MINCE PIES
Mince pies are the first sign of Christmas in the UK. These tiny tartlets, often served with mulled wine, start popping up everywhere, from workplace canteens and coffee corners to the local Starbucks. Shops advertise late opening hours and fashion shows accompanied by mince pies and mulled wine, Every pre-Christmas gathering, cocktail party and tea party will have a supply. Newspapers usually have features rating this year's supermarket and packaged variations. It's supposed to be good luck to eat a mince pie every day of December and most people don't turn them down when offered. So, by the time the holiday season is over, most people are well fed-up with mince pies. But whether they like deep or shallow mince pies, or simply can't stand them, most Brits know it's Christmas from their first mince pie of the season.
TURKEY
Smoked salmon, served with buttered brown bread and a slice of lemon, or wrapped around some prawns, is a typical festive starter. Turkey long ago replaced goose as the most popular main course. But it is what the turkey comes to the table with that make it especially British. The accompaniments include: chipolatas (small sausages) wrapped in bacon; roasted root vegetables, especially roasted parsnips which are sweet and moist; brussels sprouts, often with chestnuts or bacon or both; bread sauce, a mixture of bread crumbs, milk, cream, onions and seasonings.
CHRISTMAS PUDDING
The traditional British Christmas pudding is a bit like a cannonball made of dried fruit,nuts, flour, eggs, suet or butter, spices and loads and loads of alcohol. It comes to the table sprigged with holly or winter cherries and flaming with brandy. Rich and heavy, a little bit of Christmas pudding goes a long way. A good Christmas pudding is started months before Christmas, steamed for several hours, then tightly wrapped and left to age. Whisky or brandy are used to plump up the dried fruit and are added to the cooked pudding from time to time. On the day, the pudding is once again steamed for a few hours. Then hot brandy is poured over it and set alight. Traditionally, a three-penny (thruppence) or six-penny (sixpence) coin, both long out of circulation, is baked in the pudding. Finding it is considered good luck. In some families, silver or porcelain charms are kept for this purpose.
CHRISTMAS CAKE
Like the Christmas pudding, the traditional British Christmas Cake is started months before the holiday. It is a very rich fruit cake which is 'fed' with brandy or whisky - a few spoonfuls at a time, every few days for weeks. Before Christmas, the cake is wrapped in a rolled layer of marzipan and topped by a thick layer of rolled white icing. Then the whole thing is neatly wrapped in a red ribbon and topped with a holiday motif. In effect, the cake is sealed, airtight, in all that marzipan and icing. That, plus the amount of alcohol it has absorbed, should make it last a very long time. And, kept in a biscuit tin or a plastic food box with a sealable lid, Christmas cakes have been known to be edible for months, even years. The Christmas cake is not usually part of Christmas dinner but is kept to be offered at tea time and for snacks during the holidays.
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