloth, the wax for the
watching and funeral ceremonies. And she had brought also
some of the almond sweetmeats he loved. He tried to eat
them, but found he could take only a taste and he gave the
rest to Brother Bernard.
Today we know "Frangipane" as a sweet almond cream flavored
with red jasmine extract or a similar essence. It is used as
a filling for cakes.
Frangipane Cream
2 eggs pinch of salt
3 egg yolks 2 cups scalded milk
6 tablespoons sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
12 tablespoons flour 6 stale macaroons
3 tablespoons sweet butter
Stir the eggs and egg yolks and add the sugar mixed with the
flour and salt. Slowly stir in the scalded milk and continue
stirring over a slow fire until the mixture thickens.
Remove, add the vanilla extract, the macaroons which have
been finely crushed, and the butter. Stir from time to time
so that the cream is cold before using. (Red Jasmine extract
is most difficult to come by, but should any reader be
fortunate enough to procure some, 6 drops may be added.)
October 25: Feast of Saints Crispin and Crispinian
This is the feast of two brothers, whose names are oddly
alike. Both were bootmakers and cobblers. In France, their
native land (though "The Golden Legend" tells us that they
were Romans who had migrated to Soissons), many useful
objects bear their name. A shoeshine kit is called a "Saint-
Crispin"; an awl is "Saint Crispin's lance"; and if your
shoes are too tight, you are "in Saint Crispin's prison."
Because of their refusal to sacrifice to idols, Saint
Crispin and Saint Crispinian were pierced with shoemaker's
awls and suffered other tortures. They were in popular
veneration throughout the Middle Ages, and we read in
Shakespeare's "Henry the Fifth":
This day is call'd the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
For many years there was a special Mass for the cobblers of
France on this feast and it was followed by a huge banquet.
Legend says the first celebration of this Mass so pleased
the saints that they allowed cobblers to have as reward a
little preview of heaven.
In England, the same custom of a special feast on Saint
Crispin's day was observed by the shoemakers. Afterwards
they burned torches on the sand, probably as substitutes for
the altar lights provided by the shoemakers' guild in pre-
Reformation times for their chantry chapel.
Just as, some months back, on Saint Anthony's Day we allowed
a recipe having as its title a pun, so we give you another
for the day of the shoemaking saints.
Fruit Cobbler
3 cups fruit 1 tablespoon flour or
1/2 cup sugar or more 1 egg
biscuit dough
A cobbler may be made with the fruit on top of a biscuit
dough or with fruit under the dough. Prepare the fruit and
add sugar (the amount will vary with the sweetness of the
fruit) mixed with flour or with a well-beaten egg. Make a
rich biscuit dough (or use prepared mix) and place in the
bottom of a greased baking tin; cover with fruit dotted with
bits of butter and bake at 425 degrees F. for about half an
hour. Or, cover the fruit with the dough and brush the dough
with a little milk or the beaten yolk of an egg diluted with
a little water. Apples, peaches, plums, or other fruits may
be used.
October 28: Feast of Saints Simon and Jude
Not very much is known of either of these Apostles, except
that Simon was called "the Zealous," and Jude was the
brother of James the Less, and that they preached and were
martyred in Persia.
Over the years great devotion has grown up around Saint Jude
as the Saint of the impossible. As prayers to Saint Anthony
restore lost articles, so prayers to Saint Jude restore or
revivify the most difficult of spiritual causes for persons,
or groups, or nations. Saint Jude has proved a powerful
patron in more than one instance, for example in the case of
the City of St. Jude in Alabama, founded to aid materially
and spiritually the Negro race, and which has well fulfilled
that mission. Saint Jude might make a fine patron for the
United Nations, over endowed with material patrons, but
sadly lacking in those of the spirit.
Regarding popular celebration of the feast of Saint Simon
and Saint Jude, there has arisen some confusion through the
centuries. In Italy a "foletto," which translated, means
holy goblin, was often confused with Saint Simon because of
a similarity in names, and Jude was confused in people's
minds with Judas. Another reason for the confusion is that
the feast of these saints comes so close to All Hallow's Eve
that it partakes a little of its traditions.
From the old association with goblins and witches and feasts
of the dead, there has come down to us a cake often eaten in
Scotland and England in honor of Simon and Jude. In
Scotland, it is known as a Dirge Cake, in England as a Soul
Cake, and we give the recipe on November 2nd, the feast of
All Souls.
October 31: All Hallows' Eve
A very ancient celebration is this the Eve of All Saints. In
pre-Christian eras it was a day when the Druids gathered
within a ring of stone and chanted runes. The Romans
celebrated it with an autumn feast to Pomona, goddess of
orchards.
In the calendar of the Church this is a fast day, but,
especially in Ireland, many interesting dishes have been
evolved to tide one over to the next day's feast of All
Saints. Fast days often seem to inspire cooks to concoct
palatable foods of a vegetarian nature. Of these the
counties all have their favorites, most of them based on the
potato, that basic commodity from the Irish fields. But no
matter what the food, there is always placed in the dish a
wedding ring wrapped in grease-proof paper, and this is said
to decide the future of the person finding it.
Tyrone, Cavan, and other counties indulge in boxty dishes
and also in many verses about them. One runs:
Boxty on the griddle,
Boxty on the pan,
The wee one in the middle
It is for Mary Anne.
Boxty on the griddle,
Boxty on the pan--
If you don't eat boxty,
You'll never get your man.
And another:
Two rounds of boxty baked on the pan,
Each one came in got a cake in her han';
Butter on the one side,
Gravy on t'other
Sure them that gave me boxty
Were better than my mother.
These boxty dishes include boxty dumplings and boxty bread
and boxty pancakes (for the latter see Shrove Tuesday).
Boxty Bread
1 lb. raw potatoes salt
1 lb. cooked potatoes flour
Wash and peel the raw potatoes and grate them onto a piece
of cheesecloth. Then squeeze them out, catching the liquid
in a dish which must be allowed to stand so that the potato
starch may settle. Mash the cooked potatoes over the raw,
and season with salt. Pour off the potato liquid carefully;
then scrape up the potato starch at the bottom of the dish
and add to the potato mixture. Work in enough flour to make
a good dough and knead for a few minutes; then roll out, cut
into cakes, and bake on a hot griddle.
Boxty Dumplings
Use the same ingredients and follow the same procedure as
for Boxty Bread. When the dough has been kneaded, instead of
rolling it out, form into small balls the size of an egg,
drop them into boiling salted water and cook them for forty-
five minutes. Serve with a sweet sauce.
The same counties feature on Halloween Potato Pudding and
Colcannon (see Saint Patrick's Day).
In Scotland a special cake is made, and charms wrapped in
paper are stirred in before it is baked. These are the usual
ring, button, thimble, and coin, with the addition of a
horseshoe for good luck, a swastika for happiness, and a
wishbone for the heart's desire.
In England, as also in the United States, it is a night for
feasting before an open fire, on cider and nuts and apples,
and was formerly known as Nut Crack Night.
Far back in history runs the list of games played on that
night, many of them still popular, such as bobbing for
apples in a tub of water, or trying to take a bite from one
swinging on a cord, or that slightly more dangerous but
fascinating sport of snapdragon, in which raisins were
placed in a bowl of brandy and the liquid set on fire, the
point of the game being to extract the raisins without
burning oneself--surely a better game to win than to lose.
Although Halloween is the eve of a solemn church festival,
its celebration has always been associated with witches and
hobgoblins and ghosts; in the past it was at times an
occasion for the practice of sorcery and incantations, and
even of cruelty. Today it is a night of fun, which even at
its worst seems to consist in the carrying away of gates or
porch furniture. We have all seen the children, dressed in
grotesque ways, who go about asking for candy and pennies.
Familiar is the sight of the small boy coming home with a
bag full of edibles--candies, cakes, nuts, gum, enough for
several meals--and a good stack of pennies.
Grown-ups, whose duty for the evening seems to be to provide
the handout, might spend their own evening by making it a
Nut Crack Night. Sitting before a bright hearth fire, they
can feast on the appropriate foods of the night and of the
season--cider and apples and nuts.
NOVEMBER
November 1: All Saints' Day
THIS DAY, formerly known in England as All Hallows and in
France called "Toussaint," honors, as its name implies, all
the saints canonized and uncanonized, known and unknown.
Long ago the church bells rang for most of the night before
All Saints' Day to praise the saints "risen in their glory."
Everywhere patronal and family saints are especially
remembered. It is a feast to give them praise rather than to
ask favors of them, a day for praising them to God rather
than asking them to remember the living to Him.
The observance of this feast merges into the next, which is
All Souls' Day, so that by evening it has become the eve of
the day of the dead. On All Souls' Eve the graves in Hungary
are lighted with candles and decorated with flowers. Indeed,
the custom of visiting the cemeteries and adorning the
graves of relatives and friends with wreaths and bouquets
prevails in most Latin and Central European countries.
In Czechoslovakia there is an old tradition of eating
special cakes on All Souls' Eve, and of drinking cold milk
"to cool the souls in Purgatory." In Belgium also a
particular variety of cakes is baked, and it is an old
superstition that "the more one eats of them the more souls
will be saved from Purgatory."
In many old English towns, maids still go "souling" on All
Souls' Eve, that is, singing for cakes, and one hears such
ancient ballads as:
Soul! soul! for a soul-cake!
I pray, good misses a soul-cake--
An apple or pear, a plum or a cherry,
Any good thing to make us merry,
One for Peter, two for Paul,
Three for Him who made us all.
Soul Cakes
1 yeast cake 2 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar 6 cups flour
1/4 cup lukewarm water 1 teaspoon salt
1/4 lb. butter 3 teaspoons cinnamon
Dissolve the yeast cake with 1 teaspoon of sugar in the
lukewarm water and let it stand in a warm place. Cream the
butter with the sugar. Add the milk which has been scalded
and slightly cooled and then add the yeast. Sift the flour
with the salt and cinnamon and add to the mixture, kneading
for a few minutes. Place in a bowl and allow it to rise in a
warm place to double its bulk. Shape the dough into round
buns and bake at 375 degrees F. for about thirty minutes or
until lightly browned. Originally, these cakes were shaped
like men and women and were given raisins or currants for
eyes.
November 2: All Souls' Day
After the feast in honor of the saints in heaven, comes the
day of praying for the dead, particularly for members of the
family, so "that they may quickly attain to the fellowship
of the heavenly citizens."
As we have said, many of the observances of this day take
place on the eve. In the Old World lights were set in
windows to guide the departed back to their homes, and food
was placed beside a candle or lighted lamp on the table to
await them. In Brittany, where belief in the supernatural is
intensified on this night, the people, dressed appropriately
in black, hurry home after vespers to talk together about
the departed, speaking of them in low tones as if at a
funeral. On the table with the best cloth are placed plates
of bread and cheese and mugs of cider for the refreshment of
the departed ones. As the living sit whispering together,
they hear, or seem to hear, in creaking floorboard and empty
benches about the table the movements of the ghosts who have
come to rest that night in their former home. And knowing
that the saddest of all are the homeless dead who roam about
the countryside on this one night of the year permitted them
on earth, it is a custom of Celtic people to set food and
drink on doorstep and window sill, so that homeless spirits
too may have a share.
In Italy, and especially in Sicily, good children who have
prayed for the dead through the year are rewarded by having
the "morti" leave gifts, sometimes cakes, none the less
welcome because they have been made by the hands of mundane
bakers. Especially good are these "Fave dei Morti," and as
fine a reward for a pious child as was the "Pretiolium" or
pretzel of the Middle Ages.
Pound some of the almonds (unblanched) with some of the
sugar in a mortar, and then rub through a sieve. Continue
this process until all of the almonds and sugar have been
used. Any of the mixture remaining in the sieve should be
pounded again until it is fine enough to pass through the
sieve. Work this paste with the flour, butter, cinnamon,
egg, and lemon peel until the whole is quite smooth. When
done, roll into long thin rolls; divide into small pieces
and shape them to resemble a broad bean. Bake on a greased
tin at 350 degrees F. for about twenty minutes or until
light brown. Though soft at first they will harden when
cold.
In Poland on All Souls' Day vespers are sometimes sung in
the churchyards, and alms are given to the poor who in
return are expected to offer prayers and petitions for the
dead of the donor's family. Lighted candles are placed on
the graves to drive away the bad angel so that "the Lord may
count on that night the number of souls belonging to
In Spain every theater gives a performance of the famous
play "Don Juan Tenorio" and thrills anew to the drama of the
wicked lover who is dragged to hell by the ghost of the fair
damsel to whom Don Juan proved unfaithful. The "Dia de
Muertos" is an occasion so important in Mexico that its
observance lasts for several days. Several days before, on
October 30th, the souls of dead children are said to revisit
their homes and spend the night. They are welcomed with
flowers and food in gourds, as many gourds as there are
"angelitos"--souls of dead children expected. And in the
doorway of homes are placed chocolates and cakes and a
lighted candle for those children who have no one to
remember them.
On the Day of the Dead, Mexican crowds stream into the
cemeteries long before daybreak, bearing flowers, candles,
and food. Breads, candies, and cakes have been made in the
form of grinning skulls with eyes of shining purple paper,
of little chocolate hearses and coffins and funeral wreaths.
With picnic gaiety the families group about the graves in
the cemeteries, everyone laughing and enjoying the fine
fiesta and sharing the food they have brought. And as in
Spain, in the evening the whole village repairs to see the
perennial drama of the faithless Don Juan and his luckless
lady.
Pan de Muertos (Bread of the Dead)
1 yeast cake 2 cups sugar
1/4 cup lukewarm water 6 eggs
5 cups flour 1/3 cup orange blossom
1 teaspoon salt water
1 cup butter 1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup anisette
Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water and let it stand in
a warm place. Sift the flour with the salt. Taking about
half the flour, add the yeast, mix well, and allow to rise
in a greased bowl in a warm place until double in bulk.
Cream the butter with the sugar; add the egg yolks and the
orange blossom water. Then add the remaining flour, the milk
and anisette. Mix well and knead for a few minutes. Then add
the egg whites, one at a time, kneading after each addition.
Finally add the fermented dough and beat and knead until
thoroughly mixed. Allow it to rise in a greased bowl in a
warm place until double in bulk. Knead once more and divide
into two portions. Remove a bit of the dough from each
portion, enough to form two "bones." Shape the dough into
round loaves and moisten the tops with water. Place the
"bones" in the shape of a cross on each loaf and bake at 375
degrees F. for about fifty minutes or until done. The loaves
are usually covered with a light sugar glaze when baked.
November 3: Feast of Saint Hubert
Late in the eighth century, so runs the story, a hunter
named Hubert, neither better nor worse than he should have
been, was tracking a stag through the forest of the
Ardennes. As he readied himself to shoot the animal with his
arrow, he was startled when the stag turned suddenly in its
flight, and he saw between its antlers a luminous cross.
This experience caused Hubert to change his way of life, and
he never hunted again. Yet only a few centuries later he was
known as the patron of hunters, and is a saint greatly
honored in France and Belgium.
Saint Hubert lived a full life. He became bishop of Tongres
and traveled through his huge diocese on horseback and by
boat, preaching and building churches to the glory of God.
He was the friend of the great of his day--Pepin of Heristal
and Charles Martel among them--and also of the poor. In
particular his heart went out to prisoners, and he would
secretly place food for them before their dungeon windows.
As he died he said to those about him, "Stretch the pallium
over my mouth for I am now going to give back to God the
soul I received from Him."
In parts of France and Belgium there has long been a custom
of holding stag hunts on Saint Hubert's Day, and the hunters
gather before the chase for Mass and the blessing of men and
horses and dogs. After the hunt is over, those taking part
gather for a bountiful breakfast consisting of fish, meat,
salad, cheese, and dessert. Naturally the meat is venison of
some sort, and the salad may well be one of dandelion
greens.
Venaison Roti (Roast Venison)
If the venison is young, it does not need marinating;
otherwise marinate several hours or even overnight. For the
marinade use 1 pint of vinegar, 1 pint of red wine, several
bay leaves, 4 shallots, 2 sliced carrots, 1 lemon cut into
thin slices, some freshly ground pepper, and a handful of
juniper berries. Carefully remove the skin from a loin of
venison without tearing the meat and wipe it with a damp
cloth. Lard the loin symmetrically with bacon (not larding
pork). Dust with salt and pepper, cover liberally with
butter, and roast in a hot oven for one hour, basting almost
continuously with the butter in the pan and 2 cups of sour
cream. Remove the meat to a hot platter; carefully stir 1
tablespoon of flour into the pan, then add a cup of hot
stock, cook for several minutes, and strain through a fine
sieve. (Though not orthodox, a leg of lamb may be
substituted but in that case marinate for several days.)
Pissenlit au Lard (Dandelion Greens with Bacon)
Wash the dandelion greens carefully to remove all grit and
dry thoroughly in a salad basket. Cut up 1/4 pound of lean
bacon into dice and fry over a slow fire until very crisp.
Add 3 tablespoons of tarragon vinegar to the bacon grease
and season lightly with salt and freshly ground pepper.
Pour, while hot, over the greens, mix well, and serve at
once.
November 11: Feast of Saint Martin of Tours
The most common form of charity--and of hospitality--is to
offer food; Saint Martin chose instead to give away his
cloak. We most ordinarily think of him as the young soldier,
cutting his cloak in two with his sword to give a part to
the shivering beggar he met upon his way. We may think of
him also when he became a Christian and a priest, proudly
writing to his mother to beg her to become his first
convert. She was the first of many he made, for he journeyed
for many years about Gaul, preaching and baptizing, and
throwing about all, and especially about the poor, his cloak
of pity and love.
Martin became the bishop of Tours and there founded a
monastery, dying in his see city, where his tomb has been a
place of pious pilgrimage for over sixteen hundred years.
An interesting footnote to history is the story of what
became of the other half of Martin's famous cloak. For many
years it was carried into battle by the Frankish kings. We
are told that it was then lost for a long time but
eventually found again, and it is shown to visitors to Tours
today, in a little chapel not far from the cathedral where
rest Saint Martin's bones. And "The Golden Legend" tells us
further that the place where Martin's cloak was kept was
known as the place of the cloak, or cape ("cappella"); hence
the origin of the modern word chapel.
Saint Martin is known as the patron of Saint Martin's
summer, of swallows, and of winegrowers (and some say he is
the protector of drunkards as well). His feast comes at that
time in autumn when the new wines are tasted, when cattle
are killed for the winter's food, and when geese are at
their prime.
On the Continent the goose is the chief dish of the
Martinmas feast, although, as we have seen, it was
sacrificed in England earlier in the year, at Michaelmas.
Even so there is an English adage that if you have roast
goose for Martinmas, you must ask Saint Martin to dine with
you or you won't get one next year. And to ask Saint Martin
to dine means that you must share your goose with someone
who has none, as Martin did his cloak.
In Germanic countries on Saint Martin's day, goose is eaten
with sauerkraut. In Sweden the bird is stuffed with apples
and prunes, though the fruit is usually discarded and is
merely used to flavor the bird. The meal is begun with blood
soup, made from the wings, neck, heart, liver, and blood of
the goose and flavored with ginger, pepper, vinegar, sugar,
and wine! Cinnamon Apples are the accompaniment for the
Swedish goose.
Cinnamon Apples
Wash and core 6 apples of the same size but do not peel
them. Half cover with boiling water and, when the apples are
tender, remove and peel them. To the water in which they
were cooked, add 1 cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.
Bring to the boil and reduce by half. Place the apples back
in this syrup, spooning the juice over them until they are
thoroughly reheated, and serve.
The famous goose dish of France, made especially in Alsace,
is "Pate de Foie Gras."
Pate de Foie Gras
Take 2 fine goose livers and with a sharp knife remove all
of the skin and as much of the fiber as you can. Cut the
livers into pieces. Line a small baking dish (it should have
a cover) with thin slices of salt pork, covering both sides
and bottom. Place the pieces of liver in the dish, adding
small pieces of truffles (using about 1/2 pound in all) as
you go along. Dust each layer with a little salt and pepper,
and press down on each layer as you complete it. Pour over
the top 2 tablespoons of the best cognac. Do not use any
other spices. As an old French recipe says, "Le sel et le
poivre sont la uniquement pour corriger la fadeur du foie,
dont le gout delicat ne doit se marier qu'au parfum de la
truffle et a l'arome a peine definissable fourni par le
cognac" (The salt and pepper serve the unique purpose of
correcting the blandness of the liver; its delicate flavor
should only be married to the perfume of the truffle and the
almost imperceptible aroma of the cognac). Place another
slice of pork (all the pork used should be lean) on top,
cover the dish, seal with a paste made of flour and water,
and bake in a medium oven for an hour and a quarter. The
baking dish should be set in another of hot water which
should not be allowed to boil; as it evaporates, add more
hot water.
When the pate is done, take from the oven, remove the cover,
and tap for several minutes with a spoon so that the grease
in the dish begins to rise to the surface. Place a small
plate directly on top of the pate and, on this place a heavy
weight, and allow it to stand for twelve hours. The grease
will continue to come to the top, seep over the edges of the
dish, or may be removed with a teaspoon. Smooth the top.
Refrigerate and do not use for forty-eight hours. If the
pate is to be kept for any length of time, cover it with a
layer of goose grease.
November 23: Feast of Saint Clement
Saint Clement, who became the fourth of the popes, is said
to have been ordained by Saint Peter himself. To him has
been attributed the literary work known as the
"Clementines," a long account which some have called the
first Christian novel; it deals with the magician Simon
Magus, with holy men and women, and with demons; of the
latter it warns that the man who is greedy may swallow a
demon with his food which will hide in his body forever
after.
According to one legend, in fleeing from his persecutors
Saint Clement suffered so much from blistered feet that he
put wool in his sandals. This "felted" the wool and when he
reached Rome and safety, he turned the accidental discovery
to use and created the felt industry! Later martyred, his
body was cast into the sea and ever afterward on the
anniversary of his death, says the legend, the sea withdraws
at that spot and reveals a little marble shrine where rest
his remains.
In England Saint Clement is the patron saint of blacksmiths.
It was the custom in former times for one of their number,
in a great-coat and mask and long white beard, to be carried
through the streets on the shoulders of his mates. One
companion strode along beside him with a huge wooden anvil,
and another, as if to protect him, carried a great wooden
sledge. From his perch the "saint" made a speech beginning:
Gentlemen all, attention give
And wish Saint Clement long to live.
The feast of Saint Clement is still observed in the
dockyards of London. Masters of the trade give a dinner to
their workmen and apprentices which features a Wayz Goose,
which is not a goose at all but a leg of pork stuffed with
sage and onions.
Wayz-Goose (Stuffed Leg of Pork)
1 leg of pork 2 tablespoons parsley
1 cup bread crumbs 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup chopped celery 1/8 teaspoon paprika
1/2 cup chopped onions 1 teaspoon sage
milk
Prepare a stuffing of all of the above ingredients, adding
enough milk to make a not too moist mixture. Have the
butcher bone the leg (or use the lower half of the foreleg,
called a picnic roast) and stuff the cavity, sewing it up
with coarse thread. Roast in a 350 degrees F. oven allowing
thirty-five minutes to the pound.
Thanksgiving Day
Most of the feast days celebrated in the United States were
brought to our country with the traditions of older lands.
But of the festivals which belong entirely to us, one is
Thanksgiving.
In 1620 when the Mayflower Pilgrims left their ship at
Plymouth, they hastened first of all to give thanks to God
for their preservation from the perils of the sea. Then they
set to work to build a few houses and to sow wheat and
barley and peas, helped in their task by friendly Indians
who taught them how to use the native fruits and vegetables,
the venison and wild fowl, and the many varieties of fish
and shellfish which abounded in the coastal waters. One year
later, after incredible hardships and the death of many of
their number, the Pilgrims again gave thanks, this time for
the harvest they had planted and which God had blessed for
them.
This idea of giving thanks to God when the harvest is in is,
of course, a very ancient custom. Moses commanded the
Hebrews to celebrate a harvest festival, and it is still
known as Succoth, or the Ingathering, and still celebrated.
There were festivals in ancient Greece in honor of Demeter,
goddess of the fields, and of Ceres in ancient Rome. The
English Harvest Home is also very old.
But all these celebrated plenty, the plenty of years, and
the result of years of cultivation of the land. Here in
America, settled only briefly on an inhospitable coast and
with but a single year of growth behind them, the Pilgrims
gave thanks not for the old but for the new, not for the
plenty of centuries but for the hard-earned, scanty yield of
one year in a strange land.
The first Thanksgiving feast did not lack for guests; in
fact, there were many more than the hosts had expected.
Massasoit, the Indian chief who had shown much interest in
the struggling band from overseas, was invited to the feast
and told to bring some of his braves. He appeared
accompanied by ninety warriors! The hosts welcomed them as
hosts should, even though the unexpected number of guests
cut deeply into their supplies laid aside for the coming
winter.
The Indians brought gifts for the feast--five deer,
quantities of lobsters and eels and wild turkeys. We are
told there were very few to prepare this feast for one
hundred and forty men. Five women and a few young girls were
all that remained of the women who had come on the
Mayflower, and this small band prepared the food for three
days of feasting.
Among the dishes was one which the Indians had taught the
English women to make, called in the Indian tongue
"sauquetash," from which comes the modern succotash. But the
Indian dish was very different from what we understand by
that name today. It was more like a soup and an old recipe
tells us that it contained two fowl and, in a separate
kettle, one-half pound of lean pork and two quarts of white
beans. To the kettle containing the fowl were added pieces
of corned beef, a turnip, six potatoes. When the meat was
tender, it was removed and the two "waters" mixed together.
Then four quarts of hulled corn were boiled till tender and
added to the soup and the meat of one fowl cut up. The other
fowl was served as a separate course with the corned beef
and the pork.
There were even desserts at the feast--dried gooseberries
and cherries and cranberries, cured by the Indian method.
These berries were cooked in "dough cases"--no doubt the
Pilgrim equivalent of pies. There was Indian pudding, made
of corn meal and molasses boiled in a bag, and here is a
modern version.
Indian Pudding
4 cups milk 1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/3 cup corn meal 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup dark molasses 1 egg
1/4 cup butter 1/2 cup raisins (optional)
1 teaspoon salt 1 cup milk (optional)
Boil the milk in the top of a double boiler. Stir in the
corn meal and cook for about twenty minutes over boiling
water. Then add the molasses and cook for another five
minutes. Remove from the fire and add the butter, salt,
spices, the egg beaten, and the raisins if used. Pour into a
greased baking dish and bake at 300 degrees F. for two
hours. If you would have a soft center, pour the milk over
the top. Serve with hard sauce or cream, though it is a New
England custom to serve the pudding with vanilla ice cream.
And the Indians gave the white children their first taste of
popcorn which they had made into balls with maple syrup.
In later years these feasts grew less rugged and more
varied. A letter of 1779 tells of the Thanksgiving feast of
that year in a well-to-do home venison at one end of the
long table, at the other chines of pork and roasted turkeys,
and set between them pigeon pasties. And that year this
household had "sellery" for the first time. There are
mentioned also two oranges on the table, a very unusual
fruit for that day in New England, and these were given to
the two grandmothers of the family.
In 1789 the Congress of the United States suggested making
legal a day of thanksgiving for signal favors from Almighty
God, who had afforded the nation an opportunity "peaceably
to establish a constitution of government for their safety
and happiness." President Washington liked the idea and
issued a proclamation to this effect. But after his death
this special action was allowed to lapse, although the
private custom of celebrating Thanksgiving remained popular.
Some sixty years later Mrs. Josepha Hale began campaigning
to revive the custom of a national Thanksgiving. In 1846,
she became editor of "Godey's Lady's Book" and used the
pages of her famous magazine to foster this purpose. She
argued not only with words but with recipes, some of which
seem very heavy argument--she suggested "ham soaked in cider
for three weeks, stuffed with sweet potatoes and baked in
maple syrup," a prescription of rather overwhelming caloric
strength.
Even the Civil War did not stop her efforts, and somehow she
prevailed, for in 1863, in the very midst of the conflict,
President Lincoln issued the first National Thanksgiving
Proclamation since that of Washington, inviting all his
fellow citizens, "and those also at sea and those who are
sojourning in foreign lands," to set apart and observe the
day "as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent
Father who dwelleth in the heavens."
Since that day, each year the President of the United States
issues the proclamation which invites the nation to give
thanks for its progress under God and to enjoy the fruits of
the earth which God has given them.
A very good modern Thanksgiving dinner can be planned using
the same foods which were eaten by those who sat at the
first Thanksgiving feast in Plymouth. We suggest that it
might include Oysters Rockefeller, turkey with a wild rice
stuffing, cranberry ice, and, of course, pumpkin pie.
Arrange oysters on the half shell in a bed of rock salt to
prevent their slipping while being cooked. Cream 1
tablespoon of the butter with the shallot and parsley. Place
a little on each oyster and season with salt; then add a bit
of the minced bacon and cover with some of the spinach
puree. Dust with bread crumbs and dot with the remaining
butter. Bake in a 450 degrees F. oven for ten minutes and
serve immediately.
Roast Turkey
Stuff and truss your turkey. Place the bird, breast up, in a
roasting pan and brush all over, not forgetting the wings
and legs, with melted salt butter. Dip a piece of
cheesecloth in the melted butter and place it over the bird.
Roast uncovered, at 300 degrees F., allowing twenty-five
minutes to the pound for birds under 12 pounds, and about
twenty minutes for those that are larger. Baste with the pan
drippings at half-hour intervals, removing the cloth during
the last half hour of cooking. Season the bird with salt,
pepper, and paprika when it is half done.
Wild Rice Stuffing
2 cups wild rice 1/2 cup chopped green
1/2 cup butter pepper
1 cup chopped celery 1 tablespoon minced
1 cup chopped onions parsley
2 cups stock 2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms 1/2 teaspoon Worchester-
shire sauce
Wash and drain the rice thoroughly. Melt the butter and add
the rice, celery, and the onion. Cook, stirring all the
while, until the rice browns. Add the stock and the
remaining ingredients and simmer for half an hour.
Cranberry Ice
2 teaspoons gelatine 1-3/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup cold water 1 cup water
1 qt. cranberries 2 egg whites
1-3/4 cups water pinch salt
Soak the gelatine in 1/4 cup cold water. Boil the
cranberries in 13/4 cups water until soft and put them
through a sieve. Add the sugar with 1 cup water to the
cranberry pulp and boil for 5 minutes. Dissolve the gelatine
in this hot mixture. Chill, and add the egg white stiffly
beaten with the salt. Turn into a refrigerator tray and
freeze for about four hours, stirring at half-hour
intervals.
And, in memory of the land from which the Pilgrims came, we
shall add one dish which New England inherited from the
parent England:
Marlborough Pudding
12 tablespoons applesauce 4 eggs
12 tablespoons sugar juice and rind
12 tablespoons white wine of 1 lemon
6 tablespoons melted 1 cup milk
butter 1/2 nutmeg
Mix the applesauce, sugar, wine, and melted butter. Beat the
eggs well and add with the juice and grated rind of the
lemon and the cup of milk. Finally grate half a nutmeg into
the mixture and bake in a moderate oven until firm.
November 30: Feast of Saint Andrew
It was Andrew the Apostle who said to his brother Peter, "We
have found the Messias"; and it was Andrew who pointed out
to Our Lord the lad with the five barley loaves and two
fishes. Tradition tells us that Andrew was martyred in
Greece, on a cross in the form of an X, a cross that still
bears his name. Saint Andrew is the patron saint of
Scotland, where his feast, known as Andermas, was observed
in olden days by repasts of Sheep's Head.
Sheep's Head
Soak a well-cleaned sheep's head in warm water for three
hours. Put it to boil with just enough water to cover. When
it starts to boil add 1 carrot and 1 onion, both sliced, 3
sprigs of parsley, 3 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper.
Simmer for about two hours or until the meat is tender.
Remove the meat from the bones, skin the tongue, and serve
both together. It may be served with an onion, caper, or
tomato sauce.
Time-honored also is the eating of the Haggis, referred to
fondly by the real Scot as "Himsel'," and by Burns as the
"great chieftain of the pudding race." A leading culinary
expert tells us "one does not attempt to make a haggis; one
just buys a haggis and does not inquire too closely as to
how it was made." If any of our readers is inclined to
ignore this admonition, here is how it is done.
Wash the bag in cold water, cleaning it thoroughly and soak
overnight in salted water. Wash the pluck (liver, lights,
heart) and boil for two hours in sufficient water to cover
"with the windpipe hanging out." When cold, cut off the
windpipe. Grate half the liver (the other half is not used),
chop up the heart, the lights, the suet, and onions. Toast
the oatmeal to a light brown and add to the above mixture;
then add 2 cups of the water the pluck was boiled in, the
salt, pepper, and the mixed herbs. Fill the bag half full,
sew it up, and boil for three hours, pricking the bag from
time to time to prevent its bursting. Serve the haggis very
hot with mashed potatoes and boiled turnips.
Today Saint Andrew's feast is celebrated by patriotic Scots
everywhere with ceremonies and banquets of less muttony
variety--grouse and beef are more favored--but the Aqua
Vitae which was the old Doric term for whiskey still plays a
role. It is also a favorite day in rural areas of the
homeland for foretelling the future by omens and charms.
In parts of England Saint Andrew is considered the patron of
lacemakers--perhaps coming from the resemblance of
intersecting threads in certain types of lace to the cross
of Saint Andrew. Seventeenth-century bakers made cakes or
buns known as Tandry or Tandrew "Wigs," composed of plain
dough in wedge shape, ornamented with currants and caraway
seeds. Also in England squirrel hunting was the traditional
sport of Saint Andrew's Eve, and since the Andermas customs
of England were also transplanted to the southern part of
the United States where squirrel hunting is popular, we
suggest a
Brunswick Stew
2 cups dried lima beans 4 cups canned tomatoes
2 squirrels 1 cup sliced okra
salt and pepper 6 potatoes
1/2 lb. diced bacon 1 tablespoon Worcester-
2 sliced onions shire sauce
2 cans whole kernel corn 1 tablespoon sugar
Soak the beans overnight. Clean and disjoint the squirrels,
dust with flour and salt and pepper, and brown lightly in a
little fat. Place the meat, the beans, the bacon, and the
onions in a pot, cover with boiling water and simmer for two
hours. Then add the corn, tomatoes, okra, potatoes,
Worcestershire sauce, and sugar and simmer for another hour.
Mix a little flour with water and stir into the stew to
thicken. Taste for seasoning and serve in a large tureen.
DECEMBER
December 6: Feast of Saint Nicholas
SAINT NICHOLAS has been for hundreds of years a popular
saint in the East and in the West, greatly famed as a worker
of miracles. There are many charming legends concerning him.
One tells of an occasion in heaven when all the saints came
together to talk and to drink a little wine. Saint Basil
filled the golden cups from the golden jug, and everyone was
deep in conversation when it was noticed. that Saint
Nicholas was nodding. One of the blessed nudged him until he
awoke, and asked why he was slumbering in such good company.
"Well, you see," he told them, "the enemy has raised a
fearful storm in the Aegean. My body was dozing perhaps, but
my spirit was bringing the ships safe to shore."
Saint Nicholas is the saint of mariners and also of bankers,
pawnbrokers, scholars, and thieves! But he is especially the
saint of children, and is known among them in various
countries as Santa Claus, Kris Kringle, Pelznickel. There
have even been invented servants to accompany him and to
deal with the children who have been bad. Saint Nicholas is
considered too kind to give scoldings and punishments, so,
in Austria Krampus, in Germany Knecht Rupprecht, and in
Holland Black Peter go along with him, armed with a stout
switch, while Saint Nicholas himself simply gives and gives.
Another very old legend tells us of the saint's kindness to
the three daughters of a poor nobleman. They were about to
be sold into slavery, because they had no dowry, when Saint
Nicholas stole to their home and on three nights in
succession dropped a bag of gold down the chimney. This is
said to explain why three balls are the pawnbrokers' sign
and why the saint drops gifts for children down the chimney.
Devotion to Saint Nicholas began in Asia Minor, where he was
a bishop, and it was brought to Russia by an emperor who was
witness to some of his miraculous works. It spread through
Lapland and into Scandinavia, to other European countries,
and finally to America. Up to that time Saint Nicholas had
been pictured as a lean and ascetic bishop. In America, he
became fat and jolly, and his miter was turned into a winter
cap, his vestments into a snow suit. But he has kept his
reindeer from Lapland, his propensity for chimneys acquired
in Asia Minor, and the generosity of his heart.
A French legend tells that long ago Our Lady gave Lorraine
to Saint Nicholas as a reward for his kindness to the world.
He is still the special patron of that province and on his
eve children hang up their stocking, saying:
Saint Nicolas, mon bon patron
Envoyez-moi quelqu' chose de bon.
In Holland Saint Nicholas puts in an appearance on the eve
of his feast. As the children sing, the door flies open and
on the floor drop candies and nuts--right on a white sheet
that has been spread out just in case. And after he has
gone, there is hot punch and chocolate and boiled chestnuts
served with butter and sugar. And in the morning, children
find in the shoes they have set before the fire toys and
many other good things--candy hearts and spice cakes,
"letterbankets," which were candies or cakes in the form of
the child's initials, ginger cakes or "taai-taai" in
patterns of birds and fish and the form of the saint
himself. He also brings a hard cooky, called "Speculaus."
Speculaus
1/2 cup butter 2-1/2 cups cake flour
1 cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg 1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 lemon rind, grated 1/2 teaspoon salt
Cream the butter and sugar, add the egg, and continue
beating. Add the grated lemon rind and the flour sifted with
the baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Let the dough rest
overnight in a cool place. Roll out as thinly as possible--
about the thickness of the back of a knife blade. Cut into
desired shape and bake at 350 degrees F. for fifteen to
twenty minutes.
In Switzerland Saint Nicholas parades the streets, his arms
full of red apples, cookies, and prunes for the children who
crowd to him. In Austria and Germany he throws gilded nuts
in at the door while Rupprecht and Krampus, the spoilsports,
throw in a few birch twigs.
In Poland if there is a red sunset on Saint Nicholas' Day,
it is because the angels are busily baking the Saint's Honey
Cakes.
Ciastka Miodowe (Honey Cakes)
1/2 cup honey 1 teaspoon soda
1/2 cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 egg yolks 1/4 teaspoon cloves
4 cups flour 1/4 teaspoon ginger
Warm the honey slightly and combine with the sugar. Add eggs
and beat well. Sift the flour with the soda and spices and
stir into the honey batter thoroughly. Let the dough rest
overnight. Roll dough to 1/4-inch thickness; cut out with a
cooky cutter. Brush with the slightly beaten white of an
egg, press half a blanched almond into each cooky and bake
at 375 degrees F. for about fifteen minutes.
December 7: Feast of Saint Ambrose
This is the feast day of the great fourth-century bishop of
Milan who censured an emperor for his cruelty and an empress
for her heresy, and yet who was known to be ready to listen
to the woes of any who wished to consult him. Saint Ambrose
is particularly remembered for his great charity to the poor
to whom he gave away all his wealth. Among his own people of
Milan, who even today boast of being "Ambrosiani," the
following story is told:
One day, although Saint Ambrose had increased the portions
of meat he gave to the poor, so many came he found there
would not be enough for all. It occurred to him then that if
he had the slices of meat beaten flat and coated with
nourishing egg and with bread crumbs, it would seem like
more; in other words, his idea was what we came to call
"meat-extending" in our own days of wartime rationing. On
the pulpit of Saint Ambrose's great cathedral in Milan is
carved the scene of a banquet of the poor in commemoration
of his fine invention.
Saint Ambrose's recipe bears the name of "Costoletta alla
Milanese"--which sounds much more poetic than the English
breaded chops.
Costoletta alla Milanese (Veal Chop Milanese)
4 veal chops salt and pepper
1 egg 1 cup bread crumbs
6 tablespoons butter
Have the veal chops cut about 1/2 inch thick. Beat the egg
with one tablespoon water and season with salt and pepper.
Dip the chops first into bread crumbs, then into beaten egg,
and again into bread crumbs. Melt the butter and fry the
chops for about ten minutes on each side--until golden
brown. Serve on a hot platter with slices of lemon dusted
with chopped parsley.
December 24: Christmas Eve
No feast is so steeped in faith, in tradition, and in drama
as this eve of the birth of Christ. Everything contributes
to its dramatic qualities--the star-filled night, the angels
and their message, the manger, the shepherds, the Eastern
princes journeying from afar, the human family and the
heavenly birth, the whole wonderful mingling of the material
and the supernal, of poverty and wealth, of body and spirit.
Even its smallest traditions lend themselves to the customs
of the home.
Perhaps for this reason, because it is so definitely a
dramatic re-creation in memory of this night, we speak here
of the "Wigilia," the traditional Christmas Eve supper of
Poland. In the homes of that country, stalks of grain are
placed in the four corners of the dining room, with a prayer
for plenty in the years to come. Then bits of hay, symbolic
of the manger in Bethlehem, are strewn beneath the
tablecloth, which must be hand woven. The youngest child is
set to watch for the first star of the evening, and when it
appears he runs to tell the rest of the family. Then supper
begins, as tradition has ordered it, with the breaking of
the "Oplatek," a semi-transparent unleavened wafer made in
an iron mould and stamped with scenes of the Nativity. Each
one at the table breaks off a piece and eats it as a symbol
of their unity in Christ.
This is a meatless meal for it is a fast day. The number of
the courses is fixed at seven, nine, or eleven. It is
considered unlucky to have an odd number of persons at
table, and relatives are invited, especially those who have
no family of their own.
The soups are three in number, and always include "Barszcz"
(a beet soup). There are three fish dishes--whole pike or
carp, fish puffs, and salt herring; three accompanying
dishes--homemade noodles with poppy seeds, red cabbage with
mushrooms, and cheese "Pierogi' (dumplings).
Sandacz Pieczony (Baked Pike)
pike, left whole 1 cup cream
salt 1 cup white wine
1 onion 1/2 cup butter
juice of 1 lemon
Clean and salt fish and cover with onion slices. Let stand
at least one hour. Cover with cream, wine, melted butter and
lemon juice. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 30 to 45 minutes.
Kapusta Czerwona z Grzyby (Red Cabbage and Mushrooms)
1 small head red cabbage 2 tablespoons butter
1 small onion, chopped 2 cups mushrooms
fine 2 tablespoons sour cream
salt and pepper
Quarter the cabbage and cook in salted water for fifteen
minutes. Drain, cool, and chop fine. Saute onion in butter,
add chopped mushrooms, and saute for five minutes. Add
chopped cabbage and continue to cook until flavors are
blended. Add sour cream and cool.
Pierogi (Dumplings)
2 cups flour 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs 1/2 cup water
Heap flour on a bread board and make a hole in the center.
Drop eggs into the hole and cut into the flour. Add salt and
water and knead until firm. Let rest for ten minutes in a
warmed bowl, covered. Divide dough in halves and roll thin.
Cut circles with a large biscuit cutter. Place a teaspoonful
of filling on each round of dough. Moisten edges with water,
fold over, and press edges firmly together. Be sure they are
well sealed. Drop "pierogi" into salted boiling water. Cook
gently for three to five minutes. Serve with brown butter
and bread crumbs and sour cream.
Cream the cheese with the butter. Add other ingredients and
mix well.
The Polish desserts for "Wigilia" are also three: a fruit
compote made with twelve dried fruits (symbolic of the
twelve Apostles), pastries shaped like horns of plenty and
filled with puree of chestnuts, and a variety of cakes.
Among the latter is
Mazurek
1 cup sugar 1/2 cup butter
2 cups flour 1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt 3 tablespoons cream
Sift dry ingredients. Cut butter in flour mixture with a
pastry cutter or a knife until crumbly. Mix beaten egg with
cream and add to mixture. Mix lightly by hand and spread on
buttered cooky sheet. Bake at 350 degrees F. for thirty
minutes. Take from oven and cover with fruit topping. Bake
twenty minutes longer. When cool, decorate with candied
cherries, angelica, and candied orange peel, and cut in 1 x
2 inch pieces.
Fruit Topping for Mazurek
1/2 lb. raisins 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 lb. dates 2 eggs
1/2 lb. figs juice of 1 lemon
1/4 lb. nut meats juice of 1 orange
Chop fruits and nuts with a hand chopper. (Do not put
through a grinder.) Add sugar, eggs, and lemon and orange
juice. Mix very well. Spread over baked pastry.
At the end of the Polish supper the numerous beautiful
Christmas carols are sung and presents are exchanged between
members of the household. In some places the remains of the
"Wigilia" feast is given to the animals and bees and even
offered to the trees on the farm, in the hope that all
living things will prosper which have been fed thus on Our
Lord's first night on earth.
In certain countries a Christmas tree for the birds is
prepared, made of bundles of grain saved from the harvest
and set on poles in field or garden. And in Scandinavia
there is even a bowl of rice and milk put aside for the
"Jule-nissen," the friendly elf who lives in the attic or
barn and sees that things go smoothly.
Animals are connected in many ways with the customs of
Christmas Eve, for there is a widespread belief that they
too must share in the blessings of Christmas. After all, did
they not kneel to adore the Christ Child even before the
shepherds came? Did they not, in fact, give Him the
hospitality of their home when He first came to earth? There
is a delightful tradition that at midnight on Christmas Eve
all farm animals will be found on their knees; and that on
that one night they can speak the language of men, to be
understood, however, only by the pure in heart. An old
English broadside depicts various animals and beasts with
Latin inscriptions coming from their mouths. The cock crows,
"Christus natus est" (Christ is born). The raven inquires,
"Quando" (When)? The crow replies, "Haec Nocte" (This
night). An ox lows, "Ubi" (Where)? And a lamb bleats out,
"Bethlehem."
There is not one country without its special dishes for this
eve of Christmas, not one without its traditional food or
drink.
In England for many years the favorite drink was the posset
cup, a mixture of milk and ale served in a large pot,
accompanied by a ladle. As the pot was passed to each guest,
a goodly draught was taken by each, and with it was usually
eaten a slice from a great apple pie. On this night "waits"
or companies of carol singers went from house to house
singing the lovely English Christmas carols. The usual
ending, "God bless the master of this house," was the signal
for coffee and cakes or a warming toast with hot buttered
rum.
Hot Buttered Rum
1 lump sugar 1 jigger rum
boiling water 1 pat butter
Butter the inside of an earthenware mug. Drop in the sugar,
fill not quite half full with boiling water, add the rum and
pat of butter, and stir. This makes one portion.
Italy has its "Cenone," or Christmas Eve supper, where fish
figures prominently and a popular dish is "Capitone," made
with eels, usually fried. And Italian housewives prepare in
advance for Christmas Day a sausage "ravioli" and the
"panettone," or currant loaf, so special to festival
occasions.
In Greece Saint Basil shares the honors of Christmas Eve,
when his cake waits ready to be divided at the evening meal.
The first piece is cut for the saint, and then one for each
member of the household. As each receives his share, it is
dipped into a bowl of wine with the words, "This is for our
grandfather, Saint Basil."
Armenia's simple Christmas Eve meal is fried fish, lettuce,
and boiled spinach, because there is a tradition here that
this was the supper eaten by Our Lady the night that Christ
was born.
In Austria on Christmas Eve, every house is filled with the
aroma of "Fruchtbrod" as it receives the visit of the
"Anglockler," or bellringers, who go from place to place
singing carols, sometimes two of their number impersonating
Mary and Joseph seeking shelter at the inn. In Germany the
Christmas observances go back to the start of Advent, when a
wreath is hung, usually from the ceiling of the living room,
and to it a silver star is added each day, and each week a
red candle. Also in advance is prepared the "Christstollen"
(a long loaf of bread made with dried fruits and citron) as
well as the "Lebkuchen" and marzipan, regarded as important
holiday foods. On Christmas Eve the family gathers beneath
the Advent wreath and sings carols. Then the Christmas tree
is lighted and the gifts are distributed.
In Norway families gather around the table to partake of the
"Molje," a rich liquid in which the meats for next day have
been cooked, dipping into it with pieces of "Fladbrod," the
hard Norwegian bread. And in Provence, we find a somewhat
similar custom of dipping bread into the "Raito," a ragout
made of a bewildering number of ingredients--onions,
tomatoes, bay leaves, garlic, walnuts, thyme, rosemary,
parsley, red wine, capers, and black olives, a wonderful
mixture which has simmered for hours in olive oil.
In places all over the world, after the evening meal, people
troop to the Midnight Mass that honors the birth of Christ.
Some go through the snows of a northern winter and some
through the gentler southern night, pressing into the
churches, large and small, united, no matter what their
nationality, in this night of the coming of the Child to
earth; for the adoration of the shepherds began a continuity
of worship which has never ceased. And in churches as well
as beneath the Christmas tree in many homes thousands kneel
before the Crib or Creche a representation, large or small,
of the stable scene in Bethlehem, which received its
inspiration from the good Saint Francis of Assisi.
After Midnight Mass in France, worshippers in the great
cathedrals or in little village churches go home to eat the
bountiful "Reveillon" breakfast, for now the fast is over
and Christmas Day is at hand. The "Reveillon" varies between
the city dinner with its conventional elegance of baked ham,
roast capon, "vol-au-vent," salad, cakes, fruit and wines,
and the traditional country meal consisting of "boudin
grille" (grilled blood sausage), "pommes cuites au four"
(baked potato), "vin chaud sucre parfume a la cannelle"
(mulled wine), or to put it literally, for culinary French
is so delightful, "hot sugared wine perfumed with cinnamon."
The poorest in town or country may have eaten nothing but a
bit of cheese washed down with "vin ordinaire"; but at least
they will have "reveillonne."
Truffled Capon
1 capon pinch of thyme
1 lb. truffles 2 lbs. chestnuts
2 onions chicken stock
salt and pepper 1/2 cup cream, or more
1 clove garlic 2 tablespoons sweet butter
1 bay leaf 1/2 lb. mushrooms
24 oysters
Singe and clean a fine fat fowl. Make a stuffing with
truffles, peeled and sliced, the chopped onions, salt,
pepper, 1 finely minced clove of garlic, a bay leaf, a pinch
of thyme, and the chestnuts which have been boiled until
just tender in some chicken stock and drained. If too dry,
moisten the stuffing with 1/2 cup of cream. Stuff the fowl,
spread with a buttered cloth, and roast at 325 degrees F.,
allowing about twenty minutes to the pound. A half hour
before the bird is ready to come from the oven, remove the
cloth, and brush 1/2 cup of cream over it. Thicken the gravy
with a little flour and add more cream if necessary. Strain
and add the mushrooms which have been sliced and sauteed in
a little butter and the oysters, allowing the sauce to cook
only until the edges of the oysters begin to curl. Serve at
once.
In many countries Christmas Eve brings with it the pleasant
custom of the trimming of the tree. While the ornaments of
today differ greatly from those of past generations, almost
every family cherishes some of the old to mix with the new--
the wax angel with wings that have been repaired again and
again, the intricate colored balls, the glass icicles.
Fortunately to be seen no more are the candles in their
little snapper sockets, for these have given place to the
safer electric bulbs. Well we remember the continuous
agitation and the precautions taken in earlier days lest the
tree catch fire. Our mothers always saw to it that the tree
was set well away from the wall, and spent most of the time
it was lighted circling about it watchfully, a cup of water
in one hand, ready to put out any conflagration.
The origin of the Christmas tree is disputed. Some say it
goes back to the Jewish Feast of Lights. In the days of the
Druids, Saint Wilfrid is said to have asked his converts to
adopt the balsam fir tree instead of the oak which had been
the symbol of their former idolatry: "It is the wood of
peace, the sign of an endless life with its evergreen
branches. It points to heaven. It will never shelter deeds
of blood but rather be filled with the loving gifts and
rites of kindness." And when Ansgarius preached Christ to
the Vikings, he referred to the fir tree as a symbol of the
faith, for it was, he said, as high as hope, as wide as
love, and bore the sign of the cross on every bough.
We know that in European countries in the late Middle Ages,
fir trees were brought into the homes and ornamented with
paper roses, apples, sweets, and gold leaf. Germany is
usually credited with having had the first real Christmas
trees, and they are mentioned in books as early as 1604.
Prince Albert, longing for the "Weihnachtsbaum" of his
childhood at Rosenau, is said to have brought the Christmas
tree to England.
Just when the tree entered American homes is not certain,
but it is surmised that the custom arrived with the Hessian
soldiers in the British army during the Revolution. They set
up and trimmed trees at Christmas as they did in their
homeland, and the custom became widespread with the influx
of German immigrants in the next century.
For the American family and the friends who gather today,
either before or after midnight services in the churches, to
trim the tree of Christmas, we suggest American refreshments
of a piping hot oyster stew:
Cream Oyster Stew
6 oysters salt and pepper
4 tablespoons butter paprika
3/4 cup scalded cream oyster crackers
Drain the oysters, reserving the liquor. Heat 2 tablespoons
of butter, add the oysters, and cook until the edges begin
to curl. Add the oyster liquor and bring to the boiling
point. Add the scalded cream and season with salt and
pepper. Serve in a bowl, topped with the remaining butter
and dusted with paprika, and with oyster crackers on the
side. Multiply this recipe by the number of portions
desired.
December 25: Christmas Day
The world's greeting for this blessed feast is "Peace on
earth to men of good will!" It still rings out over the
world today, as it did almost two thousand years ago in
Bethlehem--a universal greeting expressing a universal hope.
Even in lands torn by war and hatred, hearts remember these
words and guard them for the future, awaiting the day when
the bells of Christmas will once more, as John Keble says in
his lovely hymn:
To high and low glad tidings tell
How God the Father loves us well.
Every country of the world has its time-honored customs for
Christmas Day, but nowhere are they so heartwarming as in
England. And, since our own ideal Christmas celebration is
much like the English, we will put aside on this day the
customs and food of other countries and deal exclusively
with an English and American Christmas dinner." And did they
actually eat the boar's head?" we asked a friend who was
born and bred in England and knew its traditions. He assured
us that they did, and also that the custom is still
maintained there in at least one place--Queen's College at
Oxford.
He told in this connection the perhaps apocryphal story of
the origin of the boar's head as a Christmas viand. In
medieval days a student at Queen's College was walking in
the forest, studying his Aristotle, when he was surprised by
a boar which rushed out from the brush to attack him. The
student crammed his book down the animal's throat and choked
it to death. However, he did not want to lose his treasured
Aristotle, and so the boar's neck was cut off and the
student's book restored. And since no one wanted to waste
the head, it was roasted and eaten for Christmas dinner at
the college table.
In the old days the boar's head was served at the very
beginning of the feast, on a gold or silver platter
befitting the dignity of the dish. Circled with bay leaves
and rosemary, its tusks decorated with bright apples or
oranges, it was brought to the table with stately
ceremonial, attended by music.
The boar's head is still eaten not only at Oxford, but in
other places in England, as well as in Brittany and in
Central Europe. Should any modern reader be interested in
the preparation of this "noblest dish on the board," here is
how it is made according to the Vicomte de Mauduit who tells
us how it was prepared in his ancestral home. The head was
boned, leaving only the jawbones (to retain the head's
shape) and the tusks. A stuffing made of minced pig's liver,
chopped apples, a little onion, sage, and rosemary was used
to coat the inside of the head. A second stuffing consisting
of sausage meat, pieces of tongue, truffles, apples,
mushrooms, pistachio nuts, and spices, the whole moistened
with Calvados, was then placed inside the head. The head was
wrapped in a cloth and boiled for eight or nine hours,
boiling water being added as required. It was then allowed
to cool and the ears, which had been cut off previously and
boiled separately, were replaced in their proper position
with small skewers. It is interesting to note that in modern
England, when a boar's head is not available, a pig's head
is used; and the meat cut up, mixed with various ingredients
and boiled in a cloth. When the dish is ready, it is filled
into a boar's head mould. Holes are left for the eyes and
"these can be bought with the tusks from the supplier if
required."
Another delicacy long associated with the English Christmas
was roast peacock, also heralded to the feudal banquet table
by special rites with music. In royal surroundings the
peacock was not brought to table by serving men; but one of
the court ladies carried in her own dainty hands the platter
on which rested the lordly bird--"food for lovers and meat
for lords." Its great colorful tail spread wide, its beak
gilded, stuffed with spices and wild herbs, the bird must
have been a fair sight and a dish of fine flavor.
Occasionally in a later England a little deception was
practiced in the matter of the peacock. Washington Irving in
his "Christmas in Old England" relates that he on one
occasion looked with awe on the pie, decorated with the
spreading tail feathers of a peacock, which covered a good
bit of the dining table of his host. After a while the
squire, whose conscience evidently bothered him, confessed
that what was before him was really only a pheasant pie,
though peacock should of course have been served--"but there
has been such a mortality among the peacocks this summer
that I could not prevail on myself to have one killed."
Of course, boars and peacocks were not the only outstanding
dishes of the older English Christmas, for old accounts
speak of a quantity and variety of special concoctions that
leave us gasping in amazement. We may, however, mention in
passing one of them--a famous pie prepared for a peer of the
realm in an earlier century. It is said to have contained,
besides the crust, the following: four geese, three rabbits,
four wild ducks, two woodcocks, six snipe, four partridges,
two curlews, six pigeons, seven blackbirds; and it was
served on a cart built especially to hold it!
Of the desserts traditional to the English Christmas dinner
of early times none was more common than the plum pudding.
The richness of its ingredients was said to symbolize the
offerings of the Wise Men. Its rival, and sometimes in those
heartier days its accompaniment, was the mince pie, alike
endowed with meaning and considered on account of its shape,
to resemble the manger bed of the Infant Jesus. We shall
return to these desserts below, for, although the rare
animals and fowl have been replaced by more usual and easily
procurable fare, the plum pudding and mince pie are still
prime favorites today.
The modern Christmas dinner ranges from elegance to
simplicity, as the taste desires and the purse permits.
Cookery books list menus in bewildering variety. But perhaps
the best suggestions for a Christmas dinner are to be found
not in a cookery book but in the pages of a novel--Charles
Dickens' "Christmas Carol," read aloud each year in many
American homes on Christmas Eve, told over and over on radio
and television. The famous Christmas dinner of the Cratchit
family can be easily duplicated, and, with changes, offers a
fine menu for any home today.
First as regards the goose "that feathered phenomenon to
which a black swan was a matter of course," described as
served with gravy "hissing hot,"--we have given directions
for its cooking on page 123. But here is a recipe for
Cook the onions in a little water until tender. Combine with
the bread cubes (the bread should be a little stale) and the
remaining ingredients.
The potatoes mashed by Master Peter Cratchit, with what is
described as "incredible vigor," in one of our families are
served circled about with green peas; and over the white and
green are laid strips of red pimiento--the traditional
Christmas colors.
For the apple sauce "sweetened up" by Miss Belinda Cratchit,
it should not be necessary to give a recipe, but here we
would like to add a dish to the Cratchit meal--a salad or
Cole Slaw with Boiled Dressing
Remove the outer leaves and stalks of a small head of
cabbage. Shred the cabbage and soak in ice water for an
hour. Drain thoroughly before using.
Boiled Dressing
1 teaspoon dry mustard 1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon sugar 2 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup vinegar
2 tablespoons flour 2 tablespoons butter
1/4 teaspoon paprika sour cream (optional)
Dissolve the dry ingredients in the cold water and mix
thoroughly. In the top of a double boiler beat the egg yolks
with the vinegar and add the dissolved ingredients. Cook,
stirring constantly over boiling water until smooth. Add the
butter and cool. When chilled, the dressing may be thinned
with sour cream if desired.
We have come at last to the plum pudding--"like a speckled
cannonball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of a half-a-
quartern of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly
stuck into the top." For after all there is no other such
Christmas dessert. One could write poetry--in fact, many
have--on this subject, and one could also rhapsodize in
prose.
A plum pudding is, even at its simplest, a matter of many
ingredients and of preparation far in advance. One of us
remembers how it was made by an English grandmother. First
came the buying of bowls, new each year and of various
sizes, for many of the puddings were destined as gifts to
relatives and friends: a big family got a big pudding, the
small family a small one. Everyone was called on to help in
the preparation, in the cutting up of the orange peel and
lemon, the seeding of the raisins and currants. For this
latter work the children of the family were pressed into
service, and were offered an inducement: for every ten
raisins the child got one for himself.
The ingredients were mixed in a vast yellow bowl used only
for that purpose--very little flour but vast amounts of
fruit and, to moisten, brandy and whiskey and ale. Over each
white bowl went a new piece of unbleached muslin. The huge
wash boiler was brought from the cellar, heaved to the top
of the range and half filled with water. When it boiled, in
went the puddings. There they tumbled about for hours,
sometimes clicking against each other in their exuberance.
A few square inches of this pudding was all that even the
most venturesome trencherman dared consume at a sitting. To
us no other has ever tasted like it, not even the darkest
and fruitiest plum pudding from the South. Grandmother
Payne's recipe has been lost, but here is one almost as
good.
Plum Pudding
1-1/2 lbs. raisins grated rind of 2 lemons
1-3/4 lbs. currants 1 oz. ground nutmeg
1 lb. sultanas 1/2 oz. ground bitter
2 lbs. sugar almonds
2 lbs. bread crumbs 2 lbs. finely chopped suet
1 oz. cinnamon 16 eggs
6 oz. finely cut citron 1/4 pt. brandy
1 cup brandy
Seed and cut up the raisins but do not grind them. Wash and
dry the currants. To the fruits add all the dry ingredients
and the suet together, and moisten with the well-beaten eggs
and the brandy. Butter and flour a piece of unbleached
muslin, put the pudding in the cloth, and tie it up tightly.
Put in a large pot of boiling water and boil for seven
hours, adding boiling water if necessary. Remove from the
cloth, pour a cup of warmed brandy over the pudding, stick a
sprig of holly in the top, and set aflame as the pudding is
being carried in.
Mincemeat for Pie
1 lb. chopped boiled juice of 2 oranges
beef juice of 1 lemon
1/2 lb. chopped suet grated peel of 1/2 lemon
1 lb. dried currants 2 cups cider
1 lb. raisins 1 cup brandy
1 lb. citron 1 cup sherry
1 lb. sugar 1 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon cinnamon
grated peel of 1/2 1 teaspoon mace
orange 1 teaspoon nutmeg
3 lbs. apples
Mix all of the ingredients and store in a crock in a cool
place or fill into sterilized jars. If the mincemeat is to
be used considerably later, omit the apples from the
original recipe, and when filling the piecrust add an equal
amount of sliced apples.
Dinner being over, both ours and the Cratchits', we might
follow their example and group ourselves before the hearth
to partake of apples and oranges and chestnuts roasted over
the fire--and, of course, of the famous "compound." This was
a mixture of lemons and gin and water made by Bob Cratchit,
before dinner was ready, as Tiny Tim on his crutch stood
watching beside him.
And we should certainly end the day, as Bob Cratchit did,
with a toast: "A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God
bless us every one."
December 31: New Year's Eve
The last day of the year is the eve of the Feast of the
Circumcision and in some countries is also celebrated as the
day of Saint Sylvester. In Austria December 31st is also
sometimes known as "Rauchnacht," or incense night, for then
the head of the home goes through the house and barns,
carrying incense and holy water to purify them for the year
to come. And in Rumania miracles are said to take place on
this eve, for the gates of Paradise fly open and any wish
made in faith is certain of fulfillment.
In countries where the feast is that of Saint Sylvester,
much merrymaking and horseplay is connected with the
celebration, even though the saint, the early pope who
baptized Constantine, the first Christian emperor of Rome,
deserves a better commemoration. Some of these German and
Austrian customs for "Sylvesterabend" have been brought to
this country. There is, for instance, the jest of the
"elbetritch," a mythical bird which the ignorant are sent
out to catch in a bag; the unsuspecting person holds the bag
as the initiates beat the bushes--of course, no one ever
catches the bird. Many other customs concern the telling of
the future on this night; in some places melted lead is
dropped in cold water, there to assume prophetic shapes.
In Germanic lands the traditional dinner dish of the day is
carp; guests sometimes ask for a few scales of this fish to
treasure as symbols of good luck. A favorite on the menu for
the midnight supper of this night is
Herring Salad
6 milter herring 2 stalks celery
1 cup red wine 2 boiled potatoes
2 cups cooked veal 3 sour apples
3 hard-boiled eggs 1/2 cup pearl onions
1-1/2 cups pickled beets 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup pickles 2 tablespoons horse-radish
Soak the herring in water overnight. Skin them, remove the
milt and the bones. Rub the milt through a sieve and mix
with the red wine which should be dry and not sweet. Cube
the herring, veal, eggs, beets, pickles, celery, potatoes
and apples and add the pearl onions. Mix the sugar and
horse-radish with the milt and wine and pour over the other
ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Line a salad bowl with lettuce
leaves and mound the herring salad in the center. Decorate
with hard-boiled eggs, gherkins, anchovies, sliced stuffed
olives.
Many heavier foods are traditional to the celebration of New
Year's Eve in Scandinavian countries. A favorite dinner is
roast beef, baked potatoes, "Risgrynsgrot" (rice porridge),
"Lefse," and "Kringler."
Risgrynsgrot (Rice Porridge)
1 cup rice 1/4 lb. butter
1 qt. water 1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon sugar
Wash the rice, drain, and cook in salted water in the top of
a double boiler. Cook slowly until tender, or for about one
hour. The water should be absorbed by that time. Add the
butter, the heavy cream which has been whipped, and the
sugar. It is traditional that one whole almond be hidden in
the porridge and the person finding it in his or her dish
will be the first to be married.
Kringler (Rings)
2 eggs 1/4 cup butter
2 cups heavy cream 2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/3 cups sugar 2 cups flour
Beat the eggs and add a bit of the cream. Stir in the sugar
and the butter which has been melted. Whip the rest of the
cream until stiff and add. Sift the flour with the baking
powder and stir into the first mixture to make a soft dough.
Chill in the refrigerator. Roll the dough out thin, cut into
strips, and shape into rings. Bake on a greased and floured
tin at 350 degrees F. for about ten minutes or until light
brown.
On New Year's Eve in Greece singing groups, carrying
replicas of the Church of Saint Sophia, go from house to
house to collect food and coins; the model of the church is
a symbol of the hope of recapturing Constantinople for the
Christians. In Italy masked singers collect gifts of wine
and money, of nuts and sausages; and at midnight go to the
house tops to "blow away the old year."
The Moravians, after a love feast of coffee and cake, sing
together "Nun danket alle Gott" to the accompaniment of
trombones. In Helsinki the Finns formally greet the New Year
with a concert on the steps of the Suurkirkko--the Great
Church--whose bells peal at midnight and are answered by
salutes from the whistles of the ships in the harbor.
As the old year ends, the Basques go in groups to the homes
of friends to speed the old year and welcome the new. Their
greetings are sober. "Who crosses this threshold enters his
home," says the host. And as he enters, the visitor
responds, "May peace be in this house." Within, a toast is
drunk in hydromel or mead, that most ancient of drinks.
In the England of yesterday and today, New Year's Eve is
celebrated with different forms of merrymaking and feasting,
and the ancient holiday custom of the Wassail is much in
vogue.
In our own country the observance of New Year's Eve takes
many different forms--theater parties, dinners in cafes and
clubs and restaurants; but we shall speak of two customs
which many prefer.
The first of these is to spend the evening in one's own home
with family and friends. For these, we suggest
Hot Mulled Wine
1 bottle red wine rind of 1 lemon
12 cloves 2 tablespoons sugar
2 pieces whole cinnamon
Use a claret or Burgundy type. Pour into an enamel pot, add
the cloves, the thinly pared rind of 1 lemon, the sugar and
the cinnamon. Allow this to steep over a low flame, but it
must never come to a boil. Serve hot.
An appropriate and traditional accomplishment is of course
the fruit cake, for which recipes are legion, ranging from
the dark brandy-soaked cake of the South to the delicate
white fruit cake favored elsewhere.
Fruit Cake
1/2 lb. sweet butter 1 teaspoon salt
1/2 lb. brown sugar 1/4 cup brandy
6 eggs 1/2 cup molasses
2 cups flour 1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 lb. seeded raisins
1 teaspoon ground 1 lb. currants
allspice 1/2 lb. pecans
1 teaspoon cloves 1/2 lb. chopped citron
1 teaspoon soda 1/2 cup candied cherries
pinch of salt
Cream the butter and stir in the sifted brown sugar; add the
egg yolks. Sift the flour before measuring and resift all
but 1/2 cup with the spices, the soda and the salt and add
to the butter mixture alternately with the brandy, molasses,
and sour cream. Sift the remaining flour over the raisins,
the currants which have been washed and dried, the broken
pecan meats, the chopped citron, and the cherries which have
been cut in half. Mix the fruits into the batter. Whip the
egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff and fold into
the batter. Line two loaf pans with heavy wax paper, pour in
the batter, and bake at 300 degrees F. for about two and
one-half to three hours.
White Fruit Cake
1 lb. sweet butter 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 cups sugar 1/3 teaspoon salt
9 eggs 1 cup candied cherries
1 teaspoon vanilla 1 cup candied pineapple
2 tablespoons brandy 1 cup candied citron
1/2 teaspoon powdered 1/2 cup candied orange peel
mace 1 cup pecans
4 cups flour 1 cup white raisins
Cream the butter thoroughly and then stir in the sugar,
again beating thoroughly. Add and beat in the eggs one at a
time. Add the vanilla and brandy and the mace. Sift the
flour before measuring and resift with the cream of tartar
and the salt. Add the flour slowly to the other mixture and
blend thoroughly. Then stir in the fruits which have been
chopped, the broken pecan meats, and the raisins. Bake in 2
loaf pans at 325 degrees F. for an hour and a half.
The second way of spending New Year's Eve may well be
combined with the first: it is to attend watch night
services in the churches. Surely this is the best way of
all, to take time on this last night of the old year to
reflect on all the joys and griefs of the twelve months
past, to pray and plan for better things in the year ahead.
Thus, beneath these New Year's resolutions may well exist
the underlying hope that the new will be better than the
old.
And what could better insure the fulfillment of such a hope
than the prayers of countless people meeting in the houses
of God on New Year's Eve, as the pealing bells ring in
another New Year, their notes blent in harmony and not in
dissonance, expressing what we all most deeply feel--the
desire, as Tennyson says, to
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times...
Ring out the thousand wars of old
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
SOURCES
Abbott, G. F. "Macedonian Folklore." Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1903.
Alford, Violet. "Pyrenean Festivals." London: Chatto and
Windus, 1937.
Anderson, Robert G. "The Biography of a Cathedral." New
York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1944.
Anderson, Robert G. "The City and a Cathedral." New York:
Longmans, Green & Co., 1948.
Arnaudov, Mikhail Petrov. "Die bulgarischen Festbrauche."
Leipzig: Parlapanoff, 1917.
Arnold-Forster Frances. "Studies in Church Dedications or
England's Patron Saints." London: Skeffington & Son, 1899.
Ashby, Thomas. "Some Italian Scenes and Festivals." London:
Methuen & Co., 1929.
Attwater, Donald (edit.). "Catholic Encyclopaedic
Dictionary." New York: Macmillan Co., 1931.
Auld, William Muir. "Christmas Traditions." New York:
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Bedier, Julie. "Stones for Bread" in "The Commonweal." April
27, 1951.
Benedictine Monks of St. Augustine's Abbey, Ramsgate. "The
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Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1920.
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Wagnalls Co., 1902.
Voragine, Jacobus de. "The Golden Legend." Translated and
adapted by Granger Ryan and Helmut Ripperger. 2 vols. New
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Walsh, William S. "Curiosities of Popular Customs and of
Rites, Ceremonies, Observations and Miscellaneous
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1868.
Watts, Alan W. "Easter." New York: Henry Schuman, 1950.
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INDEX
Advent
Agnes, St., feast of
Albert, Prince Consort
Ales, Whitsun
All Hallows. See All Saints' Day
All Saints' Day
All Hallows' Eve
All Saints' Day
All Souls' Day
Allier, France, feast of St. George in
Alsace
Ambrose, St.;
feast of
Andermas
Andrew, St.;
feast of
Anne, St., feast of
Annunciation, feast of the
Ansgarius, apostle to Vikings
Anthony of Padua, St., feast of
Anthony the Hermit, St., feast of
Aphrodite, feast of
Aragon, St. George patron of
Armenia, customs of:
feast of Transfiguration
Blessing of the Grapes
Christmas Eve
Arthur, King
Ascension Thursday
Ash Wednesday
Assumption Day
Athenaeus
Augustine, St.
Austria, customs of:
feast of Epiphany
Holy Saturday
feast of St. Bartholomew
feast of St. Nicholas
Christmas Eve
Rauchnacht
Barthelmy's Fair
Bartholomew, St., feast of
Basil, St.
Basque customs:
feast of St. Blaise
feast of St. Giles
New Year's Eve
Bede, Venerable
Bedier, Julie, cited
Befana
Belgium, customs of:
Shrove Tuesday
St. Godelieve "weather saint" of
feast of St. Hubert
Benedict, St., feast of
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Moravian customs
Black Fast
Blaise, St., feast of
Blanche of Castille
Blessed Virgin Mary, feasts of
Candlemas Day
Annunciation of
May Day
Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Assumption Day
Boeuf Gras
Bologna, feast of St. Joseph
Brideswell Palace
Bridget, St., feast of
British Isles
Brittany, customs of:
feast of St. Ives
feast of St. Anne
Fete d'Ame at Quimper
Toussaint
Budapest, feast of St. Stephen, in
Canada, shrine of St. Anne de Beaupre
Candlemas Day
Capo d'Anno
Carling Sunday
Carmelites
Carnival, pre-Lenten
Cavan County, Ireland
Cenone
Ceres, Roman goddess
Charoseth
"Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens
Christmas Day
Christmas Eve
Christmas trees
Circumcision, feast of the
Civil War, American
Clement, St., feast of
"Clementines, The,"
Collop Monday
Columba, St.
Compostela, Spain
Corentinus, St.
Corn Spirit
Coventry, England
Crispin and Crispinian, Sts., feast of
Czechoslovak customs:
Maundy Thursday
All Saints' Day
David, St., feast of
Day of the Dead. See All Souls' Day
Decius, Roman emperor
Declaration of Independence, American
Demeter, goddess of fields
Denmark, Fasteleven in
Dickens, Charles
Druids
Drury Lane Theatre, London
Dublin, St. Patrick's Day in
Easter
Eastern Orthodox Church
Eastre, Anglo-Saxon goddess
Edward VI, king of England
Egbert, king of Saxons
Egypt, ancient customs
Elizabeth, queen of England
England, customs of:
St. George's Day
New Year's Day
Twelfth Day
Good Friday
May Day
Whitsuntide
St. John's Eve
feast of St. Peter
St. Swithin's Day
feast of St. James
Lammas Day
feast of St. Bartholomew
St. Giles and
Michaelmas
feast of St. Crispin
All Hallows
Martinmas
feast of St. Clement
Harvest Home festival
Andermas
Christmas Eve
Christmas Day
New Year's Eve
Epiphany
Escorial, the
Fasteleven, Danish feast of
Feast of Lights, Jewish
Feast of the Soul, Brittany
Feast of Weeks, Jewish
Februa, Roman goddess
Februarius
Fig Sunday. See Palm Sunday
Finland, customs of:
Easter
St. John's Eve
New Year's Eve
Fires of St. John
Flora, goddess
Florida
Flowery Festival. See Palm Sunday
France, customs of:
Shrove Tuesday
Ascension Day
Pentecost
feast of St. Medard
feast of St. John
feast of St. Roch
St. Giles
feast of St. Crispin
feast of St. Hubert
Christmas Reveillon
Francis of Assisi, feast of
and Christmas creche
Frangipani, Gratiano
George, St., feast of
Germany, customs of:
Shrove Tuesday
Holy Saturday
and St. George
May Day
feast of St. John
and "weather saints"
and St. Roch
and St. Giles
feast of St. Michael
feast of St. Martin
feast of St. Nicholas
Christmas Eve
Sylvesterabend
Gervasius and Protasius, Sts.
Ghent, Belgium
Giles, St., feast of
Godelieve, St.
"Godey's Lady's Book"
"Golden Legend"
Good Friday
Greece, customs of:
Easter
New Year's Eve
Green Thursday. See Maundy Thursday
Gregorian Calendar
Gregory the Illuminator, St.
Gule of August, Druidic feast
Hale, Mrs. Josepha
Malles, Paris market
Halloween. See All Hallows' Eve
Handsel Monday
Harvest Home, festival in England
Helena, Empress
Henry I, king of England
Hessians
Holland, customs of:
Shrove Tuesday
feast of St. Nicholas
Holy Thursday. See Maundy Thursday
Holy Saturday
Hosanna Sunday. See Palm Sunday
Hubert, St., feast of
Huesca, Aragon, feast of St. Lawrence in
Hugh of Grenoble, St., feast of
Hungary, customs of:
reverence for bread
feast of St. Mark
St. John's Day
feast of St. Anne
feast of St. Stephen
All Saints' Day
Hunyady, Hungarian warrior
Independence Day, American
Indians, American
Ireland, customs of:
feast of St. Bridget
Shrove Tuesday
St. Patrick's Day
St. Walburga's Eve
feast of St. John
Michaelmas
All Hallows' Eve
Irenaeus, St.
Irving, Washington
Italy, customs of:
feast of Palentone
feast of St. Joseph
Holy Saturday
Easter
Our Lady of Mount Carmel
St. Lawrence's Day
Palio in Siena
feast of San Rocco
All Souls' Day
feast of St. Ambrose of Milan
Christmas Eve
Ives, St.
Jacoba di Settesoli
James the Apostle, St., feast of
Janus, Roman god
Jerusalem, pilgrimage to
Jesus College, Oxford
Jewish customs
Johannesfeuer
John the Baptist, St., feast of
Joseph, St., feast of
Jude, St., feast of
Jule-nissen
Julian calendar
Keble, John
Kildare, nunnery of
Kings, Day of the, See Epiphany
Koran
Kris Kringle
Lady Day. See Annunciation, feast of the
Laetare Sunday
Lammas Day
Lapland, and St. Nicholas
Latvia, customs on St. John's Eve
Lawrence, St., feast of
Lazarus
Leicestershire, England
Lent
Lincoln, President Abraham
Locusts, and St. John the Baptist
London, feast of St. James
Lorraine, St. Nicholas patron of
Louis of France, St., feast of
Macarius, St., feast of
Macedonian customs;
Maundy Thursday
Easter
Mardi Gras
Marguerite of Provence
Mark, St., feast of
Martha, St., feast of
Martin of Tours, St.,
feast of
Martinmas
Mary, sister of Martha
Maryland, May Day custom of
Massaoit, Indian chief
Mathias Church, Budapest
Mauduit, Vicomte de
Maundy Thursday
May Day
Mayflower Pilgrims
Medard, St., feast of
Mexico, customs of:
Candlemas Day
feast of St. John
Day of the Dead
Michaelmas
Mid-Lent
Midsummer
Milan
Mohammed
Mont-Saint Michel
Monte Cassino
Monte Gargano
Moravians
Moses
Mothering Sunday. See Laetare Sunday
Naples
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Nero, emperor
Netherlands. See Holland
New England, May Day customs of
Thanksgiving
New Orleans, Mardi Gras in
New Year's Day
New York City
Newcastle, England
Nicholas, St., feast of
Norway, Christmas Eve in
Nouvel An
Nut Crack Night
Oestre, goddess
Our Lady of Herbs, feast of. See Assumption Day
Oxford
Palm Sunday
Pardon of the Poor, Brittany
Paris:
Carnival in
May Day customs
Fair of St. Lawrence
feast of St. Roch
Pascha Rosarum
Pascha Rossa
Passion Sunday
Passover, the
Patrick, St., feast of
Paul the Hermit, St., feast of
Pelznickel
Pennsylvania Dutch
Pentecost. See Whitsunday
Persia, customs of ancient
Peter, St.
feast of
feast of St. Peter in Chains
Phildelphia, Pa.
Philip II, king of Spain
Picardy
Picts
Pluto, god of the underworld
Plymouth Colony
Poland, customs of:
Pre-Lenten carnival
Swiecone
Easter
feast of St. John
feast of Our Lady of Herbs
All Souls' Day
feast of St. Nicholas
Christmas Wigilia
Polentone, feast of
Pomona, Roman goddess
Ponti, Italy
Portugal:
St. George honored in
Romeria
Proserpina
Provence
Purification, feast of the
Purim, feast of
Puritans
Queen's College, Oxford
Quimper, Britanny, Feast of the soul in
Rauchnacht
Resurrection, feast of the. See Easter
Reveillon
Roch, St., feast of
Rome:
customs of ancient
Ascension Day customs
as place of pilgrimage
Romeria, Portuguese festival
Rose Sunday. See Laetare Sunday
Roswitha
Rumania, New Year's Eve tradition
Russia:
feasts of Eastern Orthodox Church
St. Joseph's Day in
Palm Sunday in
Easter in
and St. Nicholas
St. Albans
St. Anne de Beaupre
St. Bartholomew-on-the-Island, Roman church of
St. Giles' Hospital, London
Saint-Gilles, France
St. John Lateran, basilica of
St. Peter Advincula, church of
St. Sophia, cathedral of
Santa Claus
Schwenkfelder Thanksgiving
Scotland, customs of:
St. Andrew's Day
Shrove Tuesday
ancient feast of Beltane
feast of St. Columba
Michaelmas
All Hallows
Seder, Jewish feast
Sergius, Pope
Seven Sleepers of Ephesus
Shakespeare, William
Shrove Tuesday
Sicily, Palm Sunday customs
Simon, St., feast of
Simon Magus
Sixtus II, Pope
Sorbonne, Robert de
Spain:
St. John's Eve in
St. James patron of
feast of St. Lawrence in
feast of St. Roch in
feast of St. Giles in
All Souls' Day in
Stephen of Hungary, St.
feast of
Succoth, thanksgiving festival
Sweden, customs of:
Shrove Tuesday
St. Joseph's Day
Vaffelsdagen
Swiecone, Polish
Swithin, St., feast of
Switzerland, customs of:
pre-Lenten
Easter
feast of St. Nicholas
Sylvester, St., feast of
Sylvesterabend
Syria, pre-Lenten festival in
Thanksgiving Day, American
Thomas Aquinas, St.
Thomas the Apostle, St.
Tours, tomb of St. Martin in
Toussaint. See All Saints' Day
Transfiguration, feast of the
Twelfth Day. See Epiphany
Tyrol, Palm Sunday customs of
Tyrone County, Ireland
Unitas Fratrum
Vaffelsdagen
Valentine, St., feast of
Varenne, Le Sieur de
Vartavarh, feast of
Venice, feast of St. Mark
Virginia
Vitalis, St.
Voragine, Jacobus de
Walburga, St.
Wales, customs of:
feast of St. David
Mid-Lent
ancient feast of Beltane
Walpurgisnacht
Washington, George
Whitsunday
Whitsuntide
Wigilia, Polish
Wilfrid, St.
Winchester, England, and St. Swithin
Zebedee
INDEX OF FOOD AND RECIPES
Agnellino
Aioli
Ale
Algarroba Bean
Apple Butter
Apple Dowdy
Apple Florentine
Apple Fritters
Apples
Apples, Cinnamon
Artichokes, Roasted
Ash Cakes
Babka
Baddesley Cake
Bannock
Baptist Cakes
Barinbreac
Barszcz
Basque Soup
Bauernfruhstuck
Beans of the Dead
Bechamel Sauce
Beef, Roast
Beet Soup
Beignets de Pommes
Beltane Cakes
Beverages
Ale
Braggot
Eggnog
Glogg
Hot Buttered Rum
Hot Mulled Wine
Maibowle
Posset cup
Wassail Bowl
Blini
Boar's Head
Boiled Dressing for Cole Slaw
Boudin Grille
Boxty Bread
Boxty Dumplings
Boxty Pancakes
Braggot
Bread of the Dead
Breads
Boxty Bread
Bread of the Dead
Christstollen
Corn Bread
Fruchtbrod
Irish Soda Bread
Pain Perdu
Pan de Muertos
Panettone
Scotch Short Bread
Whole Wheat Bread
Brodetto Pasquale
Brunswick Stew
Buns
Fastenlavensboller
Fet Tisdags Bular
Hot Cross Buns
Lenten
Buttermilk Pancakes
Cakes. See also Cookies, Pancakes
Ash Cakes
Babka
Baddesley Cake
Bannock
Barinbreac
Beans of the Dead
Beltane Cakes
Dirge Cake
Dumb Cakes
Fave dei Morte
Fruit Cake
Galette des Rois
Gingerbread
God Cakes
Independence Day Cake
Judases
Kringler
Lekkuchen
Letterbankets
Mazurek
Moravian Love Cakes
"Pope Ladies"
Rings
Rosca de Reyes
Scripture Cake
Seed Cake
Simnel Cake
Soul Cake
Taai-taa
Tandry Wigs
Turtledoves
Twelfth Day Cake
Callalou
Candies, Sweetmeats
Charoses
Glaceed Fruit
Nougats
Sugarplums
Torrone
Capitone
Capon, Truffled
Cappelletti all'uso di Romagna
Carciofi Arrostiti
Carp
Casatiella
Champ
Charoses
Cheese filling for Pierogi
Chestnut Cream
Chestnut Dressing, for Goose
Chicken, Paprika
Christstollen
Ciastka Miodowe
Cinnamon Apples
Cobbler, Fruit
Cockles in the Shell
Coffee Ice
Colcannon
Cold Spanish Soup
Cole Slaw with Boiled Dressing
Collops
Conserves
Apple Butter
Lattwaerrick
Mostarda di Cremona
Parsley Jelly
Rose Leaf Jam
Spiced Grape Jelly
Watermelon Pickle
Cookies. See also Cakes
Honey Cakes
St. Valentine's Cookies
Poppy Seed Cookies
Speculaus
Coquilles Saint-Jacques
Corn Bread
Corn Meal Pie
Costoletta Milanese
Cranberry Ice
Crawfish with Cream
Cream Oyster Stew
Creme Brulee Creole
Crepes Suzettes
Crevettes a la Bechamel
Crowdy
Dandelion Greens
Dandelion Greens with Bacon
Dirge Cake. See Soul Cake
Dolmas
"Dough Cases"
Doughnuts
Shrove Tuesday
Fastnachtskuchen
Dressing, boiled, for Cole Slaw
Dressings for Meat or Fowl. See Stuffings
Dumb Cakes
Dumplings
Pierogi
Ravioli di San Giuseppe
Spatzle
Easter Broth
Easter Eggs
Eel Patty
Eels, Fried
Egg and Caper Sauce
Egg and Parsley Sauce
Eggnog
Eggs, Easter
Eggs and Bacon, English
Eggs Benedict, Lenten
Egg Pizza
Empanadas de Orno
English Eggs and Bacon
Escargot
Fastenbrezel
Fastenlavensboller
Fastnachtskuchen
Fat Tuesday Buns
Fave dei Morti
Fet Tisdags Bullar
Fig Pudding
Figs
Fillet of Flounder in Tomato Sauce
Fish Soup
Flounder, Fillet of, in Tomato Sauce
Flour Tortillas
Frangipani Cream
Fritters
Apple
Cream
Zeppole
Fruchtbrod
Fruit Cake
Fruit Cobbler
Fruit Compote
Fruit Topping for Mazurek
Frumenty
Galette des Rois
Garlic Butter
Garlic Mayonnaise
Gazpacho
Gesztenye Krem
Gingerbread, White
Giuncata
Glaceed Fruit
Glogg
God Cakes
Goose
Michaelmas
Martinmas
Christmas
Goose Liver Patty
Gooseberry Pudding
Granita di Caffe
Grape Jelly, Spiced
Grapes
Greek Easter Lamb
Greens
Haggis
Hasty Pudding
Herring Salad
Herring, Salt
Holy Thursday Spinach
Honey Cakes
Hot Buttered Rum
Hot Cross Buns
Hot Mulled Wine
Independence Day Cake
Indian Pudding
Irish Soda Bread
Jams. See Conserves
Jellied Pig's Head
Jellies. See Conserves
Judases
Koulich
Kringler
Lamb
Agnellino
Greek Easter
Lamb's Wool
Langouste a la creme
Lasagne
Lattwaerrick
Lebkuchen
Leek Soup, Welsh
Leeks
Leeks a la Provence
Lenten Buns
Lenten Eggs Benedict
Letterbankets
Lobster with Cream
Lost Bread
Loukinas
Maibowl
Marlborough Pudding
Marzipan
Mazurek
Meat Pies
Meats, Fowl and Game. See under name of each.
Michaelmas Pie
Mince Pie
Minestrone
Mock Turtle Soup
Molje
Moravian Love Cakes
Mostarda di Cremona
Mushrooms, Red Cabbage and
Noodles with Poppy Seeds
Nougats
Omelette Mere Poulard
Oyster Stew, Cream
Oysters
Oysters in the Shell
Paasiasismammi
Pain Perdu
Pan de Muertos
Pancakes
Baptist Cakes
Blini
Boxty Pancakes
Buttermilk Pancakes
Crepes Suzettes
Tacos
Panettone
Paprika Chicken
Paprikas Csirke
Parsley Jelly
Paskha
Pasticcio di Polenta
Pate d'Anguille
Pate de Foie Gras
Pea Soup
Peacock, Roast
Peasant Breakfast
Peasant Soup
Piczki
Pierogi
Pies
Apple Dowdy
Apple Florentine
Corn Meal Pie
"Dough Cases"
Eel Patty
Egg Pizza
Empanadas de Orno
Fruit Cobbler
Meat Pies
Michaelmas Pie
Mince Pie
Pasticcio di Polenta
Pate d'Anguilles
Pumpkin Pie
Steak and Kidney
Pig, Roast Suckling
Pig's Head, Jellied
Pike, Baked
Pilaff, Armenian
Pissenlit au Lard
Pizza, Egg
Plum Pudding
Poached Salmon
Poireauax a la Provencale
Polenta
Pomander
"Pope Ladies"
Poppy Seed Cookies
Pork, Stuffed Leg of
Pork Tacos
Posset cup
Potage Paysanne
Potato Pudding
Potato and Sausage Stuffing
Pretiolium
Pretzel
Provencal Salad
Puddings
Fig Pudding
Gooseberry Pudding
Hasty Pudding
Indian Pudding
Marlborough Pudding
Plum Pudding
Potato Pudding
Stir-up Pudding
Yorkshire Pudding
Pumpkin Pie
Raito
Ratatouille
Ravioli, Christmas
Ravioli di San Giuseppe
Red Cabbage and Mushrooms
Rice Porridge
Rice Waffles
Rice, Wild, Stuffing
Rings
Risgrynsgrot
Roasts
Beef
Goose
Suckling pie
Turkey
Rosca de Reyes
Rose Leaf Jam
Rose Potpourri
Rum, Hot Buttered
Sage and Onion Stuffing
St. Roch's Fingers
St. Valentine Cookies
Salads
Cole Slaw
Dandelion Greens with Bacon
Herring Salad
Provencal
Salmon, Poached
Salsiccia con Pepperoni
Sauces
Aioli
Bechamel
Boiled Dressing for Cole Slaw
Egg and Caper
Egg and Parsley
Garlic Butter
Garlic Mayonnaise
Tomato, for Fillet of Flounder
Venetian Fish
Sauquetash
Sausage
Grilled
Loukinas
Salsiccia con Pepperoni
Scaloppine al Marsala
Scallops in the Shell
Scones, Tea
Scotch Shortbread
Scripture Cake
Seed Cake
Sfinge di San Giuseppe
Sheep's Head
Shrimps with Bechamel Sauce
Shrove Tuesday Doughnuts
Simnel Cake
Snails
Soda Bread
Soul Cake
Soups
Barszcz
Basque
Beet
Brodetto Pasquale
Cream Oyster Stew
Easter Broth
Fish Soup
Gazpacho
Leek Soup, Welsh
Minestrone
Mock Turtle Soup
Molje
Pea Soup
Peasant Soup
Waterzoei
Spatzle
Speculaus
Sphinx Puffs
Spiced Grape Jelly
Spinach
Spinach, Holy Thursday
Squirrels
Steak and Kidney Pie
Stir-up Pudding
Stuffed Grape Leaves
Stuffing for Meat and Fowl
Potato and Sausage
Chestnut
Wild Rice
For Leg of Pork
Sage and Onion
Succotash
Suckling Pig, Roast
Sugarplums
Swedish Waffles
Taai-taai
Tacos, Pork
"Tandry Wigs"
Tea Scones
Torrone
Tortillas de Harina
Truffled Capon
Turkey, Thanksgiving
Turtledoves
Twelfth Day Cake
Veal Chops Milanese
Veal Cutlet in Marsala Wine
Venison, Roast
Venetian Fish Sauce
Waffles, Rice
Waffles, Swedish
Wassail Bowl
Watermelon Pickle
Waterzoei
Wayz-Goose
Welsh Leek Soup
White Fruit Cake
White Gingerbread
Whole Wheat Bread
Wild Rice Stuffing
Worsteorod
