Looking back to Christmas, 1927, there are a number of interesting ‘snippets’ in the Mercury, mainly regarding the food and drink of yesteryear.
” DIMINISHING APPETITE
Some folk delight to assert that in the Christmas season there is too much over-eating, and that as a consequence the people who reap the benefit are the chemists and doctors. But a dip into old-time menus of feasts in the Christmas season impels one to the conclusion that individually much less is now eaten than in the old days, when gargantuan appetities, as we should think them now, appeared to be the rule, and not exceptions. Some of the dishes, too, were extremely outlandish, and items appeared in the list of good things that are scarcely ever heard of now, and, even if they are, would not be assiciated with the idea of providing an excellent dish. The lordly peacock, lamphreys*, and other items outside the ken of the up-to-date chef figured prominently.
AN EARLY MENU
Are Britishers less robust at the table, or is it that wisdom has grown with the years? Yet the heavy eaters of other days did not appear to suffer in health from their heartiness. They lived to a ripe old age and did the work of Old England, taking the difference of education into account, quite as well as those of a later generation. The account of a supper party, given by Madame de Sevigne in 1677, is intriguing. It mentions sundry soups, rounds of beef, sausages, spiced stews, calves’ and pigs’ tongues, hot pasties, a Christmas lamb surrounded by partidges, pheasants, turkeys, leverets, and capons, followed by salmon, trout, carp pie, thrushes, larks, ortolans, and fat quails. Then there were various kinds of pudding and liberal dessert for such as had a few corners to fill. Madame de Sevigne’s feasting did not appear to impair her faculties; she died in her 77th year.”
The Stamford Mercury, 23rd December, 1927.
* Now usually spelt ‘Lamprey‘.