What do they eat for Christmas? Christmas table Festive table for Christmas recipes

Gray winter days in our country are colored by the long New Year and Christmas holidays. How much imagination and culinary skill do our housewives need to show in order to prepare a festive table for each holiday, so as not to repeat themselves and surprise their family and friends by impressing them with another masterpiece! The Christmas meal in this respect differs from the usual holiday feast. And the point is not only in a completely different mood and not even in the fact that strict Orthodox Christians end their long Philippian fast on Christmas Eve. The Christmas table is prepared in accordance with centuries-old traditions. We have already talked about how these traditions developed and what dishes should be on the festive table on Christmas Day. And we will tell you how to prepare not only traditional dishes, sweets and drinks, but also about modern curious delights of culinary thought.

It is believed that the following dishes must be on the Christmas table: pancakes, fish, jelly, aspic, fried chicken or goose, suckling pig, pork head with horseradish, roast, homemade sausage, carols, bread with poppy seeds and honey, honey gingerbread. Difficult? Of course, few people will cook suckling pig or pig's head, but sochivo (kutya, in other words), Christmas goose and homemade sausage are quite within the capabilities of any cook.

Ingredients:
1 stack grains of wheat,
50-100 g raisins,
50-100 g dried apricots,
50-100 g prunes,
50-100 g poppy seeds,
50-100 g nuts (several types are possible),
3-5 tbsp. honey.

Preparation:
Determine the amount of dried fruits and nuts according to your taste. Pre-rinse and steam raisins, prunes and dried apricots in boiling water. Soak the nuts and poppy seeds. Sort the wheat, rinse well and place in a thick-walled pan, pour three glasses of water. Place in a preheated oven for 2-3 hours. The wheat should be completely boiled and the grains will become soft. Cool in the pan. Meanwhile, chop the dried fruits and nuts, grind the poppy seeds in a mortar until smooth (milk of poppy seed). Mix all the ingredients and pour over honey (dilute honey 1:1 with water and boil).

Ingredients:
1 stack rice,
1.5 tbsp. honey,
100 g raisins,
100 g dried apricots,
100 g almonds,
100 g hazelnuts,
2-2.5 stacks. orange juice.

Preparation:
Cook the rice in orange juice. Chop the prepared nuts and dried fruits and mix with rice. Garnish with large pieces of dried apricots.

There must certainly be a poultry dish on the Christmas table. We will tell you how to cook a Christmas goose in a separate article. Now we will talk about duck or chicken. The sourness of apples and dried fruits complements the taste of the bird. Try it!

Ingredients:
1 medium duck (about 2 kg),
400 g pitted prunes,
3 sweet and sour apples,
1 tbsp. honey,
1 tbsp. dry thyme,
6 tbsp. dry red wine,
1 tbsp. starch,
salt, ground black pepper - to taste.

Preparation:
Carefully inspect the duck for any remaining feathers and, if necessary, pluck them out with tweezers. This is very important, otherwise all your work may go to waste. Now prepare the filling: peel and core the apples, cut them into thin slices, combine with 300 g of steamed and dried prunes and add thyme. Place the resulting mixture into the belly of the duck and sew it up with coarse thread or pin it with toothpicks. Place the duck on its back, prick the entire surface with a knife, making fairly frequent cuts. Season the duck with salt and pepper and brush with honey. Place the baking sheet with the duck in an oven preheated to 180-190°C and bake for about 1.5 hours. Do not forget to water the duck with the resulting juice, about once every 10 minutes. For the sauce, soak the remaining prunes in boiling water for about half an hour, dry and finely chop. Pour wine into a saucepan and place over low heat. Meanwhile, stir the starch into 2 tbsp. water and add to wine. Stir and add prunes. Cook the sauce over low heat for 5-7 minutes, stirring constantly. Then rub through a sieve or grind in a blender and leave in a saucepan, covering it. Serve the duck by cutting it into portions, adding apple and prune mince and pouring sauce over it. Use fresh vegetables and mashed potatoes as a side dish.

Ingredients:
1 plump chicken (preferably chilled),
1 bottle of beer (unfiltered)
2 green apples,
5-6 tbsp. soy sauce (good!)
3-4 tbsp. redcurrant jelly,
ground black pepper, ground paprika - to taste.

Preparation:
Inspect the chicken carefully and remove the remaining feathers, cut off the “butt”. Dry and put in a bag. Sprinkle with spices, pour over soy sauce and refrigerate overnight. Then pour a little vegetable oil onto a baking sheet, place the chicken breast side up on it, place apples cut into thin slices around the chicken and place the baking sheet in the oven, preheated to 180-190°C. As soon as the skin is browned, start pouring beer over the chicken, about once every 10-15 minutes. 10 minutes before the end of cooking, pour beer over the chicken one last time and place currant jelly on it. Place the finished chicken on a dish, and grind the apples and juice released during frying in a blender. You will get a spicy sauce. You can serve fluffy rice as a side dish.

Prepare traditional meat dishes. For example, meat stewed in pots.

Ingredients for 4 pots:
500 g pork or beef,
8 medium potatoes,
16 large champignons,
500 ml meat broth,
150 g heavy cream,
2 heads of onions,
100 g hard cheese,
mixture of Provencal herbs,
salt, ground black pepper - to taste.

Preparation:
Cut the meat into small pieces, potatoes, onions and mushrooms into cubes. Grate the cheese on a fine grater. Place a layer of onions on the bottom of the pots, then a layer of potatoes, then meat and mushrooms. Salt and pepper. Pour in the broth, pour over the cream, sprinkle with cheese and seasonings. Place the pots in a cold oven, cover with lids and turn on the heat. Bring the temperature to 200-230°C and cook for 1-1.5 hours. This is a very filling dish, so serve it with plenty of fresh vegetables.

In Argentina, baked fish is prepared for Christmas. Place 500 g of chopped carrots, 4 chopped onions, and parsley on the bottom of the frying pan. Salt and pepper. Place pieces of fish on the vegetables, pour in oil, pour in 1 cup. water and close the lid tightly. Place the frying pan in a hot oven and keep until the fish is cooked (about half an hour).

If you want to surprise your family and guests, prepare real homemade sausage. If fussing with washing the intestines seems unpleasant to you, then try to find a replacement for them. For example, a baking sleeve or cling film. True, with them you will only get boiled sausage. Our site will share one such recipe with you.

Boiled sausage

Ingredients:
2 kg pork,
500 g beef,
500 g unsalted lard,
50-70 g dry white wine,
100-150 g pistachios,
1 tbsp. cumin,
½ tsp. ground white pepper,

2 tsp black peppercorns,
1 tbsp. Sahara,
2 tbsp. salt.

Preparation:
Pass the meat separately through a meat grinder with a large wire rack, stir 1 tbsp into the pork. salt and all sugar, for beef - 1 tbsp. salt, mix thoroughly, wrap in film and put in the refrigerator for 12 hours. After standing, combine both types of minced meat and mince 4 times. Each time you pass the minced meat through a meat grinder, put it in the refrigerator for half an hour. While grinding, add wine 1 tablespoon at a time. Heat the cumin in a dry frying pan until fragrant and immediately pound in a mortar. Soak the pistachios in hot water and dry. Add all the seasonings to the minced meat and knead thoroughly. Cut the frozen lard into cubes and also mix into the minced meat. Fold the cling film 4-5 times to make a 30x40 cm rectangle. Make 2-3 such rectangles. Place the minced meat on film, form into loaves and roll tightly. Tie the ends and tie the sausages with thin twine. Take a pan that is the right size for your sausages, fill it with water and add the sausage. Bring the temperature to 80-85°C, reduce the heat and cook the sausages for 2 hours. Keep the finished sausages in the cold for 24 hours.

Ingredients:
600 g beef liver,
100 g round rice,
250 ml milk,
1 egg,
2 yolks,
1 tsp salt,
1 onion,
100-150 g raisins,
oil.

Preparation:
Chop the onion. Boil rice in boiling water until soft, strain and add milk. Grind the raw liver in a blender, combine with rice, add the egg and yolks, add salt and mix well. The mixture should be quite liquid. Grease portion molds (ideally silicone), pour ¾ of the mixture into them and place in an oven preheated to 160°C for 1-2 hours, depending on the size of the molds. The finished soufflé remains moist, juicy, and its color changes from pinkish to grayish-brown. Serve the soufflé with lingonberry jam or fresh lingonberries mashed with sugar.

Ingredients:
8 stacks flour,
1 ½ tbsp. dry yeast,
1 stack warm water,
1 stack warm red wine,
¼ cup orange juice,
¼ cup cognac,
½ cup olive oil,
1 stack Sahara,
1 ½ cups raisins,
1 ½ cups walnuts,
1/3 cup pine nuts,
1 tbsp. ground anise,
1 tsp ground cinnamon,
1 tsp ground cloves,
¼ tsp. ground nutmeg,
zest from 2 oranges,
milk for glazing,
2 walnuts in shell,
sesame seeds for sprinkling.

Preparation:
Mix yeast with ½ cup. warm water and 2 tbsp. flour, stir and leave until bubbles appear. Sift 2/3 of the flour into a large bowl, add salt, make a well and pour in the yeast, remaining water and wine. Stir, cover with wax paper and a damp towel and leave to rise in a warm place. The dough should double in size. Then mix the dough thoroughly, sift the remaining flour into it, add butter, orange juice, cognac and orange zest. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, raisins, chopped walnuts, pine nuts, anise and all the spices, mix and add to the dough. Knead the dough so that it does not stick to your hands, put it in a warm place and let it rise. Place in 2 greased round pans, cover with paper and a damp towel and let rise to double in size again. Before putting the bread in the oven, cut it crosswise with a knife sprinkled with flour, place an unpeeled walnut in the center and brush the surface of the bread with milk. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Preheat the oven to 230°C, place a frying pan with water on the bottom of the oven. Place the pans with the dough in the oven for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 200°C and bake for another 25-30 minutes. Brush the finished bread with water, cool slightly, then remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack.

Ingredients:
800 ml water,
120 g honey,
100 g dried apples,
100 g dried pears,
100 g dried cherries,
100 g prunes,
100 g raisins.

Preparation:
Place well-washed dried fruits in boiling water and cook until soft. In this case, pears and apples should be cooked separately (they take longer to cook). Then combine the decoctions, boil, season with honey and leave in a cold place for 2 hours. Serve in a clay pot or jug.

Ingredients:
100 g flour,
70 g sugar,
4 eggs,
1 packet of baking powder,
250 g chocolate without filler,
250 ml heavy cream,
100 g butter.

Preparation:
For the dough: beat eggs with sugar until white, add flour, baking powder, mix gently and pour onto a greased baking sheet. Bake at 150°C for 15 minutes. Place the finished layer onto a wet towel, roll it up and leave to cool. Meanwhile, prepare the cream: heat the cream and butter to a boil, add the chocolate broken into pieces, refrigerate and stir vigorously until the chocolate is completely dissolved. Set aside a little cream for decoration, coat the roll with the rest of the cream, roll it up, brush the outside of the “log” with cream and apply bark-shaped patterns with a fork. Trim the roll at both ends and place the cut pieces on the “log” in the form of knots.

Larisa Shuftaykina

In Ukraine, the evening meal on January 6 is associated with many traditions and rituals. The Christmas Eve preceding Christmas is a solemn feast with the obligatory 12 Lenten dishes on the table, the main one of which is the ritual kutia. On January 6, the 40-day fast ends, and on this day believers fast especially strictly until darkness, until the star shines in the sky, which once announced to the Magi about the birth of the Son of God.

Christmas Eve is not just dinner before Christmas. The symbolic meaning of this ritual is enormous, and its roots go back to ancient times. How we celebrate Christmas Eve is how we will spend the next year, so it is extremely important and interesting for us to get answers to the questions: “How to properly set the table for Christmas? What to cook for Christmas Eve? How to cook kutya for Christmas? Which one should I cook? What rules and traditions should we observe on this holiday and what do they mean?”

Traditions and signs associated with Christmas

In the old days, a sheaf of wheat or rye (didukh, kolyada) was placed in the most honorable place in the house under the icons. Nowadays it is usually placed in the corner of the table, although these traditions have been practically supplanted by the new symbol of the winter holidays - a spruce tree decorated with toys. Before laying out the festive tablecloth, hay was scattered on the table, and a dish with kutya was placed in the center.

Do you know what Christmas signs Ukraine is rich in and how they are explained? All of them were once sacredly observed at Orthodox Christmas, and many of them are still relevant in the modern world.

• A good owner gets up early on Christmas Eve and always lights the fire with a match. Then the house will be warm all year round.
• By evening, everything in the household should be in its place (including all family members) so that order and prosperity reign in the house.
• The legs of the festive table were tied with a chain, symbolizing a strong economy, and touching it was also a good omen.
• Before dinner begins, a head of garlic is placed under the tablecloth on all four corners to prevent evil spirits from entering the feast.
• Money and nuts are placed on the table so that all family members are strong, healthy and rich.
• A sheaf of straw - didukh - will protect all residents of the house from troubles and adversity.
• It is advisable to have time to draw crosses on the doors of the house using Lenten dough.
• The head of the house lights a candle and leaves it on the window, calling on the heavenly angels (or even a lonely traveler) to look into the warm light.
• Two additional bowls are placed on the table - for absent relatives and for the souls of deceased loved ones.
• After dinner, kutya is not cleared from the table and spoons are not washed, since the spirits will come to dinner that night.

Good traditions and omens also advise not to celebrate Christmas in dark clothes, so as not to experience sadness all year, and if while preparing a festive dinner your food falls, it means that a rich harvest will grow in the garden. Ukraine and Poland treat Christmas with particular reverence, carefully preserving and carrying through the centuries the attributes and customs of the Christmas holidays.

12 Lenten dishes for Christmas

Savory dishes, including dairy products, appear on the Christmas table as early as January 7, as well as alcoholic drinks. Christmas dinner is homemade sausage and ham on the table, duck stuffed with apples, jellied meat with horseradish, and other treats, but the evening before Christmas - Christmas Eve - is the last evening of a long fast. On this day, the festive meal begins only after the first star appears in the sky - the good news of the birth of Jesus Christ. And although the meal is completely Lenten, it is called a rich supper, because there will be many dishes on the table - 12 dishes (according to the number of the apostles). The ritual of the festive feast on Christmas Eve remains unchanged for many centuries. Ukraine is a large country, and in its different regions the list of 12 Lenten dishes has its own differences and characteristics (although there is kutia in each).

What to cook for Christmas? Holiday menu

Let's list the most popular and widespread 12 dishes from those dishes that housewives certainly prepare on Christmas Eve.

1. Kutya. It is with a spoonful of kutya that the festive dinner before Christmas begins. The ritual dish, which usually includes wheat with ground poppy seeds, honey, nuts and raisins, has a symbolic meaning, and its recipes number in the dozens. On PapiGutto in the article, you can get acquainted with recipes from different regions of Ukraine, both traditional and original and even somewhat exotic.
2. Uzvar. Kutia is always served with uzvar, which historically is the most common national drink in Ukraine. In winter, it is prepared from dried fruits, and in summer, dried apples, pears, plums, cherries and other fruits replace fresh fruits.
3. The vinaigrette. Salads are a must for Christmas, how could we live without them? Traditional vegetables in the winter season are beets and cabbage. And the vinaigrette is just a godsend. Ukraine, Russia, Belarus - they love to cook it everywhere. Lenten salad has an amazing property - it contains absolutely all the vitamins and minerals that are so necessary for the human body. The classic vinaigrette recipe includes boiled, raw and pickled vegetables - potatoes and beets, carrots and beans, cucumbers and onions, as well as herbs. Such a rich set provides the “supply” of potassium, iron, beta-carotene, vitamins of groups C, B, E, K, PP and many others. Few Christmas salads compare with vinaigrette in terms of health benefits.
4. . Among the 12 Lenten Christmas dishes, dumplings will take a special place as a hearty, tasty dish and so loved by many. To prepare the dough for dumplings, it is better to use wholemeal flour, and for the filling, boiled potatoes in their jackets. The point here is not only in the taste of the second bread, but in the fact that it is under the thin potato skin that a fair amount of potassium is hidden, which we remove when we peel raw potatoes with a knife. If we talk specifically about the taste of dumplings, then there is nothing better than fried porcini mushrooms with onions in potato filling.
5. . To make a lean stew, you can use any vegetables you have on hand. As they say, the richer you are, the happier you are. Just don’t fry them in oil or lard, but just simmer thoroughly. Mushrooms, white mushrooms or champignons will not spoil the stew.
6. . 12 dishes for Christmas Eve must include the first hot dishes. The role is traditionally played by rich cabbage. It is prepared for Christmas not with meat broth, but with water. You can cook it from sauerkraut or raw cabbage, adding carrots, onions, other vegetables and fresh herbs. If you want to reduce your starch intake, omit the potatoes from the recipe and chop the parsnips into the soup instead.
7. . Is it possible to make delicious cabbage rolls without meat? Quite. The filling can be rice with vegetables or millet with mushrooms; there are quite a few options. Stewed onions with carrots and tomatoes will create the usual shades of taste.
8. Fish. The menu for Christmas Eve should include fish, and preferably not imported fish, but traditional carp. Among the many ways to prepare it, choose the best one for yourself. If you want, just bake it in foil in the oven and serve with herbs, or even lightly without flour and batter and simmer with vegetables. It’s much more difficult to assemble 12 dishes without fish, so don’t forget to buy it in advance.
9. Pickles and marinades. When choosing Lenten dishes for the Christmas table, make an assortment of homemade preparations. Pickled cranberries and frozen cranberries go very well. This combination not only has a spicy, pleasant taste, but provides us with a whole range of vitamins and nutrients. It would not be amiss to decorate the table with even mushrooms - honey mushrooms, boletus or white mushrooms, adding onion rings to them, you will get a ready-made mushroom salad.
10. And . This baking will also be lean, that is, there should be no milk and eggs in the recipe, try to replace them with other ingredients. But you won’t have to rack your brains over the filling issues. Crushed potatoes with herbs, stewed cabbage with garlic, mushrooms - there are as many filling options as you like.
11. . When thinking about how to decorate the table for Christmas and what to serve, you can kill several birds with one stone with the help of apples. Baked with honey and walnuts, they look festive and elegant. Baked apples taste incredibly pleasant. And their third (perhaps most important) advantage is that this lean dish contains pectin, which boosts immunity and absorbs bad cholesterol. So this dish on the Christmas table will at the same time normalize metabolism, lower blood sugar levels, and even improve appetite and digestion.
12. Peas and beans. On Christmas Eve, legume dishes are very important. Truly hearty and nutritious, they should replace the missing meat and sausages. But they also have another meaning. It is believed that dishes made from boiled peas or beans will bring prosperity and prosperity to the house.

The menu for Christmas Eve and Orthodox Christmas can be freely varied to suit your taste preferences. You can make lean potatoes or potatoes, serve lightly salted herring or pickled mackerel, cook with mushrooms and mushroom sauce with garlic and allspice, bake beets in the oven, stew beans with prunes, and so on. The main thing is to observe traditions, to celebrate one of the most important Christian holidays - Christmas - with an open soul and a pure heart.

Traditional Christmas dishes in different countries

All over the world, Christmas is a revered, long-awaited and beloved Christian holiday, although it falls on different dates in different countries, and the traditions of celebrating it also have significant differences. What remains invariably common to everyone is the joyful anticipation of the holiday, the anticipation of happiness and fun, meetings with relatives and best friends, gifts and, of course, delicious dishes for Christmas. Let's see together what they cook for Orthodox Christmas and what dishes are usually prepared for Catholic Christmas, how the Christmas menu in France, for example, differs from the American one. The menu for Polish Christmas is familiar and close to us, we also know very well what they eat at Christmas in Russia (after all, Poland and Russia are our closest neighbors), but from the Dutch or Canadian menu it is quite possible to borrow interesting traditional Christmas dishes and recipes with photos.

What do they cook for Christmas in America?

Most Christmas traditions in the United States come from Europe, which makes sense. The Christmas menu in America most often includes turkey, cranberry sauce, corn, pumpkin and beans. For dessert there will certainly be pumpkin pie (a famous Christmas pastry), and it can be accompanied by Christmas cake, marzipan, panettone pie and other sweets. By the way, for dinner, instead of turkey, it would be quite appropriate to serve baked beef, remembering that not so long ago (in November) turkey was prepared for Thanksgiving. And of course, the Christmas menu varies depending on the state. In Hawaii, the traditional treat will be teriyaki sauce, in Virginia, oysters and a large ham pie will be served for the holiday, in the Midwest, most likely, the table will be decorated with turnip dishes and lutefisk, and in New Mexico, meat stewed with corn and pozole soup.

Traditional UK Christmas dishes

The British do not wait for the evening and start celebrating in the afternoon. For lunch, baked poultry is served - goose, duck or turkey - but sometimes an alternative to game is a whole pig or Christmas ham. The side dish is fried potatoes, boiled or steamed vegetables, most often Brussels sprouts. Cranberry sauce will also certainly be present on the table. Traditional Christmas dishes in England that the local people are truly proud of are Yorkshire duck, ham and veal kidney casserole. Christmas sweets in the UK are traditionally doused with rum and served flaming.

Christmas table in Germany

The custom of fasting until Christmas is preserved today only in the Orthodox Church, and Germany is a Catholic country. Christmas dishes in Germany include fish (salmon or carp) as an ancient symbol of Christianity, stuffed and baked goose with wine sauce, roast goose with dumplings or pork with sauerkraut. The German Christmas table among Catholics is rich in a wide variety of snacks - meat fondue, white sausages and cheeses. And the table should simply be bursting with baking. The ritual Christmas pie stollen, which has a dry texture and a thick, rich aroma, is eaten at Christmas and for several days after the holiday. Stollen is a symbol of Christmas for which modern Germany is famous. And on the table he will be accompanied by gingerbread houses and Christmas cookies of all kinds. Cookies for Christmas usually have a spicy hue, they can be of any shape and from any shortbread dough, two-layer or three-layer, with or without fillings, with raisins and nuts, with jam and icing. A good Christmas cookie recipe with photos will help you bake the same miracles at home yourself.

Christmas Cookie Recipe - Vanilla Kipferl

Vanilkipferl - Delicate fragrant cookies are a classic of a festive winter feast. For it we will need:

• Flour - 200 g.
• Butter - 175 g.
• Ground almonds and sugar - 100 g each.
• Vanilla sugar - for sprinkling.
• Yolks - 2 pcs.
• Vanilla pod.
• A pinch of sea salt.

The cookies are prepared like this: cut the cold butter into cubes, scrape out the seeds from the vanilla pod cut lengthwise (you need real vanilla, not a surrogate). Place all ingredients together in a blender bowl and beat until smooth. Now gather the dough into a ball with your hands, divide it into two parts, roll them into two sausages and, wrapping each one in film, place them in the refrigerator for two to three hours. Cut the finished dough and mold into cookies - crescents, stars, whatever, and then place them on a baking sheet. It is very important that the tender dough goes into the preheated oven completely cold. After 15 minutes in an oven preheated to 180 degrees, you will already have golden, fragrant cookies, which you just need to roll in vanilla sugar and put in a tin box.

Christmas dinner in France

Traditional Christmas dishes in France include duck or goose liver, smoked salmon, oysters and lobster. Roast goose or turkey baked with chestnuts reigns in the middle of the table. Christmas dinner in France is distinguished by the sophistication of the dishes, their sophistication and high cost. Extravagant tartlets, cheese balls on skewers, rolls and tiny canapés, fancy creamy snacks in miniature glasses - what the imagination of French housewives is not capable of. The Christmas table should be remembered for the whole year. The traditional drink is champagne, and the dessert is the traditional Buche de Noel cake.

What do they cook for Christmas in Holland?

In Holland, mainly European traditional dishes are prepared for Christmas, including fried or baked beef, glazed ham, rabbit or pheasant. Meat dishes are accompanied by a variety of vegetables and salads. Borrowing from Anglo-Saxon traditions, the Dutch have recently begun to cook turkeys more often for Christmas. And the purely Dutch traditional Christmas celebration is the so-called “gourmet” - guests come with their own frying pans, and everyone prepares their own dish for the table.

Christmas table in Canada

Canadian Christmas dinner has few differences from American or English ones. Stuffed turkey, cranberry sauce, vegetables and other Christmas appetizers, and raisin pudding for dessert. They also love eggnog here. The winter holidays are the time to enjoy a milk punch with beaten eggs and a shot of alcohol. Canadian Christmas baking includes cakes with butter-based creams.

What to cook for Christmas in New Zealand

Since New Zealand was a British colony for a long time, most of the traditions came from there. Here we will see again that the Christmas table includes a baked and stuffed turkey with cranberry sauce or a ham. Lamb meat is also popular. But geese are not raised at all in New Zealand, and the import of meat products is prohibited. Dessert is often German pastries at Christmas, including muffins and gingerbread cookies, French cakes, English puddings, and Italian pies. But the main difference between Christmas in this country is the fact that the celebration occurs in the summer, so there will be an abundance of berries and seasonal fruits on the table.

How to decorate a Christmas table

Setting the Christmas table is a creative process, and only your imagination will determine how the table will turn out as a result - bright and elegant or exquisitely laconic, warm and cozy or extravagant, lush or modest.

For most of us, Christmas - the most favorite winter holiday - begins with dinner in a close family circle, among our closest and dearest people. The right atmosphere will be created not only by the Christmas menu and delicious food, but also by traditional colors in the table decoration (red, green, white, gold), lit candles, gilded pine cones, angels made from napkins, antique toys and bells, compositions from fir branches or fresh flowers.

One of the simplest and most effective options for decorating a Christmas table is to use a red or burgundy tablecloth. Such a tablecloth already creates a holiday; choosing a suitable set of dishes that harmonizes in color or contrasts is not a problem. Shining clean cutlery, sparkling glasses, napkins decorated with foil snowflakes - most of the work has already been done.

A wonderful way to decorate the Christmas table is to decorate it with baking - how good are warm, fragrant, cozy and delicious homemade cakes for Christmas! Christmas gingerbread cookies, the recipe for which is relatively simple, will successfully replace any expensive decorative items. Elegant cookies covered with white glaze, painted gingerbread, tiny muffins in miniature pots and other sweets - there are many ideas for decorating a table with baked goods. And how appropriate sprigs of rosemary, reminiscent of spruce ones, would be among cookies and cupcakes.

Christmas is the most beautiful, mysterious and magical holiday of the year. Many traditions and signs are associated with this holiday. Christmas Eve is called Holy Evening. Every housewife tries to set the table with as many treats as possible.

Traditionally, all dishes for Christmas must be prepared before the evening of January 6th. After the first star appears in the sky, the holiday begins. According to Orthodoxy, it is necessary that there are 12 dishes on the table. All dishes must be lean. Each housewife decides what dishes to prepare for Christmas, but the main and obligatory dish of this holiday is kutia. There is also a recommended list of delicious dishes that will delight any member of the household or house guest, and on Holy Evening there can be a lot of guests.

In the evening, according to tradition, it is necessary to have dinner with Lenten dishes, and the Christmas meal may include meat dishes, but it, like the evening meal, must begin with kutya.

What's being prepared on January 6




As is already known, there should be 12 dishes on the table, according to the number of apostles. It is customary to cover the table with a white tablecloth. You need to put some hay under the tablecloth. Place Christmas juice in the center, into which you need to stick a lit candle. Dinner began after the first star appeared in the sky. Children love this moment very much, they like to wait for a miracle to appear in the sky. The most important dish is kutia. Kutia is a cooked porridge made from whole wheat grains. The finished porridge is poured with honey water or sugar syrup and nuts, poppy seeds, dried fruits, preserves, and jams are added to it. Millet can be replaced with rice. This food is traditional and no Christmas Eve should be without it.

There are many recipes for preparing this ritual dish. Experienced housewives have their own family recipes for preparing this porridge, passed down from generation to generation. Young housewives can try new recipes, of which there are now a great many, thanks to the Internet.

Traditional Christmas sochivo




1 cup whole wheat,
3 glasses of water,
80 grams of honey,
50 grams of raisins,
100 grams of poppy seeds.

Before cooking, wheat must be washed, sorted and poured with boiling water. Drain the water and place the wheat in the pan in which the kutia will be cooked. Cook until cooked until the water has evaporated. Kutya cooks like porridge.

The poppy seed needs to be steamed by pouring boiling water over it. If desired, it can be crushed in a mortar. You can also pass poppy seeds through a meat grinder.

In addition to raisins, you can add various candied fruits, nuts, pieces of chocolate, and halva to kutya. You can season the kutya with a tablespoon of rum. Improvise. Choose ingredients according to your taste, desire and availability.

Uzvar




Traditionally, the uzvar is considered the master of the Christmas table. It is always prepared paired with kutia. Uzvar is an ancient drink that can give strength, energy, and saturate the body with vitamins and microelements. Uzvar improves the functioning of the heart, gastrointestinal tract and has a beneficial effect on the nervous system.

Preparation:

You need to take 200 grams of drying. These can be apples, apricots, pears, prunes, raisins. The washed dryer is poured with three liters of water and brought to a boil. Cook the uzvar over low heat for approximately 15 minutes. Then, if desired, you can add prunes, cherries, raisins and boil for another 15 minutes. After this, honey is added to the uzvar, covered with a lid and left to infuse for 2-3 hours. Uzvar is served chilled.

Lenten borscht with beans




Borscht is a favorite dish in Russia. Traditionally, borscht is a daily dish, but it’s hard to imagine Christmas Eve without it. Since it is difficult to prepare 12 dishes at once, borscht can be prepared in advance, this will only make its taste richer and brighter.

Borscht can be prepared with beans, sprat, beetroot, and mushrooms. It all depends on the preferences of the family and the availability of products from the hostess.

Preparation:

Boil a glass of beans until tender. Or take ready-made canned beans.

Put 3.5 liters of water on the fire (you can take the water in which the beans were cooked). After boiling, add diced potatoes (4-5 tubers) to the water.

Meanwhile, prepare the roast. Grate 1 large carrot, dice one onion and saute it in a frying pan until golden brown. Sunflower oil must be used for frying.

Take 2 medium-sized beetroot. Beetroot must be grated. Fry one beetroot along with onions and carrots, throw the second one to cook in a pan with potatoes and beans. At the end of frying, add half a liter of tomato juice, or 100 grams of tomato paste.

At the end of cooking the vegetables, add half a head of shredded white cabbage to the pan. The cabbage should boil. Cook for another 5 minutes. Add spices and salt to the borscht to taste. If necessary, citric acid or vinegar.

Dumplings




Dumplings or bread, a necessary addition to borscht. Pampushka is a round-shaped and small-sized pastry. Dumplings are made from yeast dough. If you don’t have time to bake them, you can make do with bread or buy ready-made donuts in the store

Onion or garlic sauce for pampushki




It is customary to top pampushki with a special sauce, which makes them tastier.

Preparation of garlic sauce:

5 cloves of garlic;
3 tbsp. l boiled water;
2 tbsp. l. oils

Garlic is passed through a press and mixed with water and oil. If desired, you can add dill or parsley, as well as spices.

Making onion gravy:

2 onions are fried in a frying pan until tender, add 1 tbsp to the onion. l. flour. The onion and flour are fried for about a minute. Then add 2 tbsp. l. sour cream, 1 teaspoon of tomato paste, salt, spices. All this is fried for a couple more minutes. Then add water and simmer the onion sauce for 5 minutes.

Stuffed cabbage rolls with millet and mushrooms




We are all used to cabbage rolls with rice and minced meat. But cabbage rolls with millet and mushrooms are no less tasty. Stuffed cabbage rolls must be prepared in the traditional way, only rice and minced meat are replaced with boiled millet and fried mushrooms.

Fried fish




Fish is not only healthy, but also tasty, and since Holy Evening must be celebrated without meat dishes, fish is perfect. Fish must be fried in flour, as eggs are not allowed on January 6th.

Bread




Regardless of whether there are donuts on the table, there must also be bread on the table. Bread can be served white, black, with the addition of spices and bran.

Christmas Olivier




Russian cuisine is hard to imagine without Olivier. On Holy Evening it is necessary to cook it without sausage. This will not make its taste any worse. But on Christmas Day itself, Olivier can be served with sausage, boiled meat or chicken breast.

The vinaigrette




This vitamin salad brings many benefits to the body. All products in its composition can heal the body, strengthen it and fill it with energy. For the vinaigrette you will need boiled potatoes, beets, beans, and carrots. Fresh onion, sauerkraut, vegetable oil. You can replace the beans with green peas. The salad will also need to be salted and peppered.

Fruits




For dessert you can serve a variety of fresh fruits: apples, pears, grapes, tangerines, oranges.

Christmas dishes

On January 7, meat is allowed to be served on the table, so on this day you can serve chicken, duck, pork, and various meat salads.

Duck with apples




Traditionally, you can bake duck with apples in the oven. For this gutting, the duck is rubbed with a mixture of herbs, pepper, garlic and oil. Leave the duck to marinate for a couple of hours.

Mix apples, plums, quinces, prunes, season with wine and stuff.

The duck must be baked for approximately 3 -3.5 hours, basting with the resulting fat.

Dessert




Christmas cake is considered a traditional baked product. The cake can be prepared 1 - 2 months before Christmas and left to mature, or you can make a quick cake with tangerines

Recipe:

200 grams of flour;
4 eggs;
200 grams of sugar;
1 tsp. baking powder;
125 grams of butter;
150 grams of dried fruits;
2 tangerines;
vanilla.

Preparation:

Margarine at room temperature is whipped with sugar with a mixer. After that, eggs, sifted flour, vanilla, baking powder and dried fruits are gradually introduced into the resulting mass. Tangerines are soaked in butter for 2 minutes and added to the dough. The cake is baked for 1 hour in the oven preheated to 180 degrees.

The finished cake is sprinkled with powdered sugar and decorated with tangerines.

Bon appetit everyone and have a wonderful Christmas!

Read more about cooking kutia from rice for Christmas in this article.

The date of the birth of Christ is determined to be December 25 for Catholics and Protestants and January 7 for Orthodox Christians. In Europe and the United States, Christmas is mainly celebrated on the night of December 25, but the traditions of the holiday table are very different all over the world. Christmas is the most family holiday; it is not customary to invite friends to Christmas dinner. Christmas dishes can be very different, the traditions of different countries in this regard have a huge variety, but there must be one central dish (goose, turkey, duck, chicken, fish, baked whole, bigos - for Catholics; kutia - for Orthodox) - a symbol unity of all those gathered at the festive table. Catholics do not fast before Christmas, unlike Orthodox Christians, so they can immediately afford to taste hearty, fatty meat dishes.

From time immemorial, residents have served plum porridge oatmeal, cooked in meat broth, on the table for Christmas. Bread crumbs, raisins, almonds, prunes, honey were added to it and served very hot. By the beginning of the 3rd century. porridge was transformed into “plum pudding” - one of the main dishes of the Christmas table (does this remind you of Russian kutya?). It is also called pudding on fire - before serving the pudding, it is doused with cognac and set on fire.

Traditional dishes for Christmas include roasted or stuffed turkey, roast goose in Scotland, and smoked goose in Ireland and Wales. Only men cut up the Christmas game and put it into portions.

Traditional dishes for Christmas include blood sausages, roast goose or turkey, baked pig's head, peas, beans, lentils, nuts, chestnuts, milk cakes, and sweets. A traditional French Christmas delicacy is foie gras.

On Christmas Eve there should be seven dishes on the table: lentils, white beans, chickpeas, beans with honey, cabbage, rice cooked in almond milk, and pasta with sardines in walnut sauce. In other places there should be nine such dishes. The custom on Christmas Eve is to serve eels or cod dishes, oysters and other seafood, as well as various shellfish mixed with traditional spaghetti for dinner. At Christmas dinner, it is traditional to eat a blessed goose.

This is a roast goose and a pie with nuts, marzipan and raisins. They bake pretzels and shaped cookies.

Traditionally, at Christmas dinner they eat national noodle soup, and for the main course they eat carp baked with caraway seeds.

on Christmas Eve they prepare almond soup, honey-nut halva, rice porridge, ritual cookies and sweets, and on Christmas Day they prepare hearty meat dishes: pork, ham, capon, as well as ritual boiled chestnuts and porridge.

The customs of the Christmas, New Year and Epiphany tables have a lot in common: in the evening they eat Christmas ham, porridge, fish and special bread and butter. Decoration of the Christmas table - boiled stuffed tongue and fried pig's head. For dinner - roast goose with apples and plums, roast pork, stewed potatoes, zucchini, apple pies, nuts, fruit. The New Year's table is complemented with cold appetizers - salmon, herring salad, cheese. A traditional and special dish of dried and jelly-soaked cod and rice pudding.

During the winter holidays, the table usually includes a stew of pork, beef and blood sausage, boiled dried cod with potatoes, barley or rice porridge with milk, baked rutabaga and, of course, mashed potatoes baked with melted pork fat.

For Christmas dinner, duck with apples is a must; an indispensable drink, in addition to champagne, is “gleg” (a mixture of cinnamon, cloves, wine, diluted with water).

On any holiday table - traditional salmon and roast.

At Christmas, pies are baked with porcelain dolls, rings, coins, red pepper pods and other surprises baked into them. Rings and coins, according to popular belief, will bring prosperity.

They also bake pies with surprises - banitsa. Dogwood buds, a dogwood sprig and a coin are baked into the pie. Whoever gets one kidney will be healthy all year, two kidneys mean happiness, three means a new family, four means good study, and whoever gets a coin will get rich this year.

Cookies, waffles, cakes, and special types of bread are popular everywhere at Christmas. Drink hot tea with milk, sugar and cinnamon, cloves, lemon powder, saffron or nutmeg.

Winter holidays for the peoples of Europe end on January 6th. At the end of this day, a baked bean pie is baked and a "bean king" is chosen.

The main dishes of Christmas differ depending on the ethnicity of the family - this includes stuffed turkey, roasted whole, or other poultry, beef, ham, pork, fried vegetables. Desserts include pumpkin pie, plum pudding or Christmas pudding, marzipan, sugar cookies, muffins, apple pie, carrot cake, Buc de Noel, and other pies.

On January 7, meat dishes are prepared: baked goose, various rolls, aspic dishes. They put liqueurs, liqueurs, and wine on the table, but on Christmas Eve alcohol is not allowed under any circumstances. Christmas Eve is the evening meal on the eve of Christmas. According to tradition, this is the first meal that ends the pre-Christmas fast. The whole family should sit down at the table, festively dressed, with the appearance of the first star, in memory of the Star of Bethlehem, which announced the birth of Christ. For Orthodox Christians, the meal begins with eating kutya. Then appetizers are served - vinaigrettes, fish and salads. Then - red borscht, mushroom or fish soups, the constant companions of which are snack pastries - sochni. At the end of the meal, sweet poppy seed rolls, honey gingerbread with jelly or dried fruit compote are served. According to tradition, everyone sitting at the table must taste at least a spoonful of all prepared dishes.

The traditional colors of the Christmas table are red, green and gold. Mandatory decorations are fir branches and candles.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is a wonderful family holiday; everyone tries to spend this day with their family, even if relatives meet extremely rarely. Every housewife strives to prepare holiday dishes to heartily treat and delight her guests. Before telling in detail what Christmas dishes should be and how to prepare them correctly, let’s dive into the traditions of this wonderful holiday.

Traditions and customs

Almost everyone knows that all dishes must be prepared in advance, namely on January 6th. It is also customary to prepare 12 dishes for Christmas, which symbolizes the number of apostles. One of the most important church holidays is associated with many customs and traditions. Firstly, on Holy Evening you need to wait for a new Christmas star, especially kids are very happy about this tradition, it’s so nice to watch how they wait with bated breath until the star lights up in the sky. It is after the first star that one is allowed to sit at the festive table.

The table also needs to be decorated, traditionally a large white tablecloth is laid out and hay is placed under the plates, which speaks of the birth of Christ in a manger. And in the center of the table, you must place a candle in a saucer with grain, pray and thank God for the holiday treats, for the fact that the whole family has gathered together.

So what kind of Christmas menu should you create to comply with all the traditions of this great Christian holiday? On Holy Evening itself, i.e. January 6, only Lenten Christmas dishes are served: for example, uzvar, jelly, Christmas kutia, vinaigrette, Lenten borscht, garlic dumplings, vegetable stew, etc. On January 7, you can prepare savory dishes; the most popular are meat and fish dishes: jellied meat, baked goose, stewed pork, fried fish, hare stewed in sour cream. You can cook a huge number of varieties of meat and fish, limited only by the imagination and skill of the housewife.

Also on the festive table there must be baked goods, most often these are various pies and pies with fillings; it is also customary to prepare pancakes and casseroles; among fillings, preference is given to meat and fish. A traditional version of Christmas baking is cookies, for which the following shapes are used: stars, hearts, flowers, and the finished products are covered with sweet glaze.

Along with sweets, nuts, dried fruits, and berries are usually served.

Now let's talk in detail about the menu for Christmas and Holy Evening.

Cooking for Holy Evening

Do not forget that there should be exactly 12 dishes on Holy Evening, and all of them will be fast. It would seem, what kind of Lenten holiday dishes can be prepared, because all food should not contain animal fat, you cannot use sour cream, mayonnaise, eggs, cheese - everything from which any holiday dishes are traditionally prepared. But, if you look, there are a large number of options for what can be prepared on Holy Evening. Here are some recipes:

1. Christmas kutia.

What should the Christmas version of kutia be like? There are two types of this dish: wheat and rice kutia. Let's look at both recipes.

Wheat kutia. Main ingredients:

• 0.5 kg. wheat;
• 3-4 tbsp. honey;
• 200 gr. walnuts;
• 200 gr. raisins;
• 0.5 cups of poppy seeds and powdered sugar.

First you need to prepare the wheat cereal; to do this, boil it and cool it. Next, you need to crush the poppy seeds and boil them in sweet water. Add raisins, honey and chopped walnuts to the cooled wheat cereal. Add boiled poppy seeds to the finished mixture, mix thoroughly, sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

Rice Christmas kutia. Main ingredients:

• 200 gr. rice;
• 100 gr. raisins;
• a couple tbsp. honey

To prepare this version of kutia, you need to rinse the rice thoroughly until the water becomes completely clear, then add 1.5 glasses of water and cook. The basic rule for cooking rice is: 3 minutes on high heat, 6 on medium heat, 3 on low heat, 12 on low heat and cover with a lid.

Separately, you need to boil the raisins, dilute the honey a little with water, and mix all the ingredients. As you can see, preparing kutia is very quick and easy.

2. Vinaigrette is the most popular Lenten salad in our country; Russian people simply adore this simple dish. It’s easy and quick to prepare; even the youngest and most inexperienced housewife can handle it. Traditionally, boiled potatoes, carrots and beets, sauerkraut, green peas, and pickled cucumbers are used for vinaigrette. The ingredients are cut into cubes and mixed. The salad is seasoned with vegetable oil, salt and spices are added to taste.

Don’t let this unusual old Russian name scare you, because this is a simple dried fruit compote. It is usually prepared from dried apples, pears, plums, cherries, etc. To make the compote more rich, boil it in the morning and let it brew until the evening, adding sugar to taste.

4. Lenten borscht.

Borsch without rich meat broth and fatty sour cream is no less tasty; it is usually stewed with a dressing of carrots and chopped onions. Tomato paste, sauerkraut or wild mushrooms are added; with such ingredients this first dish will acquire a unique and rich taste. You can prepare lean borscht in the morning so that it is better infused in the evening.

5. Dumplings with garlic and onion gravy.

Traditionally, for Lenten borscht it is necessary to prepare small donuts from unleavened yeast dough, and to make them even tastier, they serve garlic and onion gravy, which not only decorates the taste of the dish, but strengthens the immune system in winter. For those who don't like spicy food, you can do without gravy.

6. Baked apples.

For Lenten desserts, you can make baked apples with honey and walnuts. For this dish you will need:

• apples according to the number of guests;
• chopped walnuts;
• cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg.

It is very easy to prepare such a dessert; first you need to thoroughly wash the apples, cut off the caps from them, and remove the core and seeds. Mix honey, nuts and spices, stuff them into apples, and cover with a cut cap on top. Place the apples in a deep baking tray, add a little water and bake at 180 degrees.

To prevent the apples from drying out, they must be periodically watered with the juice formed from baking.

As soon as the apples become soft, the dish is ready.

Here are some simple and quick recipes to prepare for Holy Evening. Now let's look at what to serve on the table on Christmas.

Christmas Recipes

What is customary to cook for the holiday? 12 dishes for Christmas are the same tradition as for Holy Evening, only they can be modest; usually the choice is given to meat and fish dishes, and sweet flour desserts. Let's look at a few recipes.

1. Christmas goose.

This is one of the most delicious and popular Christmas dishes; it is traditionally prepared in all families. For the festive goose with apples you will need the following ingredients:

• goose carcass;
• about 1 kg. apples (preferably Antonovka);
• 50 gr. butter;
• 2 tbsp. sour cream;
• dried cilantro seeds, ground into powder;
• salt and spices to taste.

To cook a goose, first you need to thoroughly wash the bird, rub it inside and out with cilantro, salt and other spices. Also coat the top with sour cream, and place finely chopped apples and a piece of butter inside. Sew up the goose's belly with thread, pour a little water into a baking tray, and bake the dish at a temperature of 200 degrees until golden brown.

2. Curd cookies.

All children simply love Christmas cookies covered with sweet icing. The following ingredients are needed:

• 150 gr. butter;
• 200-250 gr. cottage cheese 9% fat;
• 250 gr. flour;
• 0.5 stack. granulated sugar.

The cooled butter must be ground with cottage cheese and sugar. Add flour and knead the dough. Next, wrap the dough in film and place in the refrigerator for 2 hours. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees, while the oven is heating up, you need to roll out the cold dough thinly and cut out various shapes with molds. Line a baking tray with baking paper and place cookies on it. The dessert is baked for about 15 minutes.

Ready-made cookies can be decorated with icing, sprinkled with powdered sugar or cinnamon.

We tried to select for you the simplest and most delicious recipes that can be easily prepared for Holy Evening and Christmas. These dishes will definitely please your family and friends.