Christmas Cooking Through History

Merry Christmas! (or almost!)

A picture from a few years ago - we haven't had snow in the past month or more,

 and I'm dreaming of a white Christmas!

Jan here, revealing a little-known fact about me: I'm a history geek. Super history geek. I love reading about history - especially books that were written in the time period (aka: source materials.)

This book is one of my favorite sources 

for western living in the late 19th century.
You can buy it HERE.

One of the things I try to do in my writing is to give my characters' lives an authentic flavor. Whether they are cooking over an open fire or on a wood stove, doing laundry in a wash tub, or making soap out in the yard after butchering time, I want to be able to describe those activities authentically in my books.

But how does an author do that? It's one thing to read a recipe (receipt) for cooking a turkey in the eighteenth century, but when an author writes about such things, it's important to know exactly what the character needs to do. I need to visualize the activity in my mind, and the questions are endless. I know how I prepare a turkey in my twenty-first century kitchen, but what about my imaginary eighteenth century friend?

YouTube comes to the rescue!

Today I'm going to share Christmas recipes from some of my favorite YouTube cooking channels. These are fabulous sources for writers, or anyone who enjoys history. Watching these channels not only gives me the information I need to write an authentic scene, they also give me ideas for future scenes, or even new stories.

Here's the first one, from Jas. Townsend & Son's 18th Century Cooking. His turkey looks so good!

Jas Townsend also share this light and crispy cookie:

This next YouTube channel is a delight to watch. The setting is an English stately home of the Victorian Era, and the cook is a treasure. It's like Christmas with Mary Poppins. :-)

Here, Mrs. Crocombe teaches how to make Galantine of Turkey for a Christmas side dish:

And what Victorian Christmas would be complete without the Christmas Plum Pudding?

Yes, I know I haven't written any books set in Victorian England or eighteenth century America, but I still enjoy and learn from these videos.

And someday, maybe I will get that series written that takes place in mid-18th century Pennsylvania!

What are some of your favorite ways to learn about the past?

Jan Drexler has always been a "book girl" who still loves to spend time within the pages of her favorite books. She lives in the Black Hills of South Dakota with her dear husband of many years and their active, crazy dogs, Jack and Sam. You can learn more about Jan and her books on her website, www.JanDrexler.com.