“ Geese, capons, pheasants drenched with amber grease,
and pies of carp’s tongues ” helped to furnish the table ;
but there was one other dish which was held indispen-
sable, and that was frumante, frumenty, or furmety, as
it was indiscriminately called. It was concocted in this
way : “ Take clean wheat and bray it in a mortar, that
the hulls be all gone off, and seethe it till it brn’st, and
take it up, and let it cool ; and take clean, fresh broth,
and sweet milk of almonds, or sweet milk of kine, and
temper it all; and take the yolks of eggs. Boil it a
little, and set it down, and mess it forth with fat venison
or fresh mutton✪ Frumenty.”
Christmas Pare — continued.
Venison was seldom served without frumenty, but,
sweetened with sugar, frumenty was at one time a
favourite dish of itself, and is not unknown at the pre-
sent time in some parts of the country, where it is cus-
tomary to flavour with lemon, or spices, and add chopped
raisins and candied peel to the softened wheat.
Mince pies were popular at Christmas so early as the
| fifteenth century, when they were known as “ mutton
pies ” ; but the custom of making the mince with neat’s
tongue instead of mutton prevailed somewhere about
the end of the sixteenth century, and the old mutton
pie got mixed up with Christmas pie, or one with the
other in some manner or other, until we have both mince
pies and Christmas pies.
Let Christmas boast her customary treat,
A mixture strange of suet, currants, meat,
Where various tastes combine, the greasy and the sweet.
The Christmas pie has, since it attained its majority,
been a favourite savoury, and a convivial poet sings of it :
Without the door let sorrow lie,
And if for cold it hap to die,
We’ll bury it in a Christmas pie,
And evermore be merry !
A very amusing custom was that of watching the
Christmas pie, which doubtless gave rise to many an
alarming manifestation, especially as the company con-
cerned were sure to select the most timid of their set
for the task, and the most out-of-the-way place for the
guardianship of the pie. Herrick’s jovial vicar sings :
Come guard the Christmas pie,
That the thief, though ne’er so sly,
With his flesh hooks don’t come nigh
To catch it
From him who all alone sits there,
Having his eyes still in his ear,
And a deal of nightly fear
To watch it.
About this time, too, we read of plum porridge — the
infant plum pudding — for the same author writes :
At Christmas time —
Then if you would send up the brawner’s head,
Sweet rosemary and bays around it spread ;
His foaming tusks let some large pippin grace,
Or ’midst these thund’ring spears an orange place ;
Sauce, like himself, offensive to its foes,
The roguish mustard, dangerous to the nose;
Sack, and the well-spiced Hippocras the wine,
Wassail the bowl with ancient ribbands fine,
Porridge with plumbs, and turkeys with the chine.
Plum pottage then was an indispensable of the Christ-
mas table, and was made of chopped raisins, currants,
prunes, figs, spices, candied peels, and bruised wheat,
milk, butter, and eggs. The mutton-broth constituent
of it disappeared, and wheat-flour gave place to bruised
wheat, and minced suet crept in as well, making a stiff
pudding, or “ potting,” which certainly agrees with
modern tastes better than a savoury-sweet slop.
Page 348 · 1 recipe record on this page
Presented as published in 1890. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
“ Geese, capons, pheasants drenched with amber grease, and pies of carp’s tongues ” helped to furnish the table ; but there was one other dish which was held indispensable, and that was frumante, frumenty, or furmety, as it was indiscriminately called. It was concocted in this way : “ Take clean wheat and bray it in a mortar, that the hulls be all gone off, and seethe it till it burst, and take it up, and let it cool ; and take clean, fresh broth, and sweet milk of almonds, or sweet milk of kine, and temper it all; and take the yolks of eggs. Boil it a little, and set it down, and mess it forth with fat venison or fresh mutton.”
Christmas Pare — continued.
Venison was seldom served without frumenty, but, sweetened with sugar, frumenty was at one time a favourite dish of itself, and is not unknown at the present time in some parts of the country, where it is customary to flavour with lemon, or spices, and add chopped raisins and candied peel to the softened wheat.
Mince pies were popular at Christmas so early as the | fifteenth century, when they were known as “ mutton pies ” ; but the custom of making the mince with neat’s tongue instead of mutton prevailed somewhere about the end of the sixteenth century, and the old mutton pie got mixed up with Christmas pie, or one with the other in some manner or other, until we have both mince pies and Christmas pies.
Let Christmas boast her customary treat,
A mixture strange of suet, currants, meat,
Where various tastes combine, the greasy and the sweet.
The Christmas pie has, since it attained its majority, been a favourite savoury, and a convivial poet sings of it :
Without the door let sorrow lie,
And if for cold it hap to die,
We’ll bury it in a Christmas pie,
And evermore be merry !
A very amusing custom was that of watching the Christmas pie, which doubtless gave rise to many an alarming manifestation, especially as the company concerned were sure to select the most timid of their set for the task, and the most out-of-the-way place for the guardianship of the pie. Herrick’s jovial vicar sings :
Come guard the Christmas pie,
That the thief, though ne’er so sly,
With his flesh hooks don’t come nigh To catch it
From him who all alone sits there,
Having his eyes still in his ear,
And a deal of nightly fear
To watch it.
About this time, too, we read of plum porridge — the infant plum pudding — for the same author writes :
At Christmas time —
Then if you would send up the brawner’s head,
Sweet rosemary and bays around it spread ;
His foaming tusks let some large pippin grace,
Or ’midst these thund’ring spears an orange place ; Sauce, like himself, offensive to its foes,
The roguish mustard, dangerous to the nose;
Sack, and the well-spiced Hippocras the wine,
Wassail the bowl with ancient ribbands fine,
Porridge with plumbs, and turkeys with the chine.
Plum pottage then was an indispensable of the Christmas table, and was made of chopped raisins, currants, prunes, figs, spices, candied peels, and bruised wheat, milk, butter, and eggs. The mutton-broth constituent of it disappeared, and wheat-flour gave place to bruised wheat, and minced suet crept in as well, making a stiff pudding, or “ potting,” which certainly agrees with modern tastes better than a savoury-sweet slop.
Records on this page
Frumenty