The Gastro–Gnomes Christmas Hit List
“What makes a magnificent Yuletide” spread I was asked.
This question should be, you would have thought, easy enough to answer – after all every pub in the country is currently offering the what they profess to be the definitive Christmas lunch for around £20 per head and every turkey in the land is hoping that the credit crunch will redirect demand towards a nice plump free range chicken.
But is it as simple as turkey and a nice bit of stuffing?
I set out to find out through a statistically robust piece of research rather than rely on my family’s own preferences or the influences of the populist view.
I asked people within the agency to tell me what made Christmas special from a gastronomic perceptive, what their family held in high esteem and what they could happily leave out of the Christmas spread.
And I was pleasantly surprised. I had a very good response (35 participants) and I am happy to say there is a great deal of variety out there. Breakfast features as a pivotal meal in getting set up for the day and some quite surprising essentials emerge, so here are HS&P’s top tips for a Gastro-gnomic Christmas feast:
In reverse order:
6. A twist on tradition
For the more traditional respondents there where still some little twists that made their Christmas a bit different. Sausages wrapped in pancetta (rather than good old streaky bacon), cheesecake or trifle instead of Christmas pudding and anything, as long as there where lots of Yorkshire puddings, where the strong contenders. I have to admit brussel sprouts drained and lightly fried in orange juice and fresh ginger came close but the best and most surprising alternative to the traditional must be a “traditional” Chinese accompanied by honeyed parsnips!
5. Unusual combinations
Judging by some of the combinations that the gastronomes of HS&P enjoy on Christmas Day there will be a lot of cases of eat, drink and reach for the Rennie this year. Apart from one family always eating mint sauce with everything, the award for most curdling Christmas combination has to be Bailey’s with bacon for breakfast and Chocolate Nesquick with Amaretto.
No names but she knows who she is.
4. Breakfast rules
Breakfast featured heavily in the “essentials” category. Whether scrambled eggs with smoked salmon or eggs Benedict favoured (scrambled eggs just pipped it), breakfast seems as important as lunch, and is seen as the event that really kicks Christmas Day off. Champagne featured as a consistent accompaniment – thankfully there was no mention of Cava despite these troubled times – but for pure indulgence the option of a bacon-filled cheese bap from ASDA washed down by a tin of Thornton’s Special Toffee has to take the title.
3. Is it a bird?
It would appear that the debate over what should form the main course of a Christmas feast still rages. However, one thing is
agreed – it should always be a bird.
What type of bird seems to be the issue. I have to say I love turkey but the gastronomes of HS&P do not share my tastes. The alternatives ranged from Duck or Goose to Pheasant or Partridge but the pick of the flock must be the tradition in one member of HS&P’s household for Cockerel (preparation method not specified) cooked up by Uncle Stan, complete with bread sauce. A tough old bird but delicious I am sure (?)
2. Tipple of the Day
Not surprisingly alcohol is cited as the second most important ingredient. Some take whatever they can get and some are very particular. Champagne is, as previously mentioned, a must and Bailey’s makes a relatively surprising (and hopefully ironic) comeback. Red wine goes without saying and there were some very specific references to Port (including in 3 cases specific house and vintage). But the top tipple for Christmas 2008 is….Mead. That’s right the honey wine popular in medieval Britain has found a foothold in one family’s Christmas celebration. Nice.
1. The No.1 Christmas essential
Christmas pudding hardly gets a mention, other than for the enjoyment of setting fire to it. The Queen’s speech holds some interest as essential viewing before lunch (and it is lunch by the way, no matter how late in the afternoon you eat it) and some feel the best thing Christmas has to offer is the leftover’s eaten cold on Boxing Day.
However, by far the most important ingredient in most people’s Christmas lunch and mentioned by 16 of the survey’s respondents is …
…gravy. In vast quantities if you please, gravy is cited as the single item which makes or breaks a Christmas meal.
Blood may be thicker than water, but when it comes to Christmas it would seem that gravy is the thing that binds families together.
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