Mock Mince Meat and Poor Man's Pie

Canadian Christmas on a Shoestring

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Though popular periodicals of the day, may have given advice on Christmas meal planning and festive trimmings, not everyone could afford to put on such lavish dinners or entertain in such a way.  This cover from an 1875 Canadian Illustrated, shows a rather glum Santa.  The two close-ups below show a well-to-do family upper left and a downtrodden one on the right.  Due to the benevolence of the churches fortunately most did not have to live as in Dickens Victorian England, but there was definitely poverty and for many, a lean Christmas.

The 'Haves'

The 'Have-Nots'

Christmas Bill of Fare on a Budget

Roast Goose Patets Panide Leveant - Velote Sauce Steamed Brown Bread Mashed Potatoes Seasonal Vegetables Mock Mince Meat Poor Man's Pie Wild Grape Wine

Roast Goose

Stuff the goose with a potato dressing made in the following manner: Six potatoes, boiled, pared, and mashed fine and light; one table-spoonful of salt, one teaspoonful of pepper, one spoonful of sage, two tablespoonfuls of onion juice, two of butter. Truss, and dredge well with salt, pepper and flour.  Roast before the fire (if weighing eight pounds) one hour and a half; in the oven, one hour and a quarter. Make gravy. No butter is required for goose, it is so fat. Serve with apple sauce. Many people boil the goose half an hour before roasting, to take away the strong flavor.

"Petets Panide Leveant"- Velote Sauce (Wild Rabbit)

Quarter rabbit's back, two ounces of scraped bacon, yolk of one egg, half cup of stock, one tablespoonful flour, one table­spoonful of butter, seasoning, green peas. Make sauce with stock, flour, butter, seasoning, add yolk of egg, pass the meat through a sieve, put in a mortar, pound, add the sauce, mix well, put in small tins, steam one and one-fourth hour. Put cooked peas in centre of entree dish, turn out rabbit from tins round them, pour velote sauce round it. Make sauce in usual way, with a squeeze of lemon, one spoonful of cream, cook well, turn into cheese-cloths, wring out into sauce-pan and reheat before pouring round the dish.

Steamed Brown Bread

Three cups cornmeal, two cups flour, one cup molasses, three cups water or sour milk, one teaspoon soda, one teaspoon salt. Steam two and one-half hours. Cook in one pound baking powder tins two-thirds full.

Mock Mince Pie

Take any dry pieces of bread and cake that may have accumulated; place them in a Saucepan and pour boiling water over them; let stand until they are soft; beat them up fine and add to one quart of this two-thirds of a cup of vinegar; one and one-half cups sugar; one-half cup molasses; one-half teaspoon­ful each of cloves, allspice arid cinnamon; one-half pound currants; one-half pound of raisins; one cup of chopped suet; let all boil together until cooked well, then make in pies as you would mince meat.

Poor Man's Pie

Three eggs; three cupfuls of milk; quarter of a cup of granulated sugar; one handful of flour; flavoring; beat the eggs well, add flour, then sugar, beat well together; then add milk and flavoring; have a deep Jelly cake tin well buttered; pour mixture into it and bake in a moderate oven.  No crust is needed for this pie, as the flour forms a soft crust, hence called the poor man's pie. Something like custard pie.

Wild Grape Wine

Remove the grapes from the stem, bruise. To one gallon of grapes put one gallon of boiling water, stand one week without stirring, then strain, to each gallon of juice allow four pounds of white sugar, put in a wide mouth stone jar; when done fermenting strain and bottle or keep, in a jar, which is better.

The exchanging of gifts did not really come into vogue until later in the period, and most of the focus was on the Religious meaning of Christmas.  An entry in Mrs. Simcoe's Diary:

"Sun. 25th - Christmas Day. (Page 69) I went with Madame Baby at 5 in the mornIng to the Cathedral Church, to see the illuminations of the altar, which to those who have not seen the highly decorated Roman Catholic Churces in Europe is worth seeing.

The singing and chanting was solemn. I was wrapped up very much, and wore a kind of cloth  lined with eiderdown, a very comfortable  head-dress; but the cold was intense, for the Roman Catholics will not admit of fires in churches, lest the pictures be spoiled

Canadian Christmas Continued

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