Christmas dinner recipes - a great legacy

Traditional Christmas dinner recipes have some interesting origins. In olden times Egyptians treated goose as their celebratory bird but latter turkey emerged on the English tables. In a matter of time the American cranberries became accessible and cranberry juice is an quintessential Christmas beverage.

The world has been celebrating Christmas since centuries and traditional Christmas dinner recipes vary from country to country. There are some basic ones that have interesting origins.

Christmas ham is believed to have existed much before the advent of Christianity. Even in these times, Christmas ham with scalloped potatoes on the side, aspic salads and Christmas cookies make a wonderful Christmas meal. You could also try a Christmas Sour Cream Potato Salad for a variation.

Humble pie, derived from the term umble pie, has been traditionally made using different body parts of deer mainly heart, liver, brain which were specifically known as "humbles" by the servants of nobility who used to enjoy the more forms of meat. Humble pie became an integral part of Christmas dinners around the 17th century. For those who always look at options, we can offer Mini Soya Cottage Pies and Vegetarian Shepherd?s Pie.

Mincemeat pie, originated around the 16th century, and had actual minced meat with added preserved fruits for flavour. As the recipes evolved, the meat and the meat fat was omitted and the pie came out to a completely sweet dessert nicely flavoured with spices and brandy or rum. It is still a custom to top individual mincemeat pies with a star shaped pastry top! Another suggestion could be a Prune Tart that is made with apricot jam, prunes and fresh plump plums.

Interestingly, plum pudding was initially a soup made using meats with dried plums, wine and spices. The plums and meats were later removed, and raisins along with eggs and breadcrumbs were added which also added to thickness of the soup. The word plum was generally used for any dried fruit in 17th century. For an easy recipe click on Christmas pudding.