These 5 historical Christmas foods from at least 100 years ago are what the pioneers would have most likely had on their table. Many of these food have their origin from even further back and give us a glimpse at how times have changed and yet some of these remain a favorite food to be served during the holidays… or not, hello fruitcake, we're talking about you.
It's important to look back at these old customs as well as preserve some of these older recipes to pass down and enjoy with future generations and our families. All my Little House on the Prairie® will love the molasses recipes and remember Ma only kept out the white sugar for company.
Listen in as you decorate, whip up your favorite Christmas recipe, or go about your Christmas cleaning…. or read below!
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5 Historical Christmas Foods from 100 Years Ago
- A Christmas Goose- The Christmas goose goes back even farther than just the pioneer days in America. The goose was chosen for a couple of reasons, one it had more meat on it than a duck or chicken, meaning it could feed more mouths. Friends and family gathered so having enough meat to feed everyone was important.
Second reason, a goose has lots of down feathers and in the winter time, those feathers are the heaviest (think your cattle, horses, and chickens all getting in their thicker winter coat, or feathers, come the cold months) so there was more down to stuff mattresses, pillows, and coverlets. Depending upon your area of the country, most butchering was done in the late fall when the freezes came. Without refrigeration, the proper time of year ensured the meat would keep longer. Ham could be salt cured and stored and the larger pieces of meat or roasts were saved for Christmas dinner.
Learn how to salt cure a ham at home
Venison may be another fair served at Christmas time and this is because deer go into rut in the fall, making them more focused on the females and often time, giving the hunter a bit more of advantage with the buck's focus shifted on mating. - Molasses old time recipes used molasses in their recipes because regular white sugar was harder to come by and more expensive. Most farms and homesteads served cookies and baked goods made with molasses to help stretch their sugar.
My very favorite old-fashioned cookie–> Old-Fashioned Soft Molasses Sugar Cookies
From my great-great-grandmother's cookbook–> Old-Fashioned Ginger Cream Cookies - Fruit Cake fruit was something sweet that most folks could harvest and put up without spending money on sugar or sweeteners. It was saved to bake or serve at Christmas time. Dried fruit was used but another form was to preserve your fruit in alcohol.
Fruit cakes were important because they had the sugar, fruit and alcohol that would preserve the cake until Christmas. Usually, the cake was baked at least one month prior to Christmas time in order for the cake to age and develop its full flavor. - Fruit pies apple and pumpkin were traditional desserts as well as mince meat pie. Mince meat pie uses minced up meat, fruits, and spices to create a pie. There's also variations of non-meat pie, but my mom's favorite was bear mince meat pie when she was growing up.
It was a way to stretch the meat and your fruits to create a full dessert to feed everyone. If you don't have it, you need to get your hands on my great-grandmother's no fail flaky pie crust recipe. - Steamed puddings were a tradition, though they aren't in favor as much in current times. Steamed pudding again were usually made with fruit and contained less flour than a cake. They're not a pudding like you may think of chocolate pudding or a really custard type pudding. This jam roly poly is a steamed pudding that features your favorite jam or jelly as the sweetener and it can also be made gluten free.
One of my favorite things about this is it hails from the pages of Andrea's great-grandmother's cookbook and was made during World War II rationing in Europe, here's the recipe–> Vintage Jam Roly Poly without Suet
I almost forgot this one!! Here's a traditional Christmas pudding with a Brown Sugar Sauce–> Traditional Christmas Pudding
What are some of your favorite traditional or family Christmas recipes? Do you serve up any of these 5 traditional fares during the holidays?
Aside from the Christmas goose and the fruitcake (we go the pie route) we make many of these recipes and I love teaching my kiddos the history behind them.
More Historical Recipes To Enjoy
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We have done a goose a couple of Christmases. My husband and I like it, but the kids don’t care for it. So when they come home, we do a ham. We often do pies, usually Apple, pumpkin and pecan. This year, my daughter and daughter-in-law have been diagnosed as gluten sensitive, and I’ve been put on a Carb-restrictive diet, so we have to switch things up. I’m working on using some of our family recipes and tweaking the ingredients. I also want to try your gluten free mix you posted!
Kathy,
I’d love to try goose, it’s one meat we haven’t tried. I try to do less sugar and have some more healthy sides, too. Let me know how the gluten free mix goes.
Regarding those on low carb diets. Have been using monk fruit type sugar in things as is low card with much lesser impact on blood sugar than some of that other stuff that leaves an aftertaste sometimes. This stuff doesn’t. I made a pecan pie for Thanksgiving with 13 of us for dinner. The filling was made with monk fruit imitation maple syrup. (Can get this on Amazon for sure). The filling looked and tasted just like that with regular sugar. I haven’t found a low carb pie crust recipe I like yet so ate just the filling and no crust. Usually I have close to half a pie left and as I am the only one of us 3 here at home that likes pecan pie, I can spread it out over several days. This time, there was one thin piece left and I had to ask to be saved that! The rest of that pie and the pumpkin (made the regular way, was divided to take home with the others! The pie was a hit for sure. Hope this helps other low carbers!
I truly enjoyed this podcast, Melissa. With all of the information we have coming at us or available to us in the digital age, it’s rare when we take the time to learn and appreciate what, why, and how things were done in the distant past. The logistics, traditions, and the spiritual nature of food of the past is especially intriguing and enlightening, so thank you for sharing these Christmas traditions. Merry Christmas, Ardith
Thanks, Ardith, I’m so glad there’s others out there like me. Like you I love learning about the history and why behind things.
Thank you and Bless you. Have a wonderful Christmas season and a safe and happy New Year.
I love the old recipes. I had to laugh at ‘fruit cake’.
When I announced my engagement my Sister was so excited and knowing how I love fruitcake she grabbed an old bottle of rum from the cabinet and started soaking fruit (8 months before the wedding). Turns out the rum was a homemade, family heirloom from her husbands great grandfather and she’d been dusting it off for years.
Again, have a wonderful, blessed Christmas and thank you, Ian……….
That is awesome Ian, and I bet it was tasty!
Thank you so much for a look back at the historical recipes of earlier days. A friend of mine still makes the molasses cookies to pass out to friends. i have always wanted to make a fruit cake from scratch. I purchased your book “Made from Scratch” and it is truly wonderful. I enjoy all the recipes. Thank you for sharing pioneer roots with all of us that long for days gone by and want so much to cherish those skills and keep them alive.
You’re so welcome, it’s nice to know I’m not the only out there who loves this stuff, too. Thank you for getting the book and I’m really happy you enjoy it.
Thanks so much for the recipes! We always had a “hard sauce” over the pudding. Nice memories!
In the Great Smoky Mountains, watermelon syrup or sorghum syrup were commonly used instead of molasses. The mincemeat pie would contain candied pumpkin instead of citron. If you want a real treat for the
kids, candy some pumpkin and dust the pieces with confectioners sugar and cinnamon.
Skip the BS. how novel . You have some interesting ways to sweeten up recipes. Watermelon syrup and candied pumpkin.