During the 12 days of Christmas,
the period between Christmas Day and Twelfth Night on January 6th,
it was tradition in Tudor England to keep an open house for everybody
regardless of their social standing. It was not uncommon for many of the great
houses to feed up to fifty people twice daily. The growing middle class,
including successful tradesmen and business savvy tenant farmers, were able to
join in on the feasting, as well as the charity, of this holiday season. (Fulcher)
The final day of this festive season was the most extravagant. For example, for Twelfth Night on January 6, 1552, Sir William Petre of Ingatestone Hall in Essex sat down to dinner with over a hundred guests, who consumed a total of sixteen raised meat pies, fifteen joints of beef, four of veal, three of pork, a whole suckling pig, three geese, a partridge, a woodcock, a dozen larks, a sheep, and numerous dishes of salads, vegetables, and desserts.
The central food element of this final night of the Christmas season was a specially baked, spicy fruit cake, also known as the Great Cake or Plum Cake, which contained a dried bean and a pea for the King and Queen of the Revels. In 1604, Lady Elinor Fettiplace’s Receipt Book has a recipe for such a cake that could have been cut up into about one hundred and sixty slices.
In modern times, when we hear of a cake, we think of a sugary confection with chemical leaveners, such as baking powder. However, in the 16th century, cakes were enriched breads that were quite similar to the modern Italian Panettone and German Stollen.
A popular way to obtain yeast in Tudor England was from ale production. Brewing ale creates a warm, moist environment for yeast to thrive. Yeast is a common leavener for breads. The foam floating on top of the ale vats is referred to as barm, which is yeast. If barm is unavailable, it can be easily replaced with commercial yeast and ale.
The recipe calls for a posset. A posset was a semi-solid warmed dairy-based mixture, similar to modern eggnog, with spices, eggs, and/or citrus fruit added to it. Wine or ale was then added to this custard. Possets were used for people who were cold, such as working outside all day in cold temperatures. The alcohol may cause the milk to intentionally curdle, like a modern-day sponge in bread production.
Posset recipe from A Good Huswifes Handmaide from1594:
To make a good posset curde.
<"202">TAke your milke and set it on the fyre, and let it seeth, put in your yolks of Egs according to the quantitie of your milk. But see that your Egs be tempered with some of the milke ere ye put them to the milke that is on the fire, or els it will fall together and mar all, and yee must stirr it still til it seeth and begin to ryse. Then take it off the fyre, but before yee take it off, haue your drinke readie in a fair bason, on a chafingdish of coales, and powre the milke into the bason as it standeth ouer the chafish with fyre, so couer it, and let it stand a while Then take it vp and cast on Synamon and sugar, and so serue it in.
Works Cited
Dawson, Thomas. "A Good Huswifes Handmaide." http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/book1594huswife.htm.
"Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elinor_Fettiplace%27s_Receipt_Book.
Fulcher, Nic. "Christmas Cake - But Not for Christmas!" 19 December 2014. https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/blogs/christmas-cake-not-christmas/.
"Twelfth Night Cake." British Food History. https://britishfoodhistory.com/2019/01/05/twelfth-night-cake/.
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