Christmas
is known as the season to be jolly, with bright festive colours, a tall green
conifer and when families get together and cook Christmas dinner. For me, the days
coming up to Christmas day are the most exciting time. This is when I buy my
Christmas presents and I like to help my mum with the Christmas food shopping!
What always makes me smile during the festive period of Christmas even the
staff in Tesco tends to be jolly!
However, Christmas has not always
been a jolly occasion for everyone. When I say this I have one specific
fictional character in mind…
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| Scrooge |
One of my favourite Christmas stories is A Christmas Carol because Dickens spectacularly makes
even the smallest morsel of food, desirable. There is a lot of excitement
surrounding the goose which is the main dish in the Cratchits Christmas meal. "And
now two smaller Cratchits, boy and girl, came tearing in, screaming that
outside the baker's they had smelt the goose, and known it for their own; and
basking in luxurious thoughts of sage and onion, these Cratchits danced about
the table" (57). As a reader this description is visually appealing and
evokes the senses. It is almost as if you can almost smell the rich sage and
onion sauce in which the goose is cooking in. This is just one of the desirable
and mouth watering descriptions Dickens gives regarding the goose. "There was never such a goose. Bob said he didn't
believe there was ever such a goose cooked. Its tenderness and flavour, size
and cheapness, were themes of universal admiration. Eked out by apple sauce and
mashed potatoes, it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family" (60). In between descriptions of this one of a kind goose,
Dickens casually uses words such as "size", "cheapness" and
"sufficient". The Cratchit family are clearly a family that is poor
and has very little money as Mr Cratchit only makes "Fifteen 'bob' a week" (56). On the surface Dickens provides the reader with a
glorious description of the goose. At the same time though, there is a more
sensitive issue underlying this portrayal of the goose. It is clear Dickens is
also addressing the hardship and unfortunate living conditions the Poor were
faced to live with. The description Dickens provides the reader of the
Cratchits goose is far from realistic. It is likely that the Cratchits raised
the goose at home, rather than buying if from a butchers as it would have been
a more affordable option for their family. If the Cratchits did raise the goose
there is a very high probability that the goose was not fed very well as the
Cratchits could not afford to feed it much. Therefore realistically the goose
would have been scrawny with very little meat on it. This is all overlooked by
the Cratchit family and although Dickens glorifies the goose there are subtle
hints in the text that this is not a true representation of the goose. Instead
Dickens presents a humble family who have very little money yet still view
their family meal together as a feast rather than the modest meal that it is.
Although I am a vegetarian, I wanted to investigate further and see how this goose would have been cooked and that is when I regretfully came about a recipe for roast goose in Isabella Beeton's book Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management. Just like the Cratchits goose, Beeton's goose is also cooked in onions and sage. However Beeton fails to give the same tantalising recipe that Dickens writes about. Instead Beeton provides her reader with an impersonal recipe, which in some places sounds like a surgical procedure. "Insert another skewer into the small of the leg, bring it close down to the side bone, run it through, and do the same to the other side" (218-219). Where is the festive cheer in this recipe or the description of the luxurious juices of the sage and onion or the tenderness of the meat? Although the Cratchit family have a modest goose it is far more appetizing then Beeton’s goose that has “clean white skin, plumb breast, and yellow feet” (218) would feed eight to nine people. Dickens is telling a story about a greedy man who is extremely stingy, but goes on to eventually redeem himself by giving relief and food to the poor. At the end of the story Scrooge buys the Cratchits a glorious turkey. This gesture shows how things are changing in the world. The turkey has not always been the main course of a Christmas meal but because it has more meat on it, it is viewed as being superior to a goose. A new trend has begun at the end of A Christmas Carol and before you know it a turkey becomes iconic to what a Christmas meal should be. As Beeton stated sixteen years after A Christmas Carol was written in Household Management it “would scarcely be a Christmas dinner without its turkey” (225). The food we eat at Christmas is adaptable like the food we eat at many religious festivals. The food does not tend to have any religious significance but because of years of tradition we continue to make these dishes during religious festivals.
Although I am a vegetarian, I wanted to investigate further and see how this goose would have been cooked and that is when I regretfully came about a recipe for roast goose in Isabella Beeton's book Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management. Just like the Cratchits goose, Beeton's goose is also cooked in onions and sage. However Beeton fails to give the same tantalising recipe that Dickens writes about. Instead Beeton provides her reader with an impersonal recipe, which in some places sounds like a surgical procedure. "Insert another skewer into the small of the leg, bring it close down to the side bone, run it through, and do the same to the other side" (218-219). Where is the festive cheer in this recipe or the description of the luxurious juices of the sage and onion or the tenderness of the meat? Although the Cratchit family have a modest goose it is far more appetizing then Beeton’s goose that has “clean white skin, plumb breast, and yellow feet” (218) would feed eight to nine people. Dickens is telling a story about a greedy man who is extremely stingy, but goes on to eventually redeem himself by giving relief and food to the poor. At the end of the story Scrooge buys the Cratchits a glorious turkey. This gesture shows how things are changing in the world. The turkey has not always been the main course of a Christmas meal but because it has more meat on it, it is viewed as being superior to a goose. A new trend has begun at the end of A Christmas Carol and before you know it a turkey becomes iconic to what a Christmas meal should be. As Beeton stated sixteen years after A Christmas Carol was written in Household Management it “would scarcely be a Christmas dinner without its turkey” (225). The food we eat at Christmas is adaptable like the food we eat at many religious festivals. The food does not tend to have any religious significance but because of years of tradition we continue to make these dishes during religious festivals.
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| Christmas Goose |
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| The current Christmas center piece: Christmas Turkey |
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