I still make my own Christmas puddings and sell them for charity. My husband always said he didn't like them until he had home made! And there's nothing like a warm mince pie to accompany a glad of mulled wine or gluhwein.
I stopped in the middle of reading this article to google the War of Jenkins Ear. Got pulled down a rabbit hole and took a half hour to get back to the article. lol BTW I love mince pies!
I’m a southern American bow wave boomer so I know many traditions. We don’t do Christmas Pudding. Sorry, it sounds fascinating and all but no. We do do fruit cake, which my parents and husband loved but I did not. They don’t use dried fruit but rather candied fruit which is just yuck. I might have gone for dried fruit. Anyway, mince pies. We don’t have those pretty mini pies here but I did grow up with and love mince pie. Ours is just a bog standard two crust pie filled with jarred mince meat. Growing up it had some rum in it but not any more. I usually buy several jars so I can have more than one during the Thanksgiving to Christmas season.
Now I have to look up The War of Jenkins' Ear. In America, most people don't eat mince pies, but I love them. They are usually only available from Thanksgiving through Christmas.
Like you, Jodi, I've never been a lover of Mince pies, Christmas cake, or Christmas pudding, although I did take part in the ritual of stirring the ingredients, & putting the thoroughly cleaned sixpences into it! Lol
This was because I really can't bear the taste of orange or lemon peel, & my Mum was far too busy, with 7 kids, to be making me any, sans peel!
I had my first taste of all 3 types after giving birth to my daughter, as my Mother-in-Law cooked them for me, without any peel, as a thank you for her granddaughter!
They tasted nice, but all were far too rich for my taste buds, so I went back to making a wonderfully old-fashioned trifle, every Hogswatch instead!. Lol
Jezebel once danced at so.eones weddi g and clapped her hands. This good deed meant her hands and feet were not eaten. Incidentally (if J can go off on tangents, so can I), the only positive mention of dogs in the whole Bible (including the Apocrypha and Pseudapigraha) is in the Book of Tobit.
Oh, I'll bake. There's a Christmas party, and I drop cookies off at my favorite fast foodery. (They feed me the rest of the year, after all.) I just didn't want the family tradition to die off with me. But traditions do. I learned how to bake springerle--a vicious, fussy German recipe--because my father missed them from his youth. When I felt ready to go on to pfeffernusse, he told he his mother bought them at a bakery like a sensible person. So no pfernusse, and when I go the springerle roller will be part of the estate sale. I wonder whether anyone will recognize it as such?
I do time travel the slow way. Not always recommended.
I like mince pies (husband makes the mincemeat - with beef... ) and also Pud, which isn't too dissimilar to Cake. Have you perhaps thought about the slab of Wensleydale on a porton of Christmas Pud? Or perhaps a 'custard' sauce using the cheese - a sort of Christmas Rarebit?
I like mince pies well enough that I make my own mincemeat (without the meat) and put it up in jars, so I can have them for my birthday in August. Or whenever I like. With a traditional crust top or with frangipane. But one year I went through the whole process of making a traditional boiled Christmas pudding from scratch and hung it in the basement to age. You know what? The storebought ones were just as good but came without the mess, and you didn’t have leftovers living in your fridge for six months.
Completely agree with limiting the Christmas Mince Pie to December - if only to protect myself from…..my self🤓
I must have my Mince Pie with an heroic quantity of brandy butter squished in under the lid.
As for Christmas Pudding, we are fans of the plum duff in our family, and my Mum was still making them in a cloth and hanging them in the line to cure up until relatively recently.
I brought one back with me one year. It put me 2.5kgs over my baggage allowance so obviously that amount of toiletries and summer clothes stayed in NZ as I brought the duff home to the UK - it was magnificent!
Jodi, as ever I wait in an increasingly excitable state for your new stories to be released. I am plotting my snacks (mince pies) and libations (mulled wine/whisky Mac/a winter style margarita??), rugging up and heading to the snug to curl up with the dog for the entire Christmas period!
Sadly, I'm too full of self-pity at the moment to give good sympathy. My son and daughter in law have informed me that baking Christmas cookies (AKA sweet biscuits) is also no longer a thing. There are evidently stores selling such things, so why clutter up the kitchen? The old ways pass, and the new ways are totally unacceptable. I shall have the family recipes cremated with me.
That's such a shame. Why not bake them anyway, put them in a pretty container and give them away as Christmas gifts. That way you're not actually baking - you're making Christmas presents for friends and family.
First reply seems to have become a comment, and wasn't adequate anyway. What I get for posting before breakfast. I wanted the grandkids to have the family memories--cutting out rolled dough, twisting different colored batters into "candy cane" cookies with their parents, licking dough and beaters and smelling them fresh from the oven. I can and will bake and give away, but the family tradition dies with me. That said, I see my son playing wargames with my grandson, which I did with my son, but my father never did with me. Same with both parents reading to the boys, which is pretty much a formality. I'm pretty sure the ten year old could handle War and Peace if someone explained Russian nomenclature. I am a conservative, not a reactionary. I hate to lose traditions, but I don't delude myself that Things Were Better in My Day.
In the words of an elderly lady in an old TV show, "I remember the good old days. They stank of horses."
I agree with you on mince pies - except now I decided that I don't have to force myself and just don't eat them. I was giggling insanely about your SOA article and ow want to read it (because I have much the same sentiment about watercolours....)
Someone from my OH’s work saw mince pies on sale in September at Tesco - so he bought a box to share, just to prove the expiry date at the end of that month (obvs they were eaten, but just for the bizarreness factor, of course).
As someone who did not grow up in the UK, my first Christmas pudding at my in laws was shock. I ask ed my OH why everyone was excited to eat a flaming cow pat….yes, that story runs and runs
Every respectable bakery in Australia makes Christmas cake and mince pies, and the mince pies fly off the shelves in the supermarket. Puddings are also common, but while you can get through several dozen mince pies, you only need one pud.
My favourite pudding comes from Four Pillars, which is a gin distillery. They also do a Christmas gin, and I buy both together to get the free postage.
I used to belong to the Society for Creative Anachronism, which is essentially a mediaeval recreationist group, and did quite a bit of mediaeval cooking. Our mince pie recipe used pork, not beef, and was much tastier than modern recipes - unless, of course, you're a vegetarian.
I still make my own Christmas puddings and sell them for charity. My husband always said he didn't like them until he had home made! And there's nothing like a warm mince pie to accompany a glad of mulled wine or gluhwein.
I stopped in the middle of reading this article to google the War of Jenkins Ear. Got pulled down a rabbit hole and took a half hour to get back to the article. lol BTW I love mince pies!
On Boxing Day my Mum used to fry slices of Christmas pudding in butter, to me it always tasted better than the usual way of serving it.
I’m a southern American bow wave boomer so I know many traditions. We don’t do Christmas Pudding. Sorry, it sounds fascinating and all but no. We do do fruit cake, which my parents and husband loved but I did not. They don’t use dried fruit but rather candied fruit which is just yuck. I might have gone for dried fruit. Anyway, mince pies. We don’t have those pretty mini pies here but I did grow up with and love mince pie. Ours is just a bog standard two crust pie filled with jarred mince meat. Growing up it had some rum in it but not any more. I usually buy several jars so I can have more than one during the Thanksgiving to Christmas season.
Now I have to look up The War of Jenkins' Ear. In America, most people don't eat mince pies, but I love them. They are usually only available from Thanksgiving through Christmas.
I’m American, and I eat mince pies year round. Whenever I want one I just make it, because I’m a retired chef. 😆
Like you, Jodi, I've never been a lover of Mince pies, Christmas cake, or Christmas pudding, although I did take part in the ritual of stirring the ingredients, & putting the thoroughly cleaned sixpences into it! Lol
This was because I really can't bear the taste of orange or lemon peel, & my Mum was far too busy, with 7 kids, to be making me any, sans peel!
I had my first taste of all 3 types after giving birth to my daughter, as my Mother-in-Law cooked them for me, without any peel, as a thank you for her granddaughter!
They tasted nice, but all were far too rich for my taste buds, so I went back to making a wonderfully old-fashioned trifle, every Hogswatch instead!. Lol
Jezebel once danced at so.eones weddi g and clapped her hands. This good deed meant her hands and feet were not eaten. Incidentally (if J can go off on tangents, so can I), the only positive mention of dogs in the whole Bible (including the Apocrypha and Pseudapigraha) is in the Book of Tobit.
Oh, I'll bake. There's a Christmas party, and I drop cookies off at my favorite fast foodery. (They feed me the rest of the year, after all.) I just didn't want the family tradition to die off with me. But traditions do. I learned how to bake springerle--a vicious, fussy German recipe--because my father missed them from his youth. When I felt ready to go on to pfeffernusse, he told he his mother bought them at a bakery like a sensible person. So no pfernusse, and when I go the springerle roller will be part of the estate sale. I wonder whether anyone will recognize it as such?
I do time travel the slow way. Not always recommended.
I like mince pies (husband makes the mincemeat - with beef... ) and also Pud, which isn't too dissimilar to Cake. Have you perhaps thought about the slab of Wensleydale on a porton of Christmas Pud? Or perhaps a 'custard' sauce using the cheese - a sort of Christmas Rarebit?
Oooh - interesting. Christmas pud isn't that dissimilar to Christmas cake, is it. I wonder if a slab of cheese would work as well.
I like mince pies well enough that I make my own mincemeat (without the meat) and put it up in jars, so I can have them for my birthday in August. Or whenever I like. With a traditional crust top or with frangipane. But one year I went through the whole process of making a traditional boiled Christmas pudding from scratch and hung it in the basement to age. You know what? The storebought ones were just as good but came without the mess, and you didn’t have leftovers living in your fridge for six months.
Completely agree with limiting the Christmas Mince Pie to December - if only to protect myself from…..my self🤓
I must have my Mince Pie with an heroic quantity of brandy butter squished in under the lid.
As for Christmas Pudding, we are fans of the plum duff in our family, and my Mum was still making them in a cloth and hanging them in the line to cure up until relatively recently.
I brought one back with me one year. It put me 2.5kgs over my baggage allowance so obviously that amount of toiletries and summer clothes stayed in NZ as I brought the duff home to the UK - it was magnificent!
Jodi, as ever I wait in an increasingly excitable state for your new stories to be released. I am plotting my snacks (mince pies) and libations (mulled wine/whisky Mac/a winter style margarita??), rugging up and heading to the snug to curl up with the dog for the entire Christmas period!
Sadly, I'm too full of self-pity at the moment to give good sympathy. My son and daughter in law have informed me that baking Christmas cookies (AKA sweet biscuits) is also no longer a thing. There are evidently stores selling such things, so why clutter up the kitchen? The old ways pass, and the new ways are totally unacceptable. I shall have the family recipes cremated with me.
That's such a shame. Why not bake them anyway, put them in a pretty container and give them away as Christmas gifts. That way you're not actually baking - you're making Christmas presents for friends and family.
First reply seems to have become a comment, and wasn't adequate anyway. What I get for posting before breakfast. I wanted the grandkids to have the family memories--cutting out rolled dough, twisting different colored batters into "candy cane" cookies with their parents, licking dough and beaters and smelling them fresh from the oven. I can and will bake and give away, but the family tradition dies with me. That said, I see my son playing wargames with my grandson, which I did with my son, but my father never did with me. Same with both parents reading to the boys, which is pretty much a formality. I'm pretty sure the ten year old could handle War and Peace if someone explained Russian nomenclature. I am a conservative, not a reactionary. I hate to lose traditions, but I don't delude myself that Things Were Better in My Day.
In the words of an elderly lady in an old TV show, "I remember the good old days. They stank of horses."
I agree with you on mince pies - except now I decided that I don't have to force myself and just don't eat them. I was giggling insanely about your SOA article and ow want to read it (because I have much the same sentiment about watercolours....)
I'm sure they're beautiful when done properly - it's just that mine look like anaemic mixed mud.
I adore how your mind works. So blummin funny, much love, Sheena x
Someone from my OH’s work saw mince pies on sale in September at Tesco - so he bought a box to share, just to prove the expiry date at the end of that month (obvs they were eaten, but just for the bizarreness factor, of course).
As someone who did not grow up in the UK, my first Christmas pudding at my in laws was shock. I ask ed my OH why everyone was excited to eat a flaming cow pat….yes, that story runs and runs
Every respectable bakery in Australia makes Christmas cake and mince pies, and the mince pies fly off the shelves in the supermarket. Puddings are also common, but while you can get through several dozen mince pies, you only need one pud.
My favourite pudding comes from Four Pillars, which is a gin distillery. They also do a Christmas gin, and I buy both together to get the free postage.
I used to belong to the Society for Creative Anachronism, which is essentially a mediaeval recreationist group, and did quite a bit of mediaeval cooking. Our mince pie recipe used pork, not beef, and was much tastier than modern recipes - unless, of course, you're a vegetarian.