The Taste of Christmas

[ExtraMSG]

As a Christmas gift to my wife's family, she's taking them out to the Nutcracker (matinee) and then they're returning to our house for an early Christmas dinner. For my own benefit and to make it memorable for them, I'm thinking of doing a multi-course tasting menu, maybe a dozen courses some with multiple tastes. Tough in a home kitchen, but a good challenge.

I need to go shopping some time this week and would like a list of ingredients and flavors to work from. So what I'm asking for is not dishes or recipes, but just flavors and ingredients that mean Christmas to you. Maybe simple combinations of flavors, too.

[Cusina]

Interesting question. Your dinner sounds like a wonderful idea. Let us know what you decide? Here is my small list.

Oysters

Clementines, citrus in general

Spiced nuts

Egg nog, brandy

Peppermint and chocolate

cinnamon, cloves and ginger

champagne

almonds and butter, both sweet in cookies, pastry and savory over vegetables

Cranberry

Chestnuts

Brie in pastry

[GG Mora]

This doesn't address your query in any useful way, but milk chocolate is specifically the taste of Christmas to me. Any other time of year, I limit my chocolate intake to the dark and bitter varieties. At Christmastime, though, I always seem to be at the mercy of someone else's chocolate preference. If I happen to ingest milk chocolate any other time of year, I have a Proustian sense memory, much in the same way as the smell of fresh balsam signals Christmas, no matter the season.

[foodie52]

Nuts in the shell, complete with nutcracker

Mulled cider

Gingerbread with whipped cream

Pate with cornichons and pickled onions

Stilton and port

English fruitcake

Main courses?

Goose with red cabbage and potatoes

or

Cornish game hens with an orange marmalade glaze

or

Roast beef with Yorkshire pudding and lots of gravy!

[ExtraMSG]

Oysters? Really? How do people prepare oysters for Christmas? Doesn't seem very family friendly, but I'm intrigued.

[marie-louise]

Red meat, ham, turkey. Gravlax, smoked salmon, and Dungeness crab. Cheese logs, crab or salmon mousse. Hearty meals. Festively decorated tables groaning w/ more choices than I can eat. Which to me somehow appeals more than a meal of small tastes this time of year-but you know your audience and I understand that you want to make a special meal part of the present.

[brngckn]

Cardamom

Mint

Raisins, figs, and dates

[curlywurlyfi]

- champagne with raspberry puree (we have for brunch)

- the little juicy shards of turkey or ham that fall off the carver's knife (taste SO much better than the stuff on your plate!)

- bread sauce (or is this a peculiarly UK thing?)

- roast parsnips

- black pudding + bacon (we use instead of stuffing)

- Chateau Soleil 95 (my dad is eking out his final case...)

- Stilton with celery + walnuts

- port

- satsumas, Clementines

- dense, rich fruitcake

- Bendicks Bittermints (stiff, almost brittle peppermint fondants in 95% cocoa solids dark chocolate)

- what we call Spanish coffee - simmer orange rind, cinammon, cloves in sugar syrup, strain and add to brandy, pour into hot thick black coffee, garnish with cinnamon stick (+ a little cream if you're a wuss)

great idea - but lots of work for you in a season when there is lots of cooking to be done anyway - make sure you get LOTS of plaudits, and someone else to do the washing up!

Fi

PS slightly off topic but - ExtraMSG, your avatar REALLY scares me.

[annexk8]

Oysters? Really?  How do people prepare oysters for Christmas?  Doesn't seem very family friendly, but I'm intrigued.

In our famiy, oyster stew every year on Christmas Eve. You know you've graduated to adulthood when you start scooping from the bottom of the soup pot to get lots of oysters, rather than just eating the broth with tons of oyster crackers.

I've missed my family's Christmas for the last few years, and I can't wait for this one.

[browniebaker]

goose

duck

ham

chestnuts

brussels sprouts

gingerbread

dark spiced fruitcake

mincemeat

shortbread

spiced mulled cider

the holy trinity of Christmas spice: cinnamon, ginger, and cloves

[tryska]

fatty meats - think goose, duck, pork

nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, cardamom, ginger - the warm spices

oranges and pomegranates

chocolate, the rich kind - fudges, souffles, truffles

gingerbread, shortbread

eggnog, brandy, brandy sauce

mulled apple cider

red wines

chestnuts, and nuts in general - particularly almonds and hazelnuts.

peppermint

Edited December 9, 2003 by tryska (log)

[FistFullaRoux]

Being from Louisiana, mine may be a little different...

Gumbo - Chicken and smoked sausage with a medium dark roux (I'm really looking forward to this one this year. Sometimes oysters are added)

Nutmeg

Vanilla

Pecans (especially pecan pie or candied pecans)

Cranberry

And has anyone notice the middle eastern influence in traditional christmas food? Large roasts, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, rasins, dates, figs, almonds, mulled drinks... It's almost like Morrocco.

When you think of where this holiday originated, it makes perfect sense. I love when things work out like that.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

[ExtraMSG]

Which to me somehow appeals more than a meal of small tastes this time of year-but you know your audience and I understand that you want to make a special meal part of the present.

And it's not their real Christmas dinner. It's a pre-Christmas Christmas dinner.

bread sauce (or is this a peculiarly UK thing?)

- roast parsnips

- black pudding + bacon (we use instead of stuffing)

I was originally thinking Mexican/Latin American Christmas, but I've done that for Thanksgiving before. My wife was thinking Victorian, but then I started pointing out things like the various British puddings and she quickly changed her tune.

Edited December 9, 2003 by ExtraMSG (log)

[Cusina]

Our Christmas eve casserole every year is escalloped oysters. Basically a ton of oysters with crushed crackers (we use matzos, even though we aren't even vaugely Jewish) and seriously doused with butter, cream and seasonings. Oyster stew is a favorite of ours as well, but not specifically a Christmas treat.

My parents grew up in New England, so that is where our tradition stems from.

[colestove]

Beef Wellington, Steamed carrot pudding with hard sauce

colestove

[jo-mel]

Goose

Mulled cider - heavy on the cinnamon

Plum pudding with hard sauce.

Vanilla ice cream with hot minced meat sauce on top.

(The above are the two desserts I usually serve. One is white on brown and the other is brown on white.)

Short bread -- epecially made with oatmeal and brown sugar

Chestnuts -- both roasted, or served as a vegetable

Brussel sprouts -- sometimes served in a creamy casserole with chestnuts and boiled onions.

Apple stuffing for the goose

Egg nog made with vanilla ice cream

A nutty fruit cake -- not made with those colored things and not the fruit cake that is being passed around the world.

A pot of simmering water on the stove with cinnmon and cloves. For aromatic purposes.

Oyster stew

[spaghetttti]

Ah Christmas aromas, fragrances, smells are my favorite -

I remember being served gulab jamuns infused with Grand Marnier - the orange and cinnamon blended well with cloves and vanilla.

orange

cinnamon

cloves

vanilla

[tryska]

Ah Christmas aromas, fragrances, smells are my favorite -

I remember being served gulab jamuns infused with Grand Marnier - the orange and cinnamon blended well with cloves and vanilla.

orange

cinnamon

cloves

vanilla

oh god - any ideas on a recipe for this?

[NeroW]

Lutefisk.

Just kidding. Those sugar/butter roll-out cookies. Egg nog. Cardamom. Peppermint. Cinnamon rolls, monkey-bread style. Chocolate and marshmallow Santa's. Apple cake. Lipton's Onion dip. My aunt's homemade chocolate/peanut butter truffles. Caramel apples. Shrimps and cocktail sauce. Macaroni and cheese. Rum and ciders.

[maggiethecat]

Oysters? Really? How do people prepare oysters for Christmas? Doesn't seem very family friendly, but I'm intrigued.

Oysters are definitely a Christmas holiday tradition in my mother's house too. We always had a bowl of oyster stew before the tourtiere on Christmas Eve. On New Year's Eve last year, my father bought six dozen oysters for starters on New Year's Eve. They sat on a snowbank until just before dinner, when the menfolk proceeded to shuck them. The gore wasn't too bad.

[jo-mel]

maggiethecat,Dec 10 2003, 12:11 ---~~~~~~~ We always had a bowl of oyster stew before the tourtiere on Christmas Eve. ~~~~~~

Ahhhhh - 'tourtiere' --- you just brought back an aroma from my childhood! I'd forgotten all about tourtieres!

[spaghetttti]

Ah Christmas aromas, fragrances, smells are my favorite -

I remember being served gulab jamuns infused with Grand Marnier - the orange and cinnamon blended well with cloves and vanilla.

orange

cinnamon

cloves

vanilla

oh god - any ideas on a recipe for this?

It took me a while, but this looks like what I had...recipe here

[tryska]

hmmm - i think i just found my christmas potluck dish.

[Mudpuppie]

Chex Mix.

[Mayhaw Man]

Being from Louisiana, mine may be a little different...

Gumbo - Chicken and smoked sausage with a medium dark roux (I'm really looking forward to this one this year. Sometimes oysters are added)

Nutmeg

Vanilla

Pecans (especially pecan pie or candied pecans)

Cranberry

Citrus (this citrus in particular)

Oyster Stew

Ducks in Olive Gravy

Chafing Dish Duck

Beef Tenderloin (Christmas Lunch)

Yeast Rolls (homemade, but Sister Schubert's will do in a pinch)

Chocolate Covered Cherries (Brach's, not some fancy schmancy cherry )

Black Walnuts (in the shell)

Milk Punch in frosty,silver beakers (with bourbon, not brandy)

Treacle (not Southern, but my Mom makes a swell one)