THE SUMMER KITCHEN
Somehow "the holidays" and food have always gone hand in hand with one another. I fondly remember that after the traditional Christmas Eve service with the annual cantata being sung by the church choir, the focus of our family shifted to what we were going to eat the next day - for breakfast, lunch and dinner - and who was bringing which dish. Food featured perhaps even more so than the exchanging of gifts.
The anticipation and planning for the Christmas Day meal was both a good thing and a bad one. As kids, our mouths watered at the thought of all the ham, shrimp cocktail and scalloped au gratin potatoes that we could eat. We also knew there would be the presence on the table of the dreaded salads, one that was always made with grapes and walnuts in a mystery white sauce, another featured orange jello with cottage cheese and shredded carrots on top for good measure. Do you remember the log roll of cream cheese that had walnuts and maraschino cherries stuck on it and in it? Don't even get me started with the mince meat and Christmas cake offerings. Those gems could've been used throughout the new year as doorstops if it weren't for those red and green jellies on top.
I hate to admit to this, but one year I traveled back to Ohio from New Zealand at Christmas, and I had been "persuaded" by my significant other that the easiest and cheapest way to arrive with gifts for all of the USA family, was to simply bring mince meat and Christmas cakes for everyone. Been out of the country too long, I guess, for I agreed and we arrived "bearing gifts"; gifts that everyone tossed in the bin once we left.
Christmas hasn't always been associated with special meals. For quite some time early in the 19th century, it wasn't celebrated at all in America. Then, immigrants began introducing their Christmas traditions here. Germans introduced their fondness for decorating pine trees. The English meanwhile showed us what a feat could be.
In the winter of 1863 when things were going poorly for the Union soldiers, Harper's Weekly commissioned Thomas Nast to draw his now famous image of St. Nick, from within his sleigh flying over rooftops, tossing out gifts of socks and clothing to the beleagured troops. This marks the start of what was to become an American-styled Christmas.
I devote an entire chapter in my historical fiction, "Oh! Susannah", to this topic and you can see pictures from this era from the photo gallery of my website - www.beckleysbooks.com
I also talk alot about food in my book, describing how the differences are from today to back then. For instance, many families found there simply wasn't enough space in their home's kitchen. It was quite common for there to be a separate building, which was called the summer kitchen. "Usually a brick structure found only a few feet away from the home and connected by a path from the back porch, the summer kitchen was comprised of a large room with wood or kerosene oil stove, work counters and lots of windows for a good breeze to blow through." There was not only cooking done here, but its where "the family soap was made and the clothes, once washed, could be dried." Fruits as well as herbs were hung from the rafters in the ceiling to be dried too.
But, let's get back to the food. In Chapter 7, Susannah decides to make for her family a special meal; calf's head. "Calf's head should be cleansed with very great care, particularly the lights. The head, the heart and the lights should boil full two hours; the liver should be boiled only one hour. It is better to leave the windpipe on, for it hangs out of the pot while the head is cooking, all the froth will escape through it."
You know, on second thought, come this Christmas, with all the focus on the food that will be on offer for this special meal, go ahead and pass me the mince meat. Times could be worse.