Merry Christmas: Your Pot Luck Contribution?

[goodsamaritan]

This holiday was brought to us by the celebration of Christmas.

So my wife's family had a pot luck dinner (traditional noche buena) and we had to contribute something, we contributed raw fish sashimi totalling 3 kilos:

1 kilo of raw salmon (farmed)

1 kilo of raw tuna - grade A ocean wild (raw paleo)

1 kilo of raw blue marlin - ocean wild (raw paleo)

Plus for the japanese effect had grated radish.  And I contributed chopsticks.

My mother in law roasted fatty prime rib (cooked paleo) -- I'm pulling her in little by little, she now recommends the fat because her chiropractor said fat was essential.

[PaleoPhil]

Here's a cooked Christmas recipe from the 17th century to give you an idea of how much things have changed just in the last several centuries--a blink of an eye in biological terms. Chewit/chewette pies were the precursor to minced meat pies. Today, ironically, minced meat pies rarely include any minced meat.

A delicate Chewit
A New Booke of Cookerie
1615
Pies (Chewet)
http://www.theoldecookerybook.com/~theopden/wiki/index.php/A_delicate_Chewit

Veal
Beef suet
Marrow
Apple
Wardens (aka Warden pears, aka "Black Worcester," aka "Parkinson's Warden")
Currants
Orange peel
Pepper
Salt
Nutmeg
Sugar
Rosewater

Instructions
Parboil a piece of a leg of veal, and being cold, mince it with beef suet, and marrow, and an apple or a couple of wardens: when you have minced it fine, add a few parboiled currants, six minced dates, a piece of a minced preserved orange peel and marrow cut in little square pieces. Season all this with pepper, salt, nutmeg, and a little sugar: then put it into your crusts, and bake it like that. Before you close your pie, sprinkle on a little rosewater, and when they are baked shave on a little sugar, and serve.

[William]

From the usenet group rec.food.historic,

http://www.enotes.com/food-resources/systematic-outline-contents

"series of books of now
online to the general public.  It's a collection of 600+
well-researched food history and food culture articles.  Included
also are a couple dozen biographies of notable food personalities.

It is the single-most comprehensive authority on food habits,
trends, history, and production - There is something for everyone in
there, and plenty more.

The set of books costs $420 in print, or you can access it online
for free:

Category Index:
http://www.enotes.com/food-resources/systematic-outline-contents

Alphabetical Index (searchable)
http://www.enotes.com/food-encyclopedia

Unfortunately the color inserts, diagrams, and maps are not
available online without a subscription.  But your local public
library may offer them as part of their online resources for patrons
if they subscribe to the Gale Research and Learning services.

http://www.gale.cengage.com/

The main branch of my public library also has a hardcopy of the set
for reading locally.  The complete hardcopy of the book, including
maps, prints, color plates is also available in PDF form as a
torrent."