Savoring those old-time Christmas treats
In the 1890s, my grandmother’s family operated an apple orchard
near Aptos. Every Christmas, she said, they celebrated the holiday
Scandinavian style. Even though the hard-working folk had little
money, there was always plenty of food to eat. The traditional
festival delicacy, Lutfisk, was a specialty of Grandma’s mother,
Lena Carlson. She had brought the recipe to California when she
emigrated in the 1880s from her native Sweden.
Lutfish, which takes three weeks to prepare, is a matter of
culinary devotion for Scandinavians. Three pounds of the dried
white fish, which expands during its lengthy fermentation period,
will feed at least a dozen hungry mouths. The dish’s
labor-intensive preparation period required it to be soaked in a
combination of slaked lime and birch ashes. Today, the same process
is simplified by a washing soda bath. Following multiple rinsings,
the fish is then immersed for days in cold water, changed twice
daily. Finally, the cured fish is then boiled in salted water until
the flesh is flaky. Served on a platter with plain boiled potatoes,
the Lutfisk is covered with a white cream sauce and topped with
butter.
Savoring those old-time Christmas treats
In the 1890s, my grandmother’s family operated an apple orchard near Aptos. Every Christmas, she said, they celebrated the holiday Scandinavian style. Even though the hard-working folk had little money, there was always plenty of food to eat. The traditional festival delicacy, Lutfisk, was a specialty of Grandma’s mother, Lena Carlson. She had brought the recipe to California when she emigrated in the 1880s from her native Sweden.
Lutfish, which takes three weeks to prepare, is a matter of culinary devotion for Scandinavians. Three pounds of the dried white fish, which expands during its lengthy fermentation period, will feed at least a dozen hungry mouths. The dish’s labor-intensive preparation period required it to be soaked in a combination of slaked lime and birch ashes. Today, the same process is simplified by a washing soda bath. Following multiple rinsings, the fish is then immersed for days in cold water, changed twice daily. Finally, the cured fish is then boiled in salted water until the flesh is flaky. Served on a platter with plain boiled potatoes, the Lutfisk is covered with a white cream sauce and topped with butter.
Besides the special homemade holiday fare, Grandma and her siblings always had gifts to look forward to. “With seven children, at Christmas, we knew we each would only receive one present apiece,” she would tell me. “And it was usually something practical, either an item to wear, or to use for school.”
Of course, old-fashioned practicality ruled during the holidays, just as it did during the rest of the year. The family never skimped on a nice big tree for the front parlor, but then, acquiring a Christmas tree was a simple matter, because redwood-filled Valencia Woods was just up the road, with fresh, fragrant saplings there for the taking.
“For decoration, we didn’t have any expensive glass ornaments or store-bought glittery things to hang from the boughs,” Grandma said. “We kids would make popcorn and string it in long strands to loop around the boughs. Then we’d take colored paper saved up during the year and cut it into strips. Everyone would sit around the dining table, with glue and scissors, making paper chains or cutting out shapes that looked like snowflakes. After decorating them, we’d punch a hole, attach a piece of string, and tie them to the branches.”
As a final flourish, they’d hang up strung walnuts, covered with colored tin foil. Oranges were studded with cloves and hung up, adding a fragrant holiday aroma to the parlor. Called pomanders, they were later placed on a hook inside clothes closets. The parlor was always colorful at Christmas, Grandma said, the hand-decorated tree just as creative as anything store-bought, because each family member had contributed something to the design.
Real candles, in those pre-electricity days, were clipped in little tin holders to the tree branches. Lit for just a little while on Christmas Eve, they bedazzled the children while everyone stood around to gaze in wonder. Candy canes, one for each child, were also hung on the tree until Christmas Day, when they were handed out after dinner. Though simple, Christmas was a happy scene, and for the family, it was the most important day of the year.
Early on Christmas Eve, after a simple early supper, the family walked a half-mile down the road to the Aptos Grange, a large community hall that did double duty Sundays as a community church. There would be carol singing, and a children’s pageant following the Christmas Eve service. After the family returned to the farmhouse, the excited children were tucked in, two to a bed, where they waited anxiously for Christmas morning to dawn. At first light, Grandma said, she and her siblings could barely contain themselves as they hurried downstairs to collect the stockings, hung on nails over the fireplace.
Besides the lutfisk preparations, whatever extra cash the family had was spent on a grand Christmas Day feast. A big turkey, with perhaps additions of pork, venison and duck, was served along with the farm’s canned goods including, cinnamon-spiced applesauce, Swedish-style brown beans and garden-ripe tomatoes, all put up months before during the long summer workdays. Pies were brought out last, beginning with apple from the family orchard, then pumpkin. The last and best pie was made from Grandma Lena’s homemade mincemeat. Like the lutfish preparations, the mincemeat, containing real suet, spices, citron and brandy, had been ripening for months in a big tub on the back porch. Turned and moistened regularly, it would be just right stage by December.
After Christmas dinner came the children’s turn to entertain the family. Everyone in those days, even the littlest child, was expected to participate. Being prepared to stand up and recite, or sing a song, or play a piece on the parlor piano, built good character, Grandma was taught, and helped a person learn how to be at ease in front of others. As a finale, the family joined in a recitation of the beloved poem, “Twas the Night Before Christmas. Later, gathered around the parlor piano, the family would sing beloved old songs before heading upstairs for the evening.
Woven into all the day’s fun were the endless farm chores that went on regardless of the holiday. Feeding the chickens, slopping the hogs, milking the goats, and gathering in the day’s eggs went along with sweeping out the house, cleaning the kerosene lamp chimneys and trimming the lamp wicks so they wouldn’t smoke. Even the day’s raw potato peelings were saved up. Soaked in cold water overnight, they formed the thickening basis for berry pudding.
These days, with the likes of Trader Joe’s, Cost Plus, and other specialty food stores, we don’t go to the lengths folks once did to prepare holiday specialties. Starting the mincemeat for Christmas in August, along with harvesting the fruit and vegetable goods to be canned and put by for the winter, seems far beyond our scope, in the time-rushed society we now live in.
As for lutfisk, I must admit I’ve never tried it. Grandma Lena must have taken the recipe for her delicacy to the grave. Grandma never made it. Neither did Mom, because, she said, when she visited Grandma Lena she had to eat it, even though she couldn’t stand the taste.
The Carlson family mincemeat recipe, which I do have, calls for 4 pounds of grated meat cooked in brandy for three hours, then adding 2 pounds of minced suet, a pound of sugar, a few spoons of molasses, 8 pounds of raisins and currants, a whole grated nutmeg, a pound each of citron, lemon peel and orange peel, along with large amounts of cinnamon, mace and allspice. After all those months mingling flavors in a tub on the back porch, it must have tasted rich and spicy.
For the purists among us, such old-fashioned and time-consuming preparations for Christmas dinner doubtless have their appeal. But these days, our family has only one cousin left who makes the mincemeat for holiday pies. She enjoys doing the work, and we love to consume it. So, at this time of year, everyone gets to have a slice, and for a moment, visit an old-fashioned Christmas of the past.
