Christmas Cookbooks and Favourite Recipes

More than any other time of the year, we associate mid-Winter festivals from Yule to Saturnalia to Hanukah and Diwali with feasting. For example, during Yule, it was, paradoxically, a way of saving valuable resources for the long winter ahead. The bulk of the livestock were slaughtered so that food could be kept for the people within the village or tribe. As a result there was, unusually, a lot of fresh meat available so that was what was eaten. Saturnalia saw feasting to thank the deity Saturn, the god of Agriculture, for his bounty. Hanukah and Diwali are festivals that have huge emphasis on the role of light and feasting as celebration. That of course leaves Christmas, a combination of many previous festivals, which so many of us celebrate now, once again has feasting at its centre.

Now, this of course requires a lot of cooking and a lot of preparation and, unfortunately for many, a lot of stress. We can see the Christmas Day meal as the most significant meal of the year, turning the simple acts of cooking and baking into high stakes style tests of our ability. Even if the meal doesn’t go perfectly it doesn’t mean that you are a poor cook, but it means a meal that doesn’t go perfectly is eaten by two or three as many people as usual. So, what can we do to reduce these stresses? Well, the way my wife and I have done it over the years has been to rely on the Christmas Cookbook, so let me introduce you to two of our favourites and the recipes we make year after year.

Delia Smith’s Christmas

We bought this book in 1992, and in the 32 Christmases since then, it has been Janet’s go to for baking recipes. Mincemeat, Christmas Puddings and Christmas Cakes are the central sweet treats of our Christmas seasons and beyond. I haven’t had a shop bought Christmas Cake or Pudding since Janet started making them, and I haven’t had a shop bought mince pie in probably 15 years! One of the small things you notice when you use the same cookbook over and over again are the signs of very well used recipes. For example, on the page for Homemade Christmas Mincemeat you can see the splashes of ingredients on the pages that give the book that character and comfort that I really like to see.

Now, for most recipes Janet follows Delia’s ingredients and instructions to the letter. The only exception is the Mulled Wine. Delia uses red wine, but not being much of a drinker I found that too strong for me, so one year Janet tried Rosé and it was perfect for me. We’ve never gone back since, so if, like me, you find the wine hangover from red a bit too much as you get older, swap to Rosé and see what you think. For the first 10 years or so, I followed Delia’s turkey preparation and timings to the letter. Now, with a little more confidence I am happy to go with experience.

Delia Smith’s Christmas is obviously out of print, but you can still pick it up from sellers on Amazon or eBay, or you might want to look at the more recent Delia’s Happy Christmas which will no doubt be just as good.

Christmas Gordon Ramsay

This is a superb book for anyone looking to add a little bit of variety to their Christmas Dinner. For many years, since the first Christmas in Australia in 1998 in fact, I have changed the traditional Christmas Dinner for the Australian style turkey and salads for two reasons. First, it is lighter and you don’t get that post Christmas Dinner discomfort that the traditional British style dinner gives you. Second, with salads you can obviously prepare them on Christmas Eve, thereby giving the Christmas Day cooking a less chaotic feel. However, in the last few years, at Janet’s request, I have started to add some hot dishes as well.

One of the recipes I have taken from Ramsay’s excellent book is the Potato and Celeriac Dauphinoise. As celeriac is often difficult to find, I use celery and leek instead and it seems to work extremely well. What I love about this particular book is that it is written for the everyday cook looking to do something different. As long as you follow the instructions, you will find the recipes straightforward, but the tastes are a real lift for any dinner at Christmas, or, indeed, at any other time. The dauphinoise in particular tastes absolutely delicious and is a perfect accompaniment.

There are some excellent desserts and other sweet recipes in this book, including a shortbread recipe that is easy to follow, and tastes lovely, but which I haven’t quite been able to crack in terms of texture. I will definitely try it out again and again until I am happy with it. The turkey is non-negotiable as far as I am concerned, but I am aware that for many of you, the turkey is not a popular choice. Ramsay also realises that and has included four other dishes that you can build a Christmas feast around, including Beef Wellington and pan-fried sea bass. As with the Delia Smith book, it is full of fantastic ideas and a great tasting meal is similarly attainable as long as you follow the recipe carefully.

Christmas Gordon Ramsay is very hard to get hold of now, so you might want to keep an eye on eBay or charity shops, although you certainly wouldn’t find mine in a charity shop as it’s so good!

Jamie Oliver

Now, I don’t have any Jamie Oliver cookbooks, but what I do have are two recipes that I copied down from Christmas programmes that he hosted. The first is Italian Style Stuffing which you can find on his Christmas Eve programme repeated every year. Now, this stuffing, as I make it, doesn’t include apricots or sultanas as shown on the show, because, as I may have mentioned before, I don’t do sweet and savoury on the same plate. I have never taken to it, because it is, to me, the taste equivalent of nails down a blackboard! The stuffing is so good when you cook it that you will never want to use the powdered stuff ever again! The second recipe, the Yorkshire Pudding Showstopper, just looks amazing but is so easy to make. The difference with this one, compared to a normal Yorkshire Pudding, is that it is given room to rise and ends up serving six people very easily! To make both recipes easy to find, the Italian Style Stuffing is stuck in to the back of the Delia book, while the Yorkshire Pudding Showstopper is stuck into the front of the Ramsay book!

Final Thoughts

As I said at the start, we put an awful lot of pressure on ourselves at the start of the Christmas cooking to make it ‘perfect’, I know I did. Some of my kitchen meltdowns were spectacular! I am better, but I would see myself as a work in progress! Try to take it easy on yourself. If you have put a dinner on the table that has been enough for everyone, and if your diners have enjoyed your food, then that’s success, isn’t it? If there are some issues and if the food isn’t as good as you would like it to be, just learn, adapt your recipes and try again next year. You will not remember the individual components of your Christmas Dinner next year, but you will remember the company of those you love. Take that thought away with you, and you may find the whole process at least a little easier.