By Jacqueline Kelly –
Turkey, the centrepiece of Christmas, occupies a prime place at the dinner table.
Christmas Day, itself is usually a family occasion, the highlight of which is the roasting and carving of the great white bird, the Christmas Turkey.
The bird actually came from Mexico and its native name there was Uexolotl. As no Englishman could be expected to pronounce that, it was given the name “turkie cock”. However, the French, Italians and Germans thought the bird came from India and called it Coq d’Inde, Galle d’India and Indianische Henn, respectively. The Turks called it Hindi.
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The famous Sailor Christopher Columbus mistook not only the West Indies for India, but the fowl too. He named it “Polletz d’Inde”, roughly translated into “Indian Chicken”.
In Mexico, the Turkey Mole Poblano de Guajolote is a favourite recipe. The braised bird is thickly covered in a spicy sauce made with a paste of chillies, onions, garlic and tomato juice and toasted almonds, peanuts, coriander seeds, sesame seeds, aniseed, cloves and cinnamon. Lastly, chocolate is added before the turkey is given a final simmer.
Nowadays, we have turkeys called “Butter ball”. These are specially prepared and injected with butter so that the white meat in particular does not dry up when roasting.
The French begin Christmas Day with a breakfast of oysters or smoked salmon followed by Boudin, a sausage made of pork and pork fat, or some kind of special ham. They also eat Yule Log made out of thick gooey chocolate.
In France, the traditional Christmas meal, was the “reveillon”, a supper eaten on the Christmas morning, immediately after returning from midnight mass. The word comes from reveiller, which means to begin a new watch [veille] after midnight mass.
The menu for dinner is galantine, turkey with Marrons [sweet, plump chestnuts], creamy Brie and rich Buche de Noel [traditional Yule log] washed down with wine from generously refilled glasses. The French gorge themselves on onion soup, grilled black pudding [blood sausage]and truffled turkey.
Europeans also begin the main course with fish or a soup.
The Russians have “koutia”, wheat grain cooked with dried fruits. The Polish eat foods containing poppy seeds. The English traditionally have Christmas pudding. The Italians prefer roast capon, fresh homemade pasta, stuffed turkey, pork, cheese and nutmeg.
In Germany, carp is the traditional Christmas dish, however, today more likely the main dish is turkey, goose, venison, schnitzel, etc. Some traditional foods are always eaten particularly apples, walnuts and almonds [the first being the symbol of the Tree of knowledge and the nuts, with their shells, representing life’s difficulties].
In Sweden, the favourite dish is roast goose stuffed with apples and prunes and garnished with red cabbage, caramelized potatoes and cranberry sauce, dessert may be rice with almonds covered with cherry compote.
In Norway, large roast pork chops are served with sauerkraut flavoured with cumin, while in Finland ham is cooked in a rye-flour pastry case. All Scandinavian countries celebrate Christmas with a sumptuous “Smorgasbord”.
Whether garnished with walnuts in Portugal, stuffed with chestnuts in Great Britain and France, glazed with lemon juice or bourbon in the U.S. or with meat, tomatoes and berries in Greece, the turkey reigns over countless Christmas tables across the world. Henry VIII [1491-1547] was the first English King to enjoy turkey. Queen Elizabeth I [1533-1603] made the bird a compulsory component of the Christmas feast during her reign. It was the first meal she had after her victory over the Spanish Armada. But, King Edward VII [1841-1910] who made eating turkey fashionable at Christmas.
Virtually throughout the world “Roast Turkey” is a classic Christmas dish.
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