24 Vintage Christmas Recipes We Don’t Eat Anymore

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By Ghuman

Introduction

The holiday season is a time for family, friends, and of course, delicious food! For many of us, the holidays wouldn’t be complete without the traditional dishes that have been passed down through generations. But have you ever wondered what Christmas dishes were popular in the past? In this article, we’ll take a look at 24 vintage Christmas recipes that we don’t eat anymore. From classic mincemeat pies to savory oyster stuffing, these recipes will take you back in time and give you a glimpse into the past. So, let’s get cooking!

24 Vintage Christmas Recipes We Don’t Eat Anymore

Christmas is a time for family, friends, and of course, food! But while some of our favorite holiday dishes have been around for generations, others have fallen out of favor over the years. Here are 24 vintage Christmas recipes that we don’t eat anymore.

1. Plum Pudding

Plum pudding is a traditional British Christmas dessert that dates back to the 16th century. It’s made with dried fruit, spices, and suet, and is usually served with brandy butter or hard sauce. While it’s still popular in the UK, it’s not as widely eaten in the US.

2. Mincemeat Pie

Mincemeat pie is a traditional British Christmas dessert that dates back to the Middle Ages. It’s made with a mixture of dried fruits, spices, and suet, and is usually served with brandy butter or hard sauce. While it’s still popular in the UK, it’s not as widely eaten in the US.

3. Boiled Fruitcake

Boiled fruitcake is a traditional British Christmas dessert that dates back to the 19th century. It’s made with dried fruits, spices, and suet, and is usually served with brandy butter or hard sauce. While it’s still popular in the UK, it’s not as widely eaten in the US.

4. Christmas Pudding

Christmas pudding is a traditional British Christmas dessert that dates back to the 16th century. It’s made with dried fruits, spices, and suet, and is usually served with brandy butter or hard sauce. While it’s still popular in the UK, it’s not as widely eaten in the US.

5. Yule Log Cake

Yule log cake is a traditional French Christmas dessert that dates back to the 19th century. It’s made with sponge cake, chocolate, and cream, and is usually decorated with meringue mushrooms and holly leaves. While it’s still popular in France, it’s not as widely eaten in the US.

6. Gingerbread House

Gingerbread houses are a traditional German Christmas decoration that dates back to the 16th century. They’re made with gingerbread, icing, and candy, and are usually decorated with colorful candies and other decorations. While they’re still popular in Germany, they’re not as widely eaten in the US.

7. Fruitcake

Fruitcake is a traditional British Christmas dessert that dates back to the 16th century. It’s made with dried fruits, spices, and suet, and is usually served with brandy butter or hard sauce. While it’s still popular in the UK, it’s not as widely eaten in the US.

8. Eggnog

Eggnog is a traditional American Christmas beverage that dates back to the 18th century. It’s made with eggs, milk, sugar, and spices, and is usually served with a sprinkle of nutmeg. While it’s still popular in the US, it’s not as widely drunk in other countries.

9. Wassail

Wassail is a traditional British Christmas beverage that dates back to the Middle Ages. It’s made with apples, spices, and ale, and is usually served hot. While it’s still popular in the UK, it’s not as widely drunk in the US.

10. Mulled Wine

Mulled wine is a traditional European Christmas beverage that dates back to the 16th century. It’s made with red wine, spices, and citrus, and is usually served hot. While it’s still popular in Europe, it’s not as widely drunk in the US.

11. Fruit Mince Pies

Fruit mince pies are a traditional British Christmas dessert that dates back to the 16th century. They’re made with dried fruits, spices, and suet, and are usually served with brandy butter or hard sauce. While they’re still popular in the UK, they’re not as widely eaten in the US.

12. Christmas Cake

Christmas cake is a traditional British Christmas dessert that dates back to the 19th century. It’s made with dried fruits, spices, and suet, and is usually served with brandy butter or hard sauce. While it’s still popular in the UK, it’s not as widely eaten in the US.

13. Marzipan

Marzipan is a traditional European Christmas confection that dates back to the 16th century. It’s made with almonds, sugar, and egg whites, and is usually shaped into fruits or animals. While it’s still popular in Europe, it’s not as widely eaten in the US.

14. Stollen

Stollen is a traditional German Christmas bread that dates back to the 15th century. It’s made with dried fruits, spices, and nuts, and is usually served with butter or jam. While it’s still popular in Germany, it’s not as widely eaten in the US.

15. Panettone

Panettone is a traditional Italian Christmas bread that dates back to the 15th century. It’s made with dried fruits, spices, and nuts, and is usually served with butter or jam. While it’s still popular in Italy, it’s not as widely eaten in the US.

16. Fruit Salad

Fruit salad is a traditional British Christmas dessert that dates back to the 19th century. It’s made with a mixture of fresh and dried fruits, and is usually served with cream or custard. While it’s still popular in the UK, it’s not as widely eaten in the US.

17. Christmas Pies

Christmas pies are a traditional British Christmas dessert that dates back to the 16th century. They’re made with a mixture of dried fruits, spices, and suet, and are usually served with brandy butter or hard sauce. While they’re still popular in the UK, they’re not as widely eaten in the US.

18. Mince Pies

Mince pies are a traditional British Christmas dessert that dates back to the 16th century. They’re made with a mixture of dried fruits, spices, and suet, and are usually served with brandy butter or hard sauce. While they’re still popular in the UK, they’re not as widely eaten in the US.

19. Christmas Pudding Cake

Christmas pudding cake is a traditional British Christmas dessert that dates back to the 19th century. It’s made with dried fruits, spices, and suet, and is usually served with brandy butter or hard sauce. While it’s still popular in the UK, it’s not as widely eaten in the US.

20. Yule Log

Yule log is a traditional European Christmas dessert that dates back to the 16th century. It’s made with sponge cake, chocolate, and cream, and is usually decorated with meringue mushrooms and holly leaves. While it’s still popular in Europe, it’s not as widely eaten in the US.

21. Christmas Trifle

Christmas trifle is a traditional British Christmas dessert that dates back to the 19th century. It’s made with sponge cake, custard, and jelly, and is usually topped with cream and fruit. While it’s still popular in the UK, it’s not as widely eaten in the US.

22. Christmas Pudding Ice Cream

Christmas pudding ice cream is a traditional British Christmas dessert that dates back to the 19th century. It’s made with dried fruits, spices, and suet, and is usually served with brandy butter or hard sauce. While it’s still popular in the UK, it’s not as widely eaten in the US.

23. Christmas Pie

Christmas pie is a traditional British Christmas dessert that dates back to the 16th century. It’s made with a mixture of dried fruits, spices, and suet, and is usually served with brandy butter or hard sauce. While it’s still popular in the UK, it’s not as widely eaten in the US.

24. Christmas Pudding Cake

Christmas pudding cake is a traditional British Christmas dessert that dates back to the 19th century. It’s made with dried fruits, spices, and suet, and is usually served with brandy butter or hard sauce. While it’s still popular in the UK, it’s not as widely eaten in the US.

Christmas dinner was an extravagant feast throughout the late Victorian interval, with elaborate, multi-course affairs. In fact, there have been extra modest vacation meals loved, too—suppose Bob Cratchit’s easier however appreciated Christmas dinner in The Christmas Carol.

Dickens’ novel was, in reality, a game-changer. The vacation turned a day to social gathering with platters of meals and cocktails, embellished properties, and presents. So, with a nod to The Christmas Carol, here’s a sampling of classic Christmas recipes that graced vacation tables again within the day. You may not be having fun with the large-scale festivities of yore (thanks, COVID), however you may nonetheless throw issues again with these classic menu objects. Lots of the dishes are perpetually favorites, like oysters, cranberry sauce, applesauce, and gingerbread. Others, nevertheless, are ghosts of Christmas previous.

And for extra throwbacks, do not miss these 15 Basic American Desserts That Deserve a Comeback.

Oysters
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Oysters had been an inexpensive delicacy and intensely common on the flip of the century. The bivalves had been cheap as a result of they had been plentiful, in keeping with Psychological Floss. Like at this time, they had been served on the half shell with a lemon wedge. Blue Factors had been harvested off Lengthy Island and, on the time, had been thought-about the pearl of oysters, and historically served as the primary course at Christmas.

Get the recipe from The Fish and Wildlife Service.

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Figgy pudding
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Like many Christmas favorites, plum pudding is a dish with British roots. Truth: There are not any plums in plum pudding. The pudding (which is extra like cake) was made with stale bread crumbs, scalded milk, raisins, figs, currants, wine brandy, suet, and spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. The adored dessert was made as much as a yr earlier than Christmas as a result of it was thought-about finest when aged. Should you resolve to make it on your Christmas, begin now. And do go the gap—when serving, douse it with brandy and set aflame.

Get Fannie Farmer’s recipe from The Boston Cooking-College Cook dinner Ebook.

Holiday fruit cake
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The bunt of dangerous jokes, the outcast fruit cake definitely will get lots of flak. However Fannie Farmer gave it some love with a Christmas recipe for Darkish Fruit Cake in her 1896 cookbook, and it was a desired dessert.

Get Fannie Farmer’s recipe from The Boston Cooking-College Cook dinner Ebook.

Sugar plums
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Visions of sugarplums danced in kids’s heads, and the candy confections appeared on Victorian Christmas tables, too. Dried plums or prunes had been blended with cinnamon, cloves, nuts, and different fruits, shaped into balls, and rolled in sugar, for a really particular Christmas sweet. Sugarplums are a characteristic of our checklist of 6 Christmas Carols with Meals You have By no means Truly Eaten.

Get a circa-1609 recipe from The Historic Cookery Web page.

Duchess mashed potatoes
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The identify suggests royalty, and these fancy-pants potatoes usually had a particular spot on the Christmas desk. The mashed potatoes (butter, egg yolks, salt) had been formed utilizing a pastry bag that piped the potatoes into whimsical shapes of baskets and roses, after which the potatoes had been browned within the oven.

Get Fannie Farmer’s recipe from The Boston Cooking-College Cook dinner Ebook.

Chicken soup consomme
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In contrast to at this time, consommé was held in excessive regard, together with turtle consommé, in addition to consommé comprised of beef, veal, and fowl. The clear soup was additionally typically referred to as bouillon and was usually served early on as a part of the multi-course elaborate vacation feast, together with on Fannie Farmer’s Menu for Christmas Dinner.

Get Fannie Farmer’s recipe from The Boston Cooking-College Cook dinner Ebook.

Roasted goose
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Turkey was usually served on Christmas, but it surely wasn’t the one sport on the town (see what we did there?). Roasted goose was usually the principle occasion at Christmas dinner, served with applesauce and cranberry sauce.

Get Fannie Farmer’s recipe from The Boston Cooking-College Cook dinner Ebook.

Apple sauce
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A wholesome and candy addition to the vacation desk and featured in Dicken’s Christmas story, too, the saucy facet dish would usually get a kick, because of spices like nutmeg and cinnamon.

Get Fannie Farmer’s recipe from The Boston Cooking-College Cook dinner Ebook.

plain cranberry sauce
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Whereas cranberry sauce all the time relished at Thanksgiving, it was additionally served at Christmas and added a festive pop of coloration. Ocean Spray’s canned cranberry sauce wasn’t obtainable in 1899, so the dish was all the time home made. It is tremendous straightforward to organize—it is principally all about that tart little crimson berry and sugar.

Get Fannie Farmer’s recipe from The Boston Cooking-College Cook dinner Ebook.

Mince pies
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Historically made with chopped meat, by the flip of the century, the meat on this two-crust pie was generally changed with suet or butter, and it additionally included chopped apples, brandy or rum, dried fruits, and spices. Not solely had been mince pies featured in an 1896 Thanksgiving dinner menu in The Boston Cooking-College Cook dinner Ebook, however there’s additionally a recipe in Fannie Farmer’s 1896 cookbook for Mock Mince Meat Pie, which used crackers as a substitute of suet.

Get Fannie Farmer’s recipe from The Boston Cooking-College Cook dinner Ebook.

Thanksgiving oyster stuffing
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Other than being served on the half shell, oysters had been additionally shucked to make a cameo look in an oyster stuffing, to accompany the chook (turkey or goose) beginning in Miss Parloa’s New Cook dinner Ebook circa 1880. Oyster stuffing or dressing continues to be a standard facet dish and one of many 30 Secrets and techniques for Making Excellent Stuffing.

Get Fannie Farmer’s recipe from The Boston Cooking-College Cook dinner Ebook.

Roasted chestnut fennel sausage stuffing
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Chestnuts roasting on an open fireplace…. And roast they did, chestnuts had been a favourite in Victorian instances. Turkeys had been additionally roasted with a chestnut stuffing tucked inside. And Jack Frost nipped at noses.

Get Fannie Farmer’s recipe from The Boston Cooking-College Cook dinner Ebook.

Stuffed red bell peppers
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Bell peppers had been a well-liked vegetable, and at Christmas, they bought the additional consideration they deserved—filled with rice and meat and tomatoes, very like at this time.

Get Fannie Farmer’s recipe from The Boston Cooking-College Cook dinner Ebook.

Negus traditional mulled wine and spices
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This sizzling punch was served at Mr. Fezziwig’s annual Christmas ball in Dickens’ 1843 basic, A Christmas Carol. The punch was a stir of port wine, sizzling water, spices, lemon juice, grated lemon peel, and kissed with a sprinkle of nutmeg. At this time, it is referred to as a mulled wine and nonetheless finds a spot on Christmas menus.

Get a standard recipe from Esquire.

Manhattan whiskey cocktail
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There are various accounts as to only who invented this city-slicker cocktail, however there isn’t a query that it was created in Manhattan and that it was a pour of rye, candy vermouth, and fragrant bitters (and actually, it was believed to be the primary cocktail to introduce vermouth to booze). The sip continues to be a stylish cocktail, and significantly festive for Christmas—because it was in 1899.

Get a standard recipe from Liquor.com.

Brandy hard sauce
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We all the time had onerous sauce with our pie on Christmas; my dad insisted on it. Within the Victorian period, it accompanied plum pudding or Christmas pudding. Fannie Farmer’s recipe referred to as for butter, powdered sugar, lemon extract, and vanilla. Brandy sauce is analogous, but it surely’s made with brandy, powdered sugar, butter, eggs, and milk or cream.

Get Fannie Farmer’s recipe from The Boston Cooking-College Cook dinner Ebook.

Charlotte russe cake
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This basic cake, which dates to the 18th century in Europe, turned a favourite within the nineteenth century at Christmas. It’s a layer cake constructed with ladyfingers, Bavarian cream, cooked fruit, and a crown of whipped cream.

Get Fannie Farmer’s recipe from The Boston Cooking-College Cook dinner Ebook.

Potato croquettes
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A desired facet dish usually discovered on turn-of-the-century menus had been croquettes—in reality, Fannie Farmer’s 1896 Christmas menu included Hen Croquettes and Inexperienced Peas.

Get the recipe from Fannie Farmer’s 1896 Cook dinner Ebook, The Boston Cooking-College Cook dinner Ebook.

Lobster newberg
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Whereas turkey and goose had been common (and typically prime rib of beef), seafood and fish additionally had a particular spot on Christmas menus. This wealthy and stylish seafood entrée was invented in 1876 at Delmonico’s Restaurant in downtown New York Metropolis. The lobster particular took off and have become the “it” dish for particular events, together with the vacations, when it appeared on fancy lodge restaurant Christmas dinner menus.

Get the recipe from What’s Cooking America.

Aspic meat
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Fortunately, this conventional Christmas dish has fallen out of favor. Why? A capon is principally a castrated rooster. And aspic is a meat-like-Jell-O. Are we not proper? Nicely, when you’re thinking about making an attempt your hand at it, there’s a recipe within the guide Recherche Entrees: A set of the Newest and Most Standard Dishes.

Get the recipe from Recherche Entrees.

Nesselrode Pudding
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This frozen, chestnut-centric pudding was named for Rely Nesselrode, a Russian diplomat. The flamboyant pudding was a decadent dessert and made with a chestnut puree, creamy custard, raisins, currants, sherry wine, and candied fruits like apricots and cherries.

Get the recipe from the James Beard Basis.

Potatoes a la maitre d'hotel
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A well-liked potato dish that was usually the home specialty in nice eating places, like Delmonico’s, it was made with sliced boiled potatoes, a wealthy, buttery sauce, and parsley.

Get Fannie Farmer’s recipe from The Boston Cooking-College Cook dinner Ebook.

Gingerbread cake
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Gingerbread has stood the take a look at of time and continues to be a Christmas deal with as embellished homes and little males. Fannie Farmer’s illustrious 1896 cookbook had a recipe for a Christmas gingerbread cake.

Get Fannie Farmer’s recipe from The Boston Cooking-College Cook dinner Ebook.

Frozen pudding
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Suppose ice cream. This icy dessert, made with cream, sugar, eggs, rum, and candied fruits, was positioned in a “brick mould” after which popped into the icebox to freeze.

Get Fannie Farmer’s recipe from The Boston Cooking-College Cook dinner Ebook.

For extra, take a look at these 108 hottest sodas ranked by how poisonous they’re.

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