The best time of the year is approaching, when lovers of cooking all over the country spend a lot of time in their kitchens to bake Christmas cookies. What do you like more: gingerbread men, gingerbread or crispy biscuit? Regardless of your preferences, most likely, you will enjoy fresh pastries this holiday season. Like many other Christmas traditions, this tasty custom appeared many centuries ago, when rituals related to the solstice were held, long before Christmas became a commercial holiday.
Winter solstice
The winter solstice festival was held around the world. From Norway to West Africa, from Ireland to India, groups of people gathered to celebrate the change of seasons. This celebration revolved around eating: after all, you should have feasted so that you would not feel hunger in the winter. The solstice often meant the arrival of the first frosts, so that people could start harvesting animal meat and store it in a safe place so that it could eat less during the winter. In addition, such fermented beverages as beer and wine, which are brewed in the spring, were finally ready for consumption. Any modern hostess knows that to complete a festive dinner, which includes meat and alcohol, only one thing is needed: dessert.
Christmas in medieval Europe
In the Middle Ages, Christmas replaced the rituals of the solstice in much of modern Europe. Nevertheless, the old traditions of the holiday remained. While fried meat and drinks probably were very similar to what the Europeans previously cooked, the cookie recipes underwent amazing changes. Mistresses began to widely use such spices as nutmeg, cinnamon and black pepper, as well as dried exotic fruits such as citrus fruits and dried apricots. This changed both the taste and texture of the desserts. These ingredients, along with sugar, lard and butter, were quite expensive, as were the delicacies of medieval chefs themselves. Only on the most important holiday family could afford such a pleasure, so it began to prepare for Christmas. Unlike pies or cakes, cookies could be easily exchanged, given to friends and neighbors.
Changes in cookie recipes
Although the cookies have come a long way since the Middle Ages, some things have not changed. Many recipes for Christmas cookies still include a large number of seasonings. We consider cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger traditional Christmas tastes, and the same spices were used by medieval chefs for their cookies. Gingerbread are a classic cookie for Christmas, and their taste is most strikingly similar to the one you could have tried in the Middle Ages. The combination of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg creates an energetic spicy taste. However, medieval cooks knew nothing about gingerbread men. Their first taste was estimated by Queen Elizabeth I in England, who ordered to bake cookies in the form of her favorite courtiers.