The festive season often peppers the air with more strange words and here are a few, which I'm still unsure as to what they exactly mean. Do you?
- wassail
- gruel
- syllabub
- egg nog
- first foot
- Christkind
- Kris Kringle
- Star Boys
- frumenty
- Yule
- Hoary
- Ruprecht
- Krampus
- Joulupukki
- Rime
- Gloriole
- Magi
- Kugel
- Grog
- Sinterklaas
- Tide
- Winterval
- Byre
- Embers V Cinders
- Wenseslas
To start you off, Woodsy- Wenceslas was acutally a Mediaeval czech king called Vaclav who was murdered by his brother. Think he was made a saint, and there is a cathedral in his name. Most of my knowledge on the subject comes from an old Eagle comic annual!
ReplyDeleteFab Andy! I wondered who he was! Vaclav eh! I've sung about him for years! I know how he likes his turkey....deep and crisp and even!
Deletei'll take a stab a Syllabub,Woodsy.From what I have read, this is a beverage,alcoholic or not,that is somehow fizzy or bubbly, perhaps through fermentation.Ive seen several recipes and some use dairy products such as cream or milk.Was popular in a time long before soda pops we know it.
ReplyDeleteSounds delicious Brian. I wonder if anyone actually makes it anymore or can make it? I love milky drinks. Milk Shake is my top fluid so maybe I'd like a milky syllabub! Thanks for the info.
DeleteOne of my favorites on the list is egg nog. I found a nice history of the drink from TIME magazine:
ReplyDelete"While culinary historians debate its exact lineage, most agree eggnog originated from the early medieval Britain “posset,” a hot, milky, ale-like drink. By the 13th century, monks were known to drink a posset with eggs and figs. Milk, eggs, and sherry were foods of the wealthy, so eggnog was often used in toasts to prosperity and good health."
Here in Vegas we have a local dairy brand, Anderson's, which makes an excellent ready-made nog and surprisingly there's a Southern Comfort brand vanilla and spice nog (minus the booze which you can add at will)
But drink too much and you'll end up on the Krampus' bad boy list and Sinterklaas won't pay you a visit :-)
Ha ha, brilliant Ed. Great biog of the egg of nog. Posset, yes, I've heard of that. For some reason I get it confused with frumenty. My mum used to call baby sick posset so it always has pukey connotations for me! As for egg nog I'm not sure I've seen it here but then again I avoid supermarkets like the naughty list! No krampus coming here!
DeleteI used to make home-made egg-nog using a hand mixer specially made for the task by Tupperware. You poured heavy milk (or whole milk) into it, a whole egg (ahem - MINUS the shell) a tablespoon of vanilla extract, a butt load of sugar (to taste) into the bottom portion of the cup, placed a round finned gizmo into the bottom rim, attached the top, and shook it 'till your teeth fell out and voila' home made egg nog!! ummm yum :-)
DeleteSounds delicious Ed! Ed Nog! ha ha. Even I could make that!
Deletehahahaha ya know i was thinkin' the recipe called for egg white only - no yolk, so I guess Ed Nog would be with the yolk. Guess the yolk's on me hahahaha - groan
ReplyDelete