However, it’s not just curls. Who else “invented” Christmas? Should I say Charles Dickens? His book, A Christmas Carol, is credited with creating images that live on in today’s “traditional” holidays. Of course, the date December was noted long before Victorian times. Dating back to the 4th century, Constantine, the first Christian Roman emperor, is thought to have established the event as a way to weaken pagan traditions. But it wasn’t until the publication of Dickens’ moral tales in 1843 that Christmas became associated with charity, family, feasts and gifts.
So we have Carl and Dickens. There is an emperor from the 4th century. What about Santa? Who “invented” him? Was it the scholar Clement Clarke Moore? His Visitation of St. Nicholas, first published in 1823 (though its authorship is still debated), did much to solidify the image of Santa as a fat, jolly man that still holds true today. Is it Santa or Saint Nicholas? Or Father Christmas or Kris Kringle? Was he a 3rd century monk from Asia Minor who is believed to have walked the earth to become the patron saint of children, or was he a fairy tale character with a magnificent beard and an even bigger belly? Is it?
As my team and I were creating this “new” ham recipe, I was thinking about who “invented” Christmas. We knew we wanted a baked ham, a tradition that dates back to the late Middle Ages, when a boar’s head was proudly placed on the Christmas table, but we also wanted to advocate for change. We wanted to preserve the cloves, the most showy of spices, and the sticky, glossy skin. So far it’s traditional.
But the inspiration came from Katja Tausig of the Test Kitchen team, who was inspired by cookbook author Claudia Roden. Taussig wanted to try Roden’s Orange and Almond Sephardic Passover Cake, which includes whole oranges and boils them into blitzels before adding them whole to the batter. done.
So who “invented” this ham? Maybe it was Taussig? Or Roden? Or is she the woman who immigrated to Egypt from Aleppo, Syria, in 1960 and first taught Roden the recipe? Roden discovered that the cake was not from Syria or Egypt, but rather from Andalusia. And so on. No one person or place “invented” cake. Or this ham. Or just Christmas.