Off The Record
Alan Crosby looks at an unusual Yuletide treat that our hungry forebears would have enjoyed in centuries gone by
Alan Crosby looks at a popular historical Christmas meal
What is a traditional British Christmas dinner, I wonder? Probably most people would say roast turkey and all the trimmings, although others would think of Olde English roast beef. When
I was a child we had a chicken, then regarded as something special, but when my mother was growing up that was an unaffordable treat for a large and poor family in inner- city Manchester during the Depression.
Years ago she wrote her autobiography, and here’s what she says about Christmas dinner: “We never ate chicken that I can remember – that was pure luxury. At Christmas we had pork. Christmas Day was spent at Grandma’s, two doors away, with all her side of the family and their wives, husbands and children. Grandma had a large leg of pork with home-made stuffing – what else? – and apple sauce… On Boxing Day we had a repeat performance at our house, but Dad’s clan came as well. We children had our dinner first, because there wasn’t enough room round the table for everyone.”
So, pork was their traditional Christmas meal – cheap, tasty and simple to cook, it gave plenty of fat (good for frying potatoes) and was just as nice cold the next day. More recently, using diaries from the 17th and 18th centuries, I have found that having pork at Christmas was not uncommon in Lancashire three centuries ago. It seems, however, that it was not straightforward roast pork, but something rather different.
The diarist Thomas Tyldesley lived at Myerscough near Preston, and also had a house at Fox Hall in Blackpool. On 22 December 1712 he recorded that “Cosin Butler off Kirkland sent Ralph [his servant] with a roull off brawen which was a kinde present”. On Christmas Eve 1713, he “Gave a boy sixpence For bringing brawn from Kirkland”. So, this was evidently an annual custom of gift-giving between these kinsfolk, but it was not confined to them. For example, on Christmas Day 1709 Squire Nicholas Blundell of Crosby near Liverpool recorded that his cousin’s wife made an identical gift: “Mrs Blundell sent my Wife a Present of Rowl of Brawn.”
What was this intriguing and evidently popular delicacy? Brawn these days is usually considered to be pieces of pork from the pig’s head or pig’s cheek, either set in its own rich and highly seasoned jelly or packed together in a more solid version resembling a terrine. That, however, was not what was being given back in the early 18th century, as the diary entries make clear: the tradition then was for a roll of brawn. To find out what that means we can turn to contemporary cookery books, the most detailed recipe being in Richard Bradley’s The Country Housewife and Lady’s Director (1732).
His instructions involve taking a huge slab of raw pork and rolling it very tightly until it made a sortof giant sausage, about 10 inches in diameter. This was tied round and bound with linen tape, before being gently simmered in a cauldron of boiling water until tender all the way through, and allowed to cool. It was then placed in a bath of brine, the liquid sometimes being partly wine or light ale, and salted or pickled for several weeks. The pig was usually killed at the end of the autumn and by this method a large piece of meat could be preserved for the winter, perhaps to be given as a present at Christmas. Taken from its brine, rinsed and dried thoroughly, it had to be kept in a cold place and eaten quite quickly – cold and thickly sliced, accompanied by hunks of bread, mustard, vinegary pickles and draughts of ale… a special delicacy.
I love that idea, and it sounds delicious. The custom must go back centuries before the diary entries. During the reign of Queen Anne, in a country house equipped with a great kitchen, many staff and its own pigs, it presented no problems. Now, it’s not feasible for most of us… although simplified recipes are online if you’re tempted!
‘The pork was salted or pickled for several weeks’