A great medieval Christmas dinner followed weeks of Advent fasting and arrived in courses of many dishes at once, led by the boar's head and finished with sculpted showpieces called subtleties. Most of the menu was about display as much as appetite.
First came the fast
A medieval Christmas began with hunger. Advent Sunday, the fourth Sunday before Christmas, opened a period of fasting that peaked on Christmas Eve, when sleep was also scarce because of the night and early-morning church services. Then Christmas Day released twelve days of holiday, with plenty of eating, drinking and play alongside churchgoing.
That rhythm explains why the Christmas table was so extravagant among those who could afford it. After weeks of restraint, a lord's hall was the place to show generosity, wealth and good taste, all at once.
The boar's head
For England's elite, the boar's head was the heart of the feast. English Heritage describes how cooks removed the skin from the skull, cleaned the eyes, nose and mouth and sewed them shut, then garnished the finished head with warm lard dusted with black ash to imitate the boar's dark bristles, with sprigs of rosemary and tusks set in place. By the later Middle Ages, carrying the cooked head into the hall had become a ceremony in its own right, apparently with a procession of costumed dancers and a special song.
Several such songs survive. The oldest printed one comes from Wynkyn de Worde's collection of Christmas carols of 1521, which survives only as a single sheet, the last page of the book. A manuscript version in Richard Hill's commonplace book from the early 1500s may preserve an even older form of the text.
The best-known living custom is at The Queen's College, Oxford, where the boar's head is still carried in to the carol. Tradition holds that a student walking in Shotover Forest, reading Aristotle, was charged by a wild boar and saved himself by ramming the book down its throat. That is legend. It is often said the ceremony goes back to the college's founding in the 1340s, but no record of its beginning has been found; one writer's date of 1350 cites no authority. William Husk described the custom in detail in 1868.
Courses and a royal menu from 1421
A great feast did not move dish by dish. Each course was a whole spread of dishes set out together, and service followed rank: Holinshed notes who sat where and that the King of Scots was served his mess, or portion, covered. The best-documented royal menu from Henry V's reign is the banquet for Queen Catherine's coronation at Westminster in February 1421, which Holinshed copied from earlier chronicles. It fell in Lent, so the menu was almost entirely fish, although Holinshed's list opens with brawn and mustard.
The first course alone included eels, frumenty, pike, lamprey, trout, codling, fried plaice, crabs and tarts. The second brought jelly colored with columbine flowers, cream of almonds, salmon, halibut, soles, lobster and more. The third offered dates, carp, turbot, sturgeon with whelks, roast porpoise, prawns and a marzipan decorated with angels.
Subtleties: the edible showpieces
Each course of Catherine's banquet ended with a device: a pelican sitting on her nest with her chicks, a panther, and finally a tiger looking into a mirror beside an armed horseman holding a tiger cub. Each came with images of St. Katherine, the queen's patron saint, and French verses about the king, the queen and peace.
Showpieces like these are known as subtleties. They were made from sugar and pastry, and sugar was an expensive import prized by Europe's elites, so the subtlety was both art and a boast. As a Getty curator put it in 2015, these elaborate centerpieces were made for people to admire.
Peacocks, swans, pies and frumenty
Birds made the grandest roasts. The peacock belonged to the well-off and was not simply roasted whole: its skin was carefully removed and put back on for serving, because its looks mattered more than its meat, which older English writers thought poor eating. Roast swan was a royal delicacy, at its best at Christmas.
Pies appeared in great quantities in late medieval England, filled with apples, pears, beef, lamb, pork, eggs, fowl, bone marrow or cheese. In well-off households the pastry itself was often not eaten; diners ate the filling. The Christmas mince pie descends from this world and originally contained minced meat and suet.
Frumenty was crushed wheat cooked with broth, almond milk and egg yolks. The Forme of Cury, compiled around 1390 by Richard II's master cooks, says to serve it with fat venison and fresh mutton. Centuries later it was still a Christmas dish in Yorkshire, eaten first thing on Christmas morning.
From 1420 to a modern feast
Nobody today would want roast porpoise, and modern feasts make no claim to match a royal menu dish for dish. The spirit carries over, though: several courses, a centerpiece roast and a sweet finish. The St. Nicholas Day Feast at Yuletide Medieval Festival serves five courses, from a mini charcuterie and a seasonal soup to a roasted game hen and an apple cobbler, a modern menu with a nod to the old order of the hall.
Sweet Frumenty, a Modern Adaptation
4
Ingredients
- 1 cup bulgur wheat or cracked wheat
- 2 cups water
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 to 3 tablespoons honey, to taste
- 1/3 cup currants or raisins
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- A small pinch of saffron threads (optional)
- A pinch of salt
Method
- Simmer the wheat in the water with the salt, covered, for about 10 to 15 minutes, until the water is absorbed and the grains are tender.
- Stir in the milk, almond milk, currants, cinnamon and saffron. Cook gently, stirring often, for 10 minutes, until thick and creamy.
- Whisk the egg yolks in a small bowl with a ladle of the hot frumenty, then stir the mixture back into the pot. Keep stirring over low heat for 2 minutes without letting it boil.
- Sweeten with honey and serve warm in bowls.
The Forme of Cury recipe of about 1390 used crushed wheat, broth, almond milk and egg yolks and served the frumenty as a savory side for venison. This sweeter, milk-based version follows later Christmas frumenty; for a savory take, use broth instead of milk, skip the honey and currants, and serve beside roast meat.
Questions
Why was a boar's head served at Christmas?
It was the showpiece of an elite feast, carried into the hall with ceremony and song. Popular explanations tying it to pagan sacrifice are speculation; the documented tradition is a late medieval aristocratic one.
How old is the Boar's Head Carol?
The oldest printed version dates to 1521, from Wynkyn de Worde's press, and a manuscript version from the early 1500s may preserve older wording. The song was likely sung before it was printed, but no firm earlier date is known.
What was a subtlety at a medieval feast?
A sculpted showpiece, usually of sugar or pastry, presented at the end of a course. At Queen Catherine's 1421 coronation banquet they included a pelican on her nest, a panther and a tiger with a mirror.
Did medieval people eat mince pies?
They ate their ancestors. Late medieval pies mixed meat, fruit and spices, and the Christmas mince pie originally contained minced meat and suet.
Sources
- Christmas Food: The Medieval Way, English Heritage
- A very medieval Christmas: what was Christmas like in medieval Reading?, Reading Museum
- Holinshed's Chronicles, vol. 3: England, 1413-1423, Henry V, Project Gutenberg
- Notes on the Boar's Head Carols, Hymns and Carols of Christmas
- Frumenty, Foods of England
- Let Them Eat Sugar Sculpture: The Getty Celebrates Edible Table Art, NPR (via KPBS)
