{"id":2208509,"date":"2025-12-22T13:31:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T13:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2208509"},"modified":"2025-12-22T13:31:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T13:31:13","slug":"what-the-royal-families-of-europe-eat-during-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/what-the-royal-families-of-europe-eat-during-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"What the Royal Families of Europe Eat During Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

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<\/strong>\u2019s A Royal Christmas<\/a>,<\/em> 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<\/a>\u2019s Christmas at Woodstock Palace in 1264.<\/p>\n

Mincemeat pies, crane, swan, brawn (terrine made with a pig\u2019s 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\u2019s head, presented on a platter, was often the first dish of the feast. \u201cAfter a flourish of trumpets it was carried into the banqueting hall, by the server, on a gold or silver dish,\u201d the Nottinghamshire Guardian<\/em> reported in 1900. \u201cA procession followed, consisting of nobles, knights, and ladies singing a joyous carol.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peacocks were also considered a delicacy in medieval feasts; their colorful feathers proudly displayed. \u201cThe bird was first skinned, and the feathered tail, head and neck were laid on a table, and sprinkled with cumin,\u201d Sheila Hutchins<\/strong> writes in Royal Cookbook: Favorite Court Recipes from the World<\/em>\u2019s Royal Families<\/em><\/a>. \u201cThe body was then roasted, glazed with raw egg yolks, cooled, sewn back into the skin, and served as the last course.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frumenty\u2014a wholegrain porridge made with cream, honey, expensive spices like nutmeg and cinnamon, and dried fruit and nuts\u2014was a popular dish (which later evolved into a Christmas pudding). There was also \u201cChristmas Pottage,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

It was during Queen Victoria\u2019s long reign that many of the British royal family\u2019s Christmas traditions were set. \u201cAt dinner there were all the Christmas dishes, of which we generally had to eat a little,\u201d Queen Victoria recalled, per Cooling. \u201cFirst the cold baron of beef which stood on the large sideboard all decked out \u2013 brawn \u2013 game pies from Ireland\u2026stuffed turkey \u2013 wild boar\u2019s head\u2026mince pies etc. etc. \u2013 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.vanityfair.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2208510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[23651,183049,23067,381467,22730,23068,423021,24084,27155],"class_list":["post-2208509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-kate-middleton","tag-king-charles-iii","tag-meghan-markle","tag-prince-albert","tag-prince-harry","tag-prince-william","tag-princess-charlene","tag-queen-elizabeth","tag-royals"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/What-the-Royal-Families-of-Europe-Eat-During-Christmas.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2208509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2208509"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2208509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2208511,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2208509\/revisions\/2208511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2208510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2208509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2208509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2208509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}