The Christmas platter

It’s Christmas end of the year & time for yuletides, mistletoes, family supper, being together and joining in the festivities. MEENAKSHI RAO celebrates the occasion by running you through the food history of X’Mas along with recipes in a two-page special

Stuffed turkey on the table, homemade cranberry sauce on the side, rum-soaked plum cake, mince pie, an array of breads adorning the candlelit table and a Christmas tree standing tall like Jesus guarding over the family — it’s that time of the year — family time, time to get back with near and dear ones, time to break bread over thanksgiving, time to be happy and feel belonged.

While Jesus Christ’s birthday was earmarked for December 25 somewhere only in the 4th century after eons of debate, the sumptuous supper shared to celebrate the momentous occasion has a rich history in itself.

Did you ever wonder where the rum-soaked tradition of the plum cake originated? Or, why is ginger such a celebratory spice for this season? Why cake-mixing is a ceremony in itself? Why Germans spend ages decorating bread-houses? How did the turkey, all the way from faraway America, land on European Christmas tables? And, why ginger and mulled wines have warmed throats and tastes down the centuries?

Let’s start with the centre table showstopper — the big fat turkey. In India, the Christmas Turkey talk is just about picking up, what with taste buds not really compatible with the texture of this Mexican bird. Also, it is an uber rich bird which few can afford. As The Oberoi Gurgaon’s executive chef Manish Sharma tells you, serving a turkey is style, patience and expertise all rolled into one.

“The best turkey comes from American farms and is in an average weight of five to eight kg per bird. We use the Norbest and butterball turkey. Per kg turkey is Rs 4,000 so, on an average, a 5 kg turkey will cost you Rs 20,000,” chef Sharma says.

The Oberoi does the turkey only on pre-bookings and goes through an elaborate process of stuffing it with ham, French butter, almonds, cranberry sauce and spices etc before baking it in slow-mo to run in the juices.

But how did the turkey come to perch on the Christmas table? Apparently, it arrived in England in 1526 through a Yorkshire trader who bought six of them from Red Indian traders while travelling in America. Some years later, some smart Alec thought of sparing the more usual meats like the wild boar, goose, peacock and the venison for at least a day, that day being the Christmas feast. That’s where turkey found its showstopper placement.

Although the bird became fashionable in high society only by the late 19th century, it was Edward VII who made it a regular Christmas feast for the middle classes. Even then, a person had to shell out at least a week’s wage to buy a turkey.

Today, 87 per cent English homes can’t celebrate Christmas without a traditional roast turkey stuffed to its gills with tasteful accompaniments. Today, 10 million turkeys adorn Christmas tables across England every year.

But England’s obsession is not shared equally by other European countries like Portugal where a typical Christmas delicacy is the codfish. Germans, on the other hand, still prefer the wild boar or the venison and the Swedes feast on caviar, shellfish and raw fish. Back in India, pocket and taste are still the limiting factors.

PLUM CAKE

Did you know that the now famous plum cake which makes big business across the world as a Christmas-must actually originated as plum porridge in England? This porridge was consumed on Christmas Eve to line stomachs after a day of fasting. It came with local produce like fruit, spices and honey. It eventually took the shape of Christmas pudding.

It was only in the 16th century that oatmeal was removed as an ingredient and butter, wheat flour and eggs added to it. What came out was a plum pudding. The mixture worked well in holding up the plum pudding which was — and continues to be — boiled or steamed, back then because ovens were still a very rich man’s technology. You may categorise this as a boiled plum cake or a plum pudding, a precursor of the Christmas cake as we know it now.

“The plum pudding, instead of being baked, is steamed over four to five hours after the mix is made. We use the same fruits soaked for the plum cake in this. It goes well with warm brandy sauce and citrus,” explains sous chef Gagan Rahi, serving a succulent piece at the tastefully done up Oberoi patisserie.

The entire process of making the soak used for plum cakes is a celebratory and fun-filled exercise which starts at least three months in advance of the big day. “It is a fun moment for all of us — right from the junior most to the senior most get together for, first, the fruits soaking and then the cake mixing. But fun apart, making the correct plum cake is an art seeped in the balance of ingredients, knowledge about how long and at what temperature the cake is to be baked and what it takes to make the perfect batter,” Gagan explains.

Black currents, apricots, cranberry, candied ginger, lemon peel, walnuts, nutmeg and cinnamon are soaked in a measured mixture of dark rum, red wine and brandy for at least three months for the flavours to soak in.

These ingredients were all about local produce being used for Christmas. The eastern spices came in as a symbol of exotica brought by the Wise Men. “At our end, we make sure we source our spices well and go through an elaborate process of roasting and grinding them for that correct flavour. Turkish apricots are the best and the cranberries taste good if they are from America,” chef Gagan insists.

The best thing about the plum cake at the Oberoi’s is its celestial lightness of being despite the rich ingredients and royal taste. “The best plum cake is the one which cuts like a cake,” Gagan, who has trained in Italy, the cakes and bakes capital of the world, explains. What makes it heavenly is the liquor brushing you give it once it emerges steaming hot out of the oven, preferably baked for 40 to 45 minutes at 170 to 180 degree Celsius.

So much about the most famous Christmas Cake which, over the years, has taken to variety. From light to dark to moist to dry, shapes, frosting, glazing and dusting are just a few of the art works added to it.

If in Scotland, it is the Whisky Dundee, high on local Scotch, in Poland it is apple crème cake or mincemeat cake, doused with local orchard ingredients, in Japan, it is a frosted with strawberries and in The Philippines, a yellow pound cake is stuffed with nuts.

Though the most famous plum cake trick is to soak the fruits and the spices months in advance, the traditionalists still believe in making the cake itself in advance, around November, keep is upside down in an airtight container and then keep pouring a small dose of brandy, sherry or whisky into its holes every week until Christmas. This process is loving called ‘feeding’ the cake.

MINCE PIES

You can’t not have mince pies for Christmas, a trend soaked in symbolism and tradition as old as the first ever Jesus tale. They are something you could call a meat dessert and were made of meat, fruit and spices.

“Though the meat fat is no longer used (except in England where pork lard is used) for making this hotsell Christmas dessert, the mince pies were earlier made of mutton sued or fat around the kidneys which gives a good flavour to the dish,” says Gagan. Traditionally, 13 ingredients are used to make a mince pie representing Christ and his Apostles. It is usually in oval shape meant to represent the manger.

Gianduja Yule Log

A lot of Christmas activity lies in pagan culture and nothing signifies it more than the Yule log cake. Basically, a rolled in sponge cake layered with cream, it resembles a log which the pagans used to burn to welcome the first day of the winter solstice. They would collect the ashes for medicinal purposes.

Christianity continued with the Yule log tradition but on a much smaller scale. Families continued burning a log on Christmas eve but smaller hearths became the norm, hearths that were perfect for baking cakes. The first Yule log cake appeared on the table in 1600. The first known recipe appeared in a 1615 cookbook by Gervaise Markham titled The English Huswife.

It was in Paris that this cake finally found its reputation in the 19th century. Today, it is the Gianduja Yule Log that has caught popular imagination in the form of hazelnut flavoured, upward boat-shaped chocolates.

STOLLEN & PANNETONE

Christmas breads have long had a song and dance around them, especially when it comes to the extra rich Stollen and the plainer Pannetone. While Stollen is a teatime treat, the Pannetone being lighter, less sweeter is an all-meal Christmas special.

“A lot of eggs, butter and soaked fruit go into the making of Stollen which is very rich, somewhat gooey bread, almost like a fruitcake. But the Pannetone is lighter and flavourful. Kept in airtight container it can last up to a month,” says chef Sharma.

MARZIPAN FRUITS

Children love it, they look good and the almond factor tides over the sugar pitfall in these fruit-shaped marzipans. Tough but gooey, they either come as strawberries, plums, apples, peaches and even mangoes, depending which part of the world you are buying them from. Whatever the shape, they look groovy, taste good in bits and are mostly targeted at the crèche brigade, much like the German wonder called gingerbread house.

Gingerbread House

Did you know that the first gingerbread was baked in Europe sometime at the end of the 11th Century? History tells us that this was the time when the crusaders were returning from the Middle East with a spicy bread. Such was the hype around gingerbread that in the 17th Century, only professional bakers were allowed to bake it! Exception to the rule was Christmas and Easter. Also, it is not necessary that the gingerbread has to be in the shape of a house, even though it is the most common shape. The other shapes that are made from the dough can be a castle, a small cabin, a Church, an art museum, a sports stadium, cars, gingerbread men and women.

 In 2013, a group in Bryan, Texas, US, broke the Guinness World Record set the previous year for the largest gingerbread house, with a 2,520-square-foot edible-walled house in aid of a hospital trauma centre. 

Source: Sunday Pioneer, December 18, 2016