During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, English royal holiday banquets were stacked with countless dishes, with a heavy emphasis on expensive meats. According to Louise Cooling’s A Royal Christmas, 30 oxen, 100 sheep, five boars, nine dozen fowls, salted venison, salmon, lampreys (an eel-like fish) and 19 large wine casks were procured for King Henry III of England’s Christmas at Woodstock Palace in 1264.
Mincemeat pies, crane, swan, brawn (terrine made with a pig’s head and served with mustard), goose and lamprey pie, and even porpoise (served dressed with vinegar and breadcrumbs) were all popular holiday fare. A boar’s head, presented on a platter, was often the first dish of the feast. “After a flourish of trumpets it was carried into the banqueting hall, by the server, on a gold or silver dish,” the Nottinghamshire Guardian reported in 1900. “A procession followed, consisting of nobles, knights, and ladies singing a joyous carol.”
Peacocks were also considered a delicacy in medieval feasts; their colorful feathers proudly displayed. “The bird was first skinned, and the feathered tail, head and neck were laid on a table, and sprinkled with cumin,” Sheila Hutchins writes in Royal Cookbook: Favorite Court Recipes from the World’s Royal Families. “The body was then roasted, glazed with raw egg yolks, cooled, sewn back into the skin, and served as the last course.”
Frumenty—a wholegrain porridge made with cream, honey, expensive spices like nutmeg and cinnamon, and dried fruit and nuts—was a popular dish (which later evolved into a Christmas pudding). There was also “Christmas Pottage,” a plum broth of beef or mutton, breadcrumbs, raisins, currants and spices. This recipe would evolve over the centuries, becoming even more decadent. The recipe preferred by 19th-century English monarch George IV included beef, veal, dried fruits, spices, ground cochineal (for a festive red pigment) and tons of booze including port, brandy, sherry, Madeira and claret.
It was during Queen Victoria’s long reign that many of the British royal family’s Christmas traditions were set. “At dinner there were all the Christmas dishes, of which we generally had to eat a little,” Queen Victoria recalled, per Cooling. “First the cold baron of beef which stood on the large sideboard all decked out – brawn – game pies from Ireland…stuffed turkey – wild boar’s head…mince pies etc. etc. – and all sorts of Bonbons and figures and toys were brought at dessert, many of which were given to the children; and there used to be such great excitement and delight.”
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