How to Cook Medieval - Christmas Feasts (2024)

Christmas conjures up imagesof a host of culinary delights and treatsto modern man; as one of the most festive occasions in the contemporarycalendar, the season is marked by indulgences in food and diet thatnormallywould be restricted or frowned upon during other parts of the year.Thisis further punctuated by a celebratory attitude that at this timepermits(and even encourages) a relaxation of one's usual mode of eating andsimplyallows nearly everything that is desirable and tasty! It is a time ofeating,of feasting, of sharing repasts with friends and neighbors, and ofgainingthe ubiquitous Christmas pounds!

Such festivity was true inmedieval times as well, though there arestriking differences in what was eaten and served at Christmas timethenas compared to now. Simply put, there were not as manyChristmas-specificfoods as there are now; mankind feasted heartily, but on foods andrecipesthat also were available and popular during the rest of the year -thesewere produced in finer quality and eaten in greater amounts at thistime,but there was not a specific and detailed menu on what should or shouldnot be eaten at Christmas. Much of the festivity that revolved aroundfoodseemed to be not in what was being offered, but in how it wasoffered,the quantities that were available, and in the act of sharing a mealandeating together. Several dishes of healthy, tasty food and ale to lasta day, along with fuel for cooking and warmth, and candles to light thelong evening, was an honored and acceptable gift from the lord to hisvilleins.In some recorded cases, the gift of food for the day was as simple as aloaf of bread, ale to drink, and some firewood. Many lords would invitetheir workers and serfs to the manor for Christmas dinner; in mostcases,though, the food, serving utensils, and even the fuel for cooking wereusually provided by the villeins themselves. It seems the real spiritofthe moment was seen in the communal exchange of food and the enjoymentof feasting with friends in front of the burning Yule Log ofthelord's hearth.

There are some foodrules to remember when composing an authentic medievalfeast; as the days leading up to Christmas were the fast, orfish-daysof Advent, fish was eaten in great quantities up to and includingChristmasEve. (This, therefore, usually meant that fish was not considered anappropriatefood for the post-Advent Christmas period; one would be considered apooror offensive host to offer fish for a Christmas meal!) The practice ofserving fish up until Christmas Day survives enthusiastically today asthe modern Italian-American tradition of a large and extravagantChristmasEve seafood dinner.

And there were a fewfoods did became associated with Christmasat this time: the Boar's Head, which still today holds greatconnotationsof Yule, and Plum Pudding & Mincemeat Pie, two treats alsocontemporarilylinked with the holiday. However, these foods were also quite commonduringthe rest of the year; the Boar's Head was found at many great dinners,being considered an honored dish at all times. Plum Pudding would havebeen eaten whenever economy and season dictated. And Mincemeat Pie(madewith real meat) was simply yet another medieval-stylemeat pie with aheavydried fruit base. Still, the medieval population foundthese dishesparticularlyappealing at Christmas, and the Boar's Head was considered so standardthat if a real one could not be acquired, a faux presentation made ofcakeor other foods was more than acceptable.

By medievaltimes, the gameof the Bean King or Mock King was oldenough to be considered "ancient." This was a cake or a loaf of breadwhichhad hidden in it a small object, such as a bean. Whoever found the beanin their portion was proclaimed the Bean King, and presided as ahumorousruler over the Christmas festivities. In some cultures the Bean cakewasshaped like a crown and was associated with the Three Wise Kings.

The Advent fast, prohibitingmeat, chicken, milk, cheese, butter,etc. (i.e., virtually all animal products), and lasting a time periodthatincluded the four Sundays preceding Yule, was THE primary motivationforthe festal consumption of food during a medievalChristmas. This simplefact should always be kept in mind when planning a medievalfeast in anauthentic manner. Christmas itself ran from Christmas Day up throughEpiphany,or Twelfth Day (January 6). The rules and standards of food atChristmastime lasted for this entire 12 day period.

A Christmas Eve dinner shouldbe composed of medieval dishes thatare for fish-days, fast-days, Ember days, and for Lent. (Ember Dayswerefour significant fast-days held during Lent, just after Pentecost,September,and in December during Advent.) These sorts of recipes are usuallyclearlydenoted in medieval cooking manuscripts, and can befound throughouttherecipe sections of Gode Cookery.Exotic and varied viands of fish &seafoodshould dominate: grilled, fried, roasted, baked fish, etc. with avarietyof sauces; oysters, mussels, crabs, lobster, clams, and assortedshellfish(such as periwinkles) are very acceptable and can be prepared in amultitudeof ways. Almondmilk should be the ingredient used for sauces, as it was the mainsubstitutefor milk during a fast. Fried foods are prepared in olive & nutoils (see: Oils)rather than animal fats.

Medieval cooks came up with avariety of ways to circumvent the restrictionsof a fast-day: mock cheese was made out of fish and almond milk, fishwasmade to taste like meat, etc. And some people relied on extremes incommonfood beliefs to see them through their fast: beaver tail (a high sourceof fat & protein) was acceptable as the beaver lived in water, likea fish; ordinary geese were often identified as being the mythical BarnacleGoose by both sellers and consumers alike. The Barnacle Goose,beinga product of the ocean, was not a true land-goose and therefore was notrestricted. Therefore, if the cook or host of a Christmas Eve dinnerwishesto serve goose, it may be done so, but only in the honest faith that itis a true Barnacle Goose that is being served! (Imagine a platter ofBarnacleGoose surrounded by oysters, mussels, clams, etc. Yum!)

Bread, cheese, ale, & wineshould be included with the foodsof both a Christmas Eve or a Christmas Day dinner.

A medievalChristmas Daydinner could be composed of rich and extravagantdishes, heavy with meat and sweets, and laden with delicacies andtreats;or, an equally authentic way to eat would be to have simple but heartydishes like stewed chicken or beef, or pork, ham or bacon served withmustard,along with cheese, bread and ale. The choice is yours, as was our medievalpredecessors. Certainly, the Boar's Head should be included in anylargedinner or party, whether real or made of cake, as well as Plum Pudding,Mincemeat Pie, and such treats as gingerbread, spiced wines, etc.Venisonwas a popular meat at Christmas, and possibly represented about 1/4 ofall meat eaten at that time, according to household records. Goose,duck,hen, and an enormous range of fowl & poultry served in or with avarietyof sauces; dishes of beef, pork, & rabbit prepared in numerousways;rich soups and thick pottages and stews; a plethora of sweets anddesserts- the list of acceptable foods that are authentic, delectable, andhighlyappropriate for a Christmas Feast would be a long one! Any documented,authentic recipe found in ABoke of Gode Cookery which is not intended as a fast-day item wouldbe more than suitable.

And don't forget about theBean Cake! More about it HERE.

Decorating the home withgreenery during the holiday has been a customsince the Roman festival of Saturnalia, and has been documented ashavingoccurred in London as early as the 12th century. The Medieval dinnertableor dining hall can be suitably garnished with holly, evergreen, etc.,justlike today.

Singing carols at a Christmasdinner was such an expected activitythat paid carolers and minstrels were often included in the budgets oflarge feasts. Other entertainments, such as masques and mummery, werealsovery common.

To compose your Christmasfeast menu in a medieval manner, pleasevisit MesseIt Forth.

Now, lets see what some ofthe experts on medieval cookery have tosay about medieval Christmas Feasts.

Fast andFeast by Bridget Ann Henischis filled with detailed and fascinating information on all aspects offoodin Medieval society. Here is what the author has to say on Christmas:

The twolongest and most important fasts were Advent andLent, whichushered in the greatest feasts of the years, Christmas & Easter.Theseason of Advent covers a span of about four weeks and always containsfour Sundays. It begins on the first of these, Advent Sunday, and thisday marks the start of the ecclesiastical year. It is a period ofpreparationfor Christmas, a time when man tries to turn over a new leaf and startagain. One fifteenth-century sermon writer points the parallel betweenthe Church and the individual: just as the Church makes a freshbeginningon Advent Sunday, 'so owe ye to begynne and renewe youre lfyy.'

The formof a fast varied very much from occasion tooccasion. Indeed,the term fast scarcely applies to an ordinary Friday, for an ordinarylayman.The amount eaten could be just as ample as usual, and the only changeexpectedwas a change in the main ingredient of the menu, from meat to fish.

In thefourteenth -century romance Sir Gawain and theGreen Knight,the hero arrives at a castle on Christmas Eve, the last day of theAdventfast. Officially, therefore, the dinner must be meatless; nevertheless,the cooks have contrived a dazzling prelude to the Christmasfestivities,working their inspired variations on the theme of fish: fish baked,fishgrilled, fish simmered, fish attended by a hundred subtle sauces. Thehost'sapologies for 'this penaunce' are mere polite pretense, themodestybecoming a winner. Fast has been triumphantly metamorphosed into feast.

Christmaswas the very epitome of exuberantself-indulgence. Its variousnames were synonyms of the good life. Henryson's two mice, reveling inthe larder, toast their luck with the shout: 'Haill, Yule! Haill!'(Yule used here with the meaning 'time of merrymaking.'

ChristmasDay and the week that followed were given overto enjoyment;as one fifteenth-century sermon writer simply summed up the matter: '...in Christmasse wyke ...then there is no tyme to faste.' In BenJonson's Masqueof Christmas (1616), one character says to Christmas: 'Here'soneo' Friday Street would come in,' and Christmas replies: 'By nomeans,nor out of neither of the Fish Streets admit not a man; they are notChristmascreatures; fish and fasting days, foh!'

In acontract drawn up for masons and carpenters inCalais, in 1474,feast days were graded according to their importance; the time at whichwork finished depended on the dignity of the day. Thus a minor feast,likeNew Year's Day, was not recognized as a holiday and work ended at theusualtime, that is, five in the afternoon. On a more important feast, likeSt.Thomas of Canterbury's, work stopped at three in the afternoon, whileonthe greatest of all, like Christmas itself, tools were downed at elevenin the morning. Although this particular group of men was expected toworka few hours even on Christmas Day, it was the general custom to take aholiday lasting several days in the Christmas week. At York in 1327,allwork stopped from 24 December until the twenty-eighth, and atWestminsterin 1331, the vacation lasted from 23 December to the thirtieth.

In hisjournal, William More, the last Prior of Worcester,wrote downthe expenses for his abbey's annual Christmas feast, given to a mixedcompanyof clergy and city officials. Year after year he noted payments tominstrels,entertainers, and carolers: '1518: Item to syngers of carralls14d./8d./8d...1520: Item rewards for caralls on Christmas day dynar 14d./ at supper8d...1527: Item for syngyng of carralls on cristmas day and to mynstrells2s.6d. 16d.' During Henry VII's Twelfth Night feast in 1487, 'attheTable in the Medell of the Hall sat the Deane and those of the KingsChapell,which incontynently [straightaway] after the Kings furst Course sange aCarall.'

Wild boarwas often the star attraction of a Christmasfeast, and thehead was brought in to the sounds of its own special songs, rangingfromthe merely cheerful to brisk reminders of the season's doctrinalsignificance:

Withgarlandes gay and byrdes synynge;

I prayyou all, helpe me to synge,

Qui estis in convivio.

And another:

The borys hede that we bryng here

And now this information from The Art of Cookeryin the Middle Ages by Terence Scully:

Feastdaysin the late autumn and at the end of the yeartended traditionallyto see the serving of the meats of domestic animals and fowl that weredifficult or costly to maintain over the winter months. Pork and goosebecame associated with Christmas meals. Wild pigs could be capturedrightacross Europe and the Christmastide boar's head marked both the end ofthe hunting season and the time of courageous renewal in the Christianyear.

St.Nicolas, the patron saint of children, was alwaysperceived as afigure of generosity: for example, so that all girls might have anappropriatedowry to bring to a marriage, he used to distribute purses of goldcoinsto the homes of the poor. On (and about) December 6 households wouldserveup all the fresh fruits of the season, both local and exotic, alongwiththe candies, nuts, sweetmeats, spiced cakes and other delicacies thatSt.Nicolas was supposed to have brought. Marzipan and various gingerbreadshence became widely connected with the Christmas season.

The prevalence of fruits at this time and the predilection they enjoyedlead to the incorporation of the sweeter varieties, especially figs,datesand raisins, into a mixture with sugar, spices and bland meats. This 'mincemeat'was merely an appetizing variety of dish whose basis was the ubiquitousgroundmeat paste, but it, too, came to mark the Christmas season. Plumpudding was likewise a dish that became firmly established in the foodhabits of this time of year. Some cakes had a rich variety of freshchoppedfruits worked into their batter.

Comments by Francis &Joseph Gies from Lifein a Medieval Castle:

Now, compare the Gies'information with that from by P. W. Hammond:

All of the recipes in A Bokeof Gode Cookery can be easily perusedat one site: All Gode Cookery Recipes.Keep in mind that for an authentic feast or dinner, you should only beusing those recipes which are documented as coming from authenticsources; ABoke of Gode Cookery, Recipesfrom A Newe Boke of Olde co*kery, MedievalRecipe Translations, and many of the recipes from TheHistorical Cookery Page are documented, but very few from ModernRecipes for Beginners are. Be sure to check the site-source of eachrecipe, and if that recipe has the credentials necessary for anauthenticdinner!

Any recipe that is not definedas a fast-day, Lenten, etc., dishis suitable for a Christmas dinner. Keep in mind that all sorts ofdishesinvolving of beef, pork, venison, rabbit, etc., were very common, aswellas any featuring hens, goose, poultry, duck - in other words, allvarietiesof meat and fowl were standard Christmas fare. Fish should only beservedduring Advent or Christmas Eve. Any sweet or dessert rich with spicesisalso recommended, as well as any of the recipes for mulled beverages&spiced wines. Ale, bread, & cheese should be a part of anyChristmasmeal, as well as caroling and entertainment. And don't forget: forinformationon how to compose your Christmas feast menu in a medievalmanner,pleaseconsult Messe It Forth.

Here are a few Gode Cookerysuggested recipes for Christmas:

BEVERAGES:

• LombardSoup- A chicken or beef/pork egg drop soup.
• Tomake frumente- wheat cooked in milk & broth.
• Tredure- broth thickened with eggs and bread crumbs.
• Venysonin Broth- A soup of venison, wine, & spices.

VEGETABLES:

• NewPeas fora Meat Day - a dish of peas cooked in broth.
• Pescodde- A dish of peas & bacon.

Of course, there are manymore appropriate vegetable recipes then thesetwo; they are given special notice here because of the emphasis asdishesfor a meat-day, or feast-day. Nearly any authentic vegetable recipewilldo for a Christmas feast; please visit .