insideKENT Magazine Issue 45 - December 2015 | Page 89

FOOD+DRINK

#lovelocal
this Christmas
We have a lot to thank the Victorians for. Apart from changing the face of industry
as we know it, inventing the steam train, postage stamps, rubber tyres, concrete,
flushing toilets, and the London Underground (to mention only a few of the ideas
we still use), it was the Victorians who really created Christmas; or at least the
Christmas we know and love today. BY LISAMARIE LAMB

As for Christmas dinner, is there any other time
of the year when family and friends are so happy
to gather together and enjoy good food, good
drink, and good company? This is the meal of
meals, the one that needs to beat all others in
terms of size and splendour, and everyone knows
what it includes – there has to be turkey, stuffing,
Brussels sprouts, gravy, cranberry sauce,
parsnips, roast potatoes, carrots… and to finish
there must be mince pies, or a Christmas pudding
with brandy sauce.

the favourite meat after Queen Victoria was said
to have chosen it for her Christmas fare; before
that it had been goose, or perhaps rabbit. The
middle classes wanted to follow the queen’s
trend, so they began using turkey as their
centrepiece instead. And of course, as more
people bought it, turkey became cheaper, so the
poorer classes could get in on the act too. Today,
around 90% of Christmas dinners include turkey,
making it by far the most popular meat to eat on
25th December.

But it wasn’t always this way. The ‘traditional’
Christmas dinner has evolved greatly over the
last hundred years or so. Turkey only became

Potatoes are yet another addition to the menu
by Queen Victoria (although she ate them mashed
rather than roasted; the poorer classes couldn’t

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afford to ‘waste’ the butter and milk required
make a good, creamy mash, so they were the
ones who began roasting the spuds instead since
goose fat was plentiful). The idea caught on, and
potatoes, which had been used to bulk out stews
and soups and were really only eaten by the
lower classes, were soon embraced by everyone
when it came to Christmas lunch.
The classic Christmas veggie has to be Brussels
sprouts. Love ’em or hate ’em, Christmas isn’t
Christmas without ’em. They can be pretty
controversial, but try to serve your festive lunch
without them and you could be looking at mutiny!
Over 750 million of the little green sprouts are