A Christmas Feast: Pen Vogler
Pen Vogler, author of “Scoff”
In this indulgent Christmas Special we forego the tradition of our usual format and opt to roam freely across the centuries. Instead of looking at one year in isolation, we examine just one single day. That date, of course, is the brightest, bonniest, most edacious in all the Christian calendar: 25 December.
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Our guest, the food historian Pen Vogler, takes us on a historical tour of the Christmas table. She explains where turkeys came from (and when they arrived in England). She describes the lively history of gravy and the ingenious invention of the Christmas pudding. Along the way she points out that what is logical to us – dividing meals into ‘courses’ or separating sweet and savoury dishes – would have seemed very strange indeed to our ancestors.
The French Jus vs the English Gravy
Looking back at Christmas food over the centuries, Vogler explains, is to watch an evolving story of social class and status. From the roasted peacocks of the Tudor Age to Bob Cratchet’s Christmas goose, larger histories are never far away.
Pen Vogler is the author of the expertly researched, Scoff, A History of Food and Class in Britain, A multiple book of the year, Scoff traces the development of ‘British’ food over the past millennium, from the slippery history of jelly to the controversial question of cutlery.
'With commendable appetite and immense attention to detail Pen Vogler skewers the enduring relationship between class and food in Britain. A brilliant romp of a book that gets to the very heart of who we think we are, one delicious dish at a time.'
(Jay Rayner)
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Click here to order Pen Vogler’s book from John Sandoe’s who, we are delighted to say, are supplying books for the podcast.
*** Listen to the episode here ***
Show Notes
Scene One
In 1524, the first turkey arrives from the New World and transforms our Christmas dinner tables. Quickly adopted by the middle classes, turkeys were soon took their place alongside the traditional goose or side of beef. Of course the very noblest continued to tuck into peacock and swan for many years to come…
Scene Two
The explosion of hedonism that marked the end of Puritan rule and the return of the monarchy in the 1660s filled dinner tables across the land with delicious treats and Christmas cheer. The venison pasty was a particularly emblematic festive luxury - only available to the wealthiest who had their own deer parks, it bore no relation to the humble Cornish pasty we know today but was an immense shoulder of meat encased in pastry.
Scene Three
1843 may well have been the most influential moment when it comes to how we celebrate and think about Christmas today, it was the year that Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was published, cementing the turkey and the plum pudding’s place on the festive menu.
Memento: Samuel Pepys’s Venison Pasty
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People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore
Interview: Violet Moller
Guest: Pen Vogler
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Colorgraph
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Click here to order Scoff by Pen Vogler from our friends at John Sandoe’s Books.
A Festive Selection of Robert Seymour’s Christmas illustrations
From The Book of Christmas by Thomas Hervey (1837)
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