Parish News; December 2022 - A Wiltshire Christmas Menu

A Wiltshire Christmas Menu

As a special edition I thought I would share some real Wiltshire recipes from the archives of Lacock Abbey; these are from the recipe books of Ann Talbot, written in about 1700. Possibly the sort of food that would have been eaten in Draycot House at Christmas?

To pickle a Turkey

Choose a fleshy turkey, cut it down the back, and take out the bones. Lard the flesh with green bacon. Season it a little with pepper and salt, and some grated nutmeg, ginger, cloves and mace. Put a small piece of butter and a spoonful of sugar in 2 onions pricked to the centre and put them in a pot with a pint of white wine. Add the seasoned Turkey, cover it with bay leaves, cover the pot and set it in the oven with a large loaf of household bread, and let it stand in the pickle 4 or 5 days.

When you serve it to the table, scrape off the butter and spices. Eat it with its own pickle, or with mustard and sugar.

To Make Minc’t Pyes

Take 2 cow’s tongues and take the roots out and boil them till they be ready to blanch. Then when they are cool, mince them as small as you can, and add as much beef suet, and when they are mixed together put in an ounce of cloves and mace, and 2 nutmegs. Add a little ground pepper if you like it, with 3 orange peels dried in an oven and ground to powder. Then season it with salt, take half a pound of raisins, stoned and finely minced, and add three pounds of currants washed and dried. Mix all these well together, and beat them in a mortar to paste. Then roll it all together, wetting your hands a little with white wine vinegar. Then fill your pies.

Apricot wine

Take 3 pounds of stoned apricots. Put them into 3 pints of water, with a pound of sugar, set them over the fire till they boil, and take off the scum that rises. Let them boil till they are tender, then take the apricots out. Let the liquor stand till it is cold, then bottle it up. You may put in a sprig of clary sage, which will give it a good flavour. The wine will be ready to drink after three months, and will keep well for twelve months.

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