Christmas

The word wassail comes from the Anglo-Saxon toast “be thou hale” – which translates as: “to your health.” In feudal times, peasants would go “a-wassailing” (also known as caroling) door to door in hopes of scoring snacks such as figgy pudding and alcoholic drinks such as mulled wine and wassail.
What commonly passes for wassail today [...]

Jamie Oliver has just launched his Christmas mini-site, with a delectable choice of four different Christmas menus. There’s the straight-forward parsnip soup and turkey main combination or a helpful vegetarian plan for those unused to catering for non-meat eaters. For those of us struggling in the current financial climate, Jamie also does a “credit-crunch” menu [...]

Multi-bird roasts are one of those special one-off extravagances that people tackle at Christmas. With more protein than even Michael Phelps could handle, these feats of culinery expertise are a true centrepiece for the year’s celebrations.
This year, our butcher has sent a list including turkey, guinea fowl, capon, pheasant, duck and goose. To save the [...]

Christmas brings together disparate families with their own tastes, routines and opinions. It’s hard enough to fit everyone into the spare rooms and sofa beds before you have to cater for one vegetarian out of a table full of carnivores or, conversely, hope that the family won’t mind foregoing their traditional meat feast while they [...]

Eggnog originated in Europe, probably England, before the 18th century. It was an upper class drink, owing to the value and rarity of fresh milk and eggs. It is a warm, alcoholic drink consumed in Winter to ward off the cold. There is debate over which spirit should properly be added to it, but cognac [...]

Brandy Butter really sets off a Christmas Pudding, or plate of mince pies perfectly. Even better, you can prepare it a fortnight before Christmas and put it in the fridge (just make sure you don’t eat it all in advance!) – so you can ’set it and forget it’. Here we show you how to [...]

Ever wanted to make your own Christmas Pudding? We know that Christmas pudding is often quite cheap from the shops, but there’s nothing better than serving up a home-prepared dish on the big day, and this is one thing that benefits from early preparation – ticking one job off the list nice and early. Here [...]

To warm up the welcome for family and friends;
1 bottle red wine 2 lemons
3 ozs caster sugar fresh nutmeg
2 inch cinnamon stick [...]

tThis tastes like shortbread, so the pastry is as gorgeous as the filling. (I always use vegetarian mincemeat.)
10 ozs Plain flour The grated rind of half a lemon
1 oz ground almonds [...]

If you find many Christmas cake recipes a bit of a faff, try this really easy one which you can make at the last minute if necessary. It tastes nice and boozy enough, without having to “feed ” it with alcohol for weeks. I’ve used it for years, and it’s a nice one to let [...]