After the Boars Head came all sorts of roast birds - including peacock in royal households but it was goose that became the main Christmas meat for 300 years. Tradition says Elizabeth I was dining on goose at Christmas 1588 when she was told that the remaining ships of the Spanish Armada had been destroyed by storms around the Scottish and Irish coasts. She decreed that the Goose should be the bird served at Christmas.
Turkeys are native to Mexico so was the common bird used in early America and then brought back to this country. George II kept a flock of turkeys in Richmond Park to provide birds for shooting for his guests.
Then in the 1800's improved farming meant turkeys became more available, cheaper for households to afford and once Queen Victoria had turkey for the royal Christmas then it became the staple.
We never raised turkeys on the smallholding but always good sized chickens from day old or off-heat and if we sold all the biggest then I'd cook two smaller birds instead.
ED asked me to get the turkey for Christmas Day as their car was going to be full of everything else needed for the 11 of us and for them for 5 days. It's been defrosting slowly in the fridge. My fridge runs quite cold so it's a good thing I got it out of the freezer in plenty of time.
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Yesterday was nice and bright and I had to go and buy some cream for Christmas Day after finding the long life tub that was in the fridge was way out of date - whoops. Decided I'd like a bunch of flowers for Christmas too so after shopping I had a quick walk around the lake. It was very busy, with some sort of small-dog-group walk going on.
Plenty of ducks
In the afternoon - I don't know if it had been on TV before - probably - as it dates from 2017- but it was new to me......... 'The Man Who Invented Christmas'. A very enjoyable watch for pre-Christmas.
Just editing in to say how sad to hear about the death of Chris Rea - only aged 74 - seems so apt that he died just as everyone is playing ' Driving Home For Christmas'. I have several of his CD's - Colin was a big fan too.
My post about this is HERE December 2023
That sounds like a good day, nice to get out for a little walk
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to get out every fine day - need the daylight
DeleteI don't know that film at all. I looked it up. It was released in 2017 and has some great people in the cast. It's available to watch on Amazon prime. So that is now on my watch list for when I get home! Thank you
ReplyDeleteI couldn't find any mention of the film being on TV before. It was such a clever look at 'The Christmas Carol'.
DeleteMy husband helps out in our local grocery shop and the biggest seller yesterday was cream. It seems like everyone thought about it at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI thought I'd bought my long life cream not long ago but found I must have bought it months ago - time flies!
DeleteThat's another film I haven't seen (just seen one on Boud's blog) so will have to add it to the list.
ReplyDeleteIt was a very good fictional look at how The Christmas Carol was written
DeleteIt's always nice to get out for a walk and some fresh air at this time of year isn't it. It was sad to hear of Chris Rea's death, his song has been everywhere, it will most likely be played more than Mariah's now ... thank goodness. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI wanted to play one of his CDs but my CD player has given up, I kept thinking about getting a replacement after it became too unreliable to take to Keep Moving Group, now I wish I had.
DeleteThanks for the film recommendation-I’ll watch on Prime soon. Catriona
ReplyDeleteI think it might become one of those films that is on every Christmas
DeleteFor the last 15 or so years, there have been wild turkeys wandering about Greater Boston getting more and more aggressive. Sometimes they linger at a particular house preventing the inhabitants from going out or the mailman from delivering the mail. I knew my grandmother's vision was gone when one put its face next to the passenger door window while we were at a red light and I kept saying, "Look, Granny!" and she swore she saw nothing and started to roll down the window. Around Thanksgiving there are lots of jokes about turning them into dinner but in reality no one is allowed to kill them without a hunting license during the specified season.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that that turkeys could turn aggressive - I knew about geese getting nasty but wild turkeys peering in car windows sounds frightening!
DeleteI'm pretty lazy so we have tacos for Christmas! It's easy and everyone likes it. We had turkey for Thanksgiving and I've made a yummy turkey noodle soup that we are enjoying this week as I had frozen some away to use now.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping I can cook the turkey without it drying up - I really prefer chicken
DeleteWe have turkey for Thanksgiving, and a honey baked ham for Christmas. Both of those yield lots of leftovers, which I love. What a pretty place to walk. Cali
ReplyDeleteI have cooked a ham today for every day other than Christmas Day!
DeleteWe are having ham on Christmas Day, plans have changed, so our Christmas Day meal will be on the 26th. I hadn't heard of that film either, so will watch on Prime. Very sad about Chris Rea, but considering he'd lived without his pancreas due to cancer since he was 33 and had Type 1 Diabetes, he did very well. We are watching Hook, remember taking daughter to see it when she was about 11 and she's 45 now.
ReplyDeleteHam for Boxing Day here too - me and BiL and then plenty left for me for several days and BiL can take some home too.
DeleteTurkey at our daughter's house on Christmas day ( just a single small slice for me to show willing) then a beef joint for hot beef cobs on Boxing Day (again not for me) along with plenty of vegetarian options too.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad about losing Chris Rea, I really like his gravelly voice and have listened to 'driving home for Christmas' for years.
Have a great Christmas Sue!
Angie x