The Clinton News Record, 1936-12-10, Page 11a
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FROM PEACOCK TO TURKEY IS INTERESTING STORY
OF CHRISTMAS FARE
T IS only in moderately recent years
that the turkey has become associated
with the. festive Christmas table. A
couple of generations ago the goose was
the Christmas dish and, in fact, remains
so in many countries.
There was a time when pea fowl were
dedicated to festival occasions. - Those
tablishments have been set up, and geese
farms are general, Geese girls driving
their flocks of geese to the pastures and
water are common countryside sights,
both in Germany and in Hungary, as
well as in other parts of Europe.
In Germany and France, though not
to the same extent in Hungary, the popu-
who have partaken of the meat of the pea-
cock, however, report that it is fairly.
heavy going, but the female of the species
is tolerable. It is a bird with an ancient
history, having travelled from India to
Egypt and progressing to Europe along
with the Phoenician traders. The early
Christians adopted the bird as a symbol
of immortality and in France and else-
where in the Middle Ages there was the
solemn "vow of the peacock." This was
pronounced at table with the right hand
extended over a peacock roasted in the
feathers. Thus postured a knight pro-
claimed the formulae: "I vow to God,
to the Virgin, to the Ladies and to the Pea-
cock," to undertake and fulfil whatever
mission might be the subject of the cere-
mony.
Apart from this special service at table,
the bird was regarded as a delicacy for
specially honored guests, probably more
because of its rarity than of any appeal
to the palate. Roasted peacocks were
served at Christmas and other banquets
by the English barons.
An older and more popular dish than
either peacock, goose, or turkey, is the
homely duck. That duck meat has been
relished and esteemed by peoples since
the dawn days of the human race is evi-
denced by the fact that duck bones have
been discovered among the remains of
troglodytes of the Stone Age duck bones
that had been stripped of their flesh and
divided up in a good distributing way,
Drawings on Egyptian monuments dating
back as far as 3000 D.C. represent ducks
being caught in nets, and otherwise
hunted. In China, which h a land of the
most ancient traditions, duck raising for
food "has been practised ever"—as one
investigator comprehensively puts it. At
the present day, it is certainly a very im-
portant commercial activity, and in the
Canton district there are duck farms that
carry as many as 3,000 ducks on one-
third of an acre.
The goose goes pretty far back into
antiquity as a provider of food as well as
feathers. It was already established in
Europe before man came along, and with
the possible exception of the common hen,
was probably the first bird domesticated.
Four thousand years ago it was regarded
as a sacred bird in Egypt, though in so
far as that may translate into tribute it
must be discounted by the fact that the
Egyptians nearly made it a habit to
multiply their stock by sacred birds in
species. There are references to geese in
some of the Sanskrit writings, and in the
tombs of Luxor figures of geese are in-
cluded among the decorations. The Ro-
mans considered goose liver a great de-
licacy, and enormous numbers of the
birds were placed in pens and forcibly
fattened by cramming. It was probably
some of these geese whose loud alarm
saved the Roman capital from the attack
of the Gauls in the fourth century, B.C,
In Pliny's time geese were driven across
Europe in flocks from France and Belgium
into Italy. And Pliny adds "Mossalinus
Cotta, the son of Messala, the orator, dis-
covered the method of cooking the webs
of the goose's feet, and fricasseeing them
in small dishes along with cocks' combs"
The Celts are reputed to nave the larg-
est responsibility for popularizing the
goose; from them the Romans learned
the art of filling cushions and mattresses
with the feathers to make luxurious
couches.
To -day, goose raising is an important
industry in France, Germany, Poland and
Lithuania. In Germany more goose
meat is consumed per head than in any
other country in the world. Flocks of
geese are raised everywhere throughout
the country, despite which immense num-
bers of the birds are imported from neigh-
boring countries. Goose fattening es -
lar Christmas dish is the goose, and not
the turkey. Smoked breast of goose is
sold, and there is a potted product which
consists of half cooked goose flesh inter-
mixed with goose grease which is sold in
earthenware jars.
oard
The turkey was originally a native of
the American Continent, The Mexicans
had the birds domesticated centuries ago.
When Cortez first visited the capital of
Mexico he found that "no Less than 500
turkeys, the cheapest meat in Mexico,
were allowed for the feeding of the vul-
tures and eagles kept in the royal aviaries."
Introduced to Spain, the turkeyspread
throughout Europe, but in these countries
was still rare in the middle of the sixteenth
century. It is recorded that "Archbishop
Crammer prohibited the appearance at
state festivals of more than one dish of
turkey cocks; female was too precious to
be cooked at that period ° Fourteen years
later two turkeys and two turkey poults
were served at grand law dinner. Twenty
years afterwards the turkey became a
Christmas dish with the farmer."
There are still wild turkeys in America,
but they are the prey of other wild life
and hunters to such an extent that they
are annually decreasing in number.
WHAT WENT INTO,F,THE MUCH
MENTIONED FESTIVE FLUID?"
I T WILL be two good before you
lthebowithrough
see the bottom o othe
deep rich color of the wassail." Thus
Mr. Wardle keeping Inc famous Christ-
mas, and it is regrettable to add that it
was the prelude to his singing a song. Our
more humane customs have restricted the
liberty to sing even at Christmas.
One wonders if anybody can remember
being asked like Mr. Wardle's guests, to
fill up out of a wassail bowl? In this it is
supposed Dickens was giving us a good
jovial anachronism. Wassail, seems out of
date for the time of the first reform bill
and the new poor law, in which, most in-
congruously, Mr. Pickwick came out.
What the wassail was made of, Dickens
left obscure, which, considering his par-
ticularity about eating and drinking in
general, excites further suspicion. All we
know is that the bowl was "something
smaller than an ordinary washhouse cop-
per," and hot apples hissed and bubbled
in it. The insistence upon it is no doubt
a demonstration of Dickens's passionate
practices of 1847, from which one learns
that the wassail bowl was honored long
after Mr. Wardle's Christmas party. The
basis of it was spiced and sweetened beer,
but they had given up baked apples in
favor of toast..
There is another festive fluid of our an-
cestors'which Dickens celebrated -"Bis-
hop," Who has ever tasted Bishop? I
remember as a small boy, writes H. C.
Bailey, asking what it was in a circle of
adults, of whom only one knew, Since
THE SNOW MAN . .
Queer Christmas Dishes
BADGER, roasted before an open
fire, was the chief dish at a Christ-
mas Eve dinner eaten in an ancient
hostelry at Ilchester, Somerset. Badger
ham was once regarded as a delicacy, and
Ilchester's "badger feast," as it is called,
has been held every Christmas for many
years past; Slices were cut from the
joints as they hung before the bar fire.
The guests washed down the badger with
strong ale, which should, according to
tradition, be served in horn cups.
Boar's head, the true Yuletide dish in
Britain, is always served at the Christmas
Day dinner held annually at Queen's
College, Oxford. The reason given for
the survival of the custom at Oxford is.
that it commemorates the escape of a
medieval undergraduate from a: wild boar,
The undergraduate was walking abroad,
conning his Aristotle, when the boar
rushed at him open-mouthed. With a
thrust the volume down the throat of the
monster, which, choked by the tough
morsel, then and there expired. T h e
frills and mistletoe with which the boar's
head was decorated were distributed
among the choristers. The brawn should,
by right, be sent to the King.
At this banquet also strong ale was
practically the only drink to be served.
Under the injunctions of the founder the
liquor must be brewed on the College pre-
mises by its own servants, acting under
the supervision of the steward of the
week and the treasurer's clerk. The gra-
vity of the ale could only be indicated
by a whole row of "Xs." It is, in fact,
so potent that it is sipped as a liqueur.
Mulled ale, concocted with cloves, sugar,
nutmeg and beaten egg, and served with
dry :toast, was brewed according to a
recipe at least two hundred years old at a
Shrewsbury hotel, where Paganini, the
loud cry of "Graecum est," the student 'violinist, once performed,
conviction that any really festal occasion
required the brewing of some special com-
munal drink, You remember his plea-
sant laughter at Mr. Micawber, who
"stirred and mixed and tasted and looked
as if he were making, instead of a punch,
a fortune for his family down to the latest
posterity." But this treatment of the
brewing of punch as a symbolic or ritual
then 1 discover that Professor Saintsbury
found it rare in the 'sixties, But the Ox-
ford of twenty years earlier than that
gives Bishop pride of place with the re-
verent tribute that it is "one of the oldest
winter beverages known, and to this day
preferred to every other."
It is, in fact, mulled port with lemon
or (as Swift said) orange, sugar and spice.
act seems to have been characteristic of
Dickens himself, who made a greatfuss
of his own performances in that way.
So we read of Johnson, who drank nothing
at all but tea, taking lemons in his hand
and crying out, "Who's for poonch?"
What survived to this Christmas of the
flowing bowl ceremoniously brewed and
ceremonially drunk? There is a tiny book,
"Oxford Night Caps," a reprint' of the
Make it with sherry, and it is Lawn
Sleeves, with Claret and it is Cardinal,
with burgundy (or some say champagne)
and it is Pope, The last suggestions are
horrible enough, but I shall submit that
the charm of all these brews was not in
their taste, but in their social significance.
Not so very long ago negus was the
general drink for parties, even of small
children, ,
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f LET US HAVE YOUR ORDER FOR
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Choice Chickens, (Milli; -fed)
GeeseTurkeys,
Ducks,
BabyBeef, Christmas . ,
d8
Lamb, Porti;, Veal
or Buffalo Meat.
COi NELL .i.. TYNDALL
CLINTON'S ' LEADING MEAT MARI{ET "
Phone 162. Albert Street
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CHRIST MAS SUGGESTI NS
Dressing Gowns
Bath ? obes $3.95 and $4.59
House Coats $7.50 to $15.00
Biltmore Hats $1.95 to $5.00
Forsyth Shirts $1.50 and $2.00
(Seperate collar or collar ettaehed)
Boxed Ties 25c, 50c, 75c, and $1.00
HOSE, Wearwell, Richmond and'Iloleproof.
Pyjamas, broadcloth or Pyjama cloth $L50 to $3.00
Scarfs 75c to $3.50
Gloves 50c to $5.00
$6.50 and up
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COOKE' .G ' E t; 4
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FLOWERING PLANTr,
A NICE ASSORTMENT
Cyclamen, Begonias, Poinsettas, Cherries.
CUT FLOWERS
Roses, Carnations, Mums, Narcissus.
Made -Up Miniature CACTUS GARDENS. s
MEMORIAL WREATHS.
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It's not too at'uy to lay away
SLIPPERS or GALOSHES
For Your Christmas Gifts.
A
compDiete new stock from which you may choose at
CLUB' SH E ST R
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OUR.BREAD is made from
CAREFULLY SELECTED INGREDIENTS
Baked under SANITARY CONDITIONS.
We therefore solicit a portion of your business.
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