Is it okay to have a cold Christmas Lunch in a scorching hot country? Journalists of 1867 didn't think so. But that taboo had turned around by 1892 where cold lunch recipes were published across the land. Join me as I uncover the controversies of a cold Chrissy lunch.
Is it okay to have a cold Christmas Lunch in a scorching hot country? Journalists of 1867 didn't think so. But that taboo had turned around by 1892 where cold lunch recipes were published across the land. Join me as I uncover the controversies of a cold Chrissy lunch.
Link to 1904 Tongue and Jelly Recipes:
I totally have a website now!
https://historydetectivepodcast.com/
Season One Cover Lesson Bundle
Contact: Twitter @HistoryDetect, Instagram @HistoryDetective9, Facebook and email historydetective9@gmail.com
All original music performed by Kelly Chase.
Hi, this is Kelly Chase and you are listening to History Detective, a podcast where I usually delve into the past to uncover the mysteries of history and then explore how that story might be reimagined through song. You can catch those episodes in your podcast feed, but this is special Christmas treat, and today I will be looking at lunches of Christmas past.
As you may or may not be aware, Christmas comes smack bang in the middle of summer in Australia, and it is hot! Especially in Queensland, sweltering… and the idea of cooking and eating a hot roast lunch makes me sweat just thinking about it. Think 35 degrees Celsius or 95 if you work in Fahrenheit. Most of the Christmases that I have taken part in have been cold lunches. Salads, ham, chicken, prawns that kind of fare. However, in the late 1800s, before Australia was a federated country and was a collection of colonies inhabited by ex-patriots from the United Kingdom trying to civilize the land and its people, you can imagine that the idea of a cold Christmas lunch would fly in the face of centuries old Christmas tradition.
The first case I could find about the controversy of a cold Christmas lunch was in an 1867 article dated the 27th of December from the Melbourne Argus that was comparing the quality of lunch served at 2 different venues. One establishment was serving, “Savoury pies, made of three-halfpenny beef and mutton” however the writer explains that this lunch was “incomparably a better bargain than the lunch… excursionists had to put up with at the principal hotel.” He explains that “their hopes were cruelly mocked by the sparse and chilly fare that met the eye.” The assortments included, “some few slices of cold roast meat and ham, and some disjointed fragments of fowl.” For dessert there “was rhubarb tart and custard pudding ; but what were these in the absence of hot meat and vegetables? What the public wanted was a hot joint in which healthy appetites delight, and that being absent, Rennison's customers had to go away unsatisfied and miserable.” Oh dear, poor customers deprived of their piping hot meat. Just for the record, temperatures in Melbourne can range between 30-40 degrees Celsius that’s between 85-105 Fahrenheit for my overseas listeners. From my modern Aussie perspective a cold salad lunch is perfectly acceptable.
The next day, another person writes in to defend Rennisons. They exert, “The excellent dinner supplied at this hotel on Christmas Day was no doubt very acceptable to those, who partook of it ; but we think the Reliance passengers, who could get nothing to eat but cold meat and bread, have good reason to complain. The proprietor might easily have known that there would be an unusual demand for refreshments at his hotel on Christmas Day.”
Well, the proprietor of Rennison’s was not impressed about this slander and felt the need to write in to the editor to defend himself. I will read you his response, “Sir,-In Friday's Argus the report of the Reliance's trip to Schnapper Point contains a statement calculated to do me great injustice... On Christmas Day a number of excursionists from the Reliance called at the Schnapper Point Hotel in quest of refreshments, and were at once supplied with a cold collation, both abundant and varied. The report loudly complains that they did not receive a hot dinner. I can only say that I should have been happy to have furnished this had I received intimation in any reasonable time. All who called here that day for dinner received a good hot dinner, while those who called simply for something to eat received as good a cold lunch as any hotel in the colony is accustomed to furnish.” He has a point, if you are going out for lunch on Christmas Day, the least you can do is make a booking so the restaurant prepares enough food for you. I am in camp Rennison for this one. Christmas Day lunch time pop ins are poor etiquette.
I am going to skip forward 20 years to 1888 and see what is on the lunch menu at the Rosehill Races (Horse races that it). Their lunch is said to be served hot and consists of “Roast Beef, Roast Lamb. Turkeys, Geese, Ducks, and Fowls, with other appendages.” I am assuming that in this case appendages means vegetable accompaniments. Because in my experience of English an appendage has a slightly different meaning and is not a word one uses on a menu. Dessert was flaming plum pudding, mince pies, jellies and custards and an interesting pronouncement that they would be serving “Wines, Spirits and Beers of the best brands.”
However, 4 years later, things are starting to get loose in the colony with an article titled, “Cold Picnic Lunch, wash the dishes in the sea”. The article proports that despite the hot weather in Australia, “people go and gorge themselves with hot meat, steaming pudding, and heating wines, and try to feel sentimental over their young days”. They instead suggest that people should be eating a cold picnic lunch in the lovely private gardens or a picnic resort around Sydney. A picnic resort? That sounds super cute. The article playfully suggests that you can throw your dishes into the sea and the waves will bring them back clean. They also suggest that “everyone prefers lemon juice, cool beer, and fruit drinks.” And then goes on with some handy advice for the housewives and servants “A cold collation can easily be prepared before Christmas, and the tired wife and mother and servants have the chance of a merry time.” Well that’s very thoughtful. He continues, “It is not natural for Australians to be ceremonious, and the ceremonies are a great strain on the wife and mother.” His argument for a cold lunch continues, “What meal is more appetising to a tired and' heated man as cold fowl, tongue, crisp salad; ale, cool puddings, and fruit? Just try fare like this this Christmas, and banish the wearisome unappetising plum pudding and hot meats.” I am not sure about cold tongue for Christmas Lunch.
I will finish off with a menu prepared by Vivienne in a 1904 article in the Sunday Times. It seems that by this year a cold Christmas lunch was accepted as the norm and the Australian penchant for cold tongue and jelly was going strong. I will link these articles in the show notes for anyone who is keen for a cold Chrissy lunch 1904 style. Start with “Chicken Jelly with Potato Balls, Boiled fowl and parsley sauce” then for the “BOILED TONGUE.— Select a nice fresh tongue, boil slowly for about two hours, skin and tie into shape ; wet a mould or cake-tin, press the tongue into it, placing slices of hard-boiled egg here and there round the tongue, so that when the tongue turns out the eggs will improve its appearance” All I can do is ask the question, what shape does one tie a tongue into?
Then for dessert you can wash down the boiled tongue with porcupine apples, Clear wine jelly, orange jelly, fruit jelly. I’ll let you in on a little secret, I hate jelly, I really detest the feel of it in my mouth and Vivienne’s entire Christmas menu sounds like a nightmare.
What every temperature you like your Christmas Lunch or Dinner, I hope it is delicious!
This Kelly Chase, on the Case.
I would love to hear any suggestions for future episodes, so please get in contact. You can follow me on Twitter @HistoryDetect, Instagram @HistoryDetective9, oh and there is a Facebook page now! Or if you have any burning questions that you would like me to answer in a future bonus episode email me at historydetective9@gmail.com
History Detective is a completely independent podcast, so if you would like to support me so I can continue to make episodes, I have ready-made classroom resources available to purchase for all of the season one episodes. You can find them on my Amped up learning store, which is linked in the show notes.
Next time on History Detective, I have another bonus episode for you. I will have recommendations for some of my favourite podcasts on various civil rights movements.
If you liked what you heard and know someone who might enjoy History Detective too, please share and subscribe and because I am a teacher, you know I love gold stars feel free to rate, review. See you next time.
1867 'CHRISTMAS DAY.', The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), 27 December, p. 6. , viewed 11 Oct 2020, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5786891
1867 'THE CHRISTMAS DAY LUNCH AT THE SCHNAPPER POINT HOTEL.', The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), 31 December, p. 7. , viewed 11 Oct 2020, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5787229
1888 'Advertising', The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930), 22 December, p. 5. , viewed 11 Oct 2020, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article235705703
1892 'Christmas.', Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1907), 24 December, p. 19. , viewed 11 Oct 2020, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71207819
1904 'GOOD CHEER FOR CHRISTMAS', Sunday Times (Sydney, NSW : 1895 - 1930), 11 December, p. 23. , viewed 11 Oct 2020, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article127801799