Arab-style desserts, medieval sweets, 19th century Italian imports and effective commercial strategies. Our Christmas fare is rich and varied, coming from a wide variety of traditions. We are taking a closer look at the most outstanding festive dishes in order to explain a number of interesting facts behind them, such as where the custom of putting a bean in the Kings’ tart comes from and why it is traditional to eat chicken at Christmas.

In Catalonia, the typical Christmas Day dish is l’escudella i carn d’olla [escudella soup and roast meat], which isn’t that unusual when you consider that for many years it was the most common dish served in Catalan homes. The food’s popularity is mentioned by the folklorist Joan Amades in his “Custumari català”. He explains that escudella, which is particularly popular in Barcelona, used to be made in a “four-meat pot”, because the ingredients included pork, beef, lamb and chicken.

Amades also mentions the Christmas tradition of eating chicken, which was adopted by the aristocracy in medieval times and later spread to the general population in both the city and rural areas. This helps to explain the large number of poultry recipes, including chicken, capon and duck, which are used at this time of year. It is also worth giving a special mention to those that include nuts, an ingredient which can be stored for long periods and is typical winter fare.

And after Christmas Day comes Sant Esteve [Boxing Day], with cannelloni as the unrivalled star dish. Cannelloni was introduced by the Italian cooks of Barcelona’s bourgeoisie at the end of the 19th century. They are a clear example of using left-overs, because tradition says that they must be made from roast meat left over from Christmas Day. This is the main difference between Catalan and Italian cannelloni: here they are stuffed with roast meat, while the Italians use minced meat mixed with a tomato, onion and garlic sauce.

And for dessert, the festive season is dominated by neules [rolled wafers] and turron, two medieval dishes with very different origins. Neula wafers were always part of the Catalan aristocracy’s Christmas fare, and were first mentioned in a text written in 1267, concerning the Christmas dinner offered to King Jaume I. However, while the basic recipe is practically the same as the one used today, they were a different shape; in those days the neula wafers were flat. They didn’t get their characteristic spiral shape until the 17th century, when they became popular with the general public and started to be combined with other ingredients, such as chocolate.

While the neula wafers are medieval in origin, it seems that turron was introduced by the Arabs, as were most sweets made with almonds. Originally from the south of Valencia province, it probably spread throughout the Iberian peninsula, Italy and Provence during the Middle Ages. In Catalonia, the first turron recipe is mentioned in the 16th century book “Llibre del Coch”, which includes dishes from all the Crown of Aragon regions. They contained honey, egg white, almonds and various spices.

On New Year’s Eve, a few seconds before midnight, everyone follows the same ritual: eating twelve grapes for good luck. It has always been known that this is a relatively new custom and various sources say that its origin lies in an over-abundance of grapes from the harvest in 1909. But ‘Celebrem el Nadal’ [Celebrating Christmas], the booklet by Amadeu Carbó, refutes this theory, finding it implausible. He states that it spread in parallel with the expansion of Radio Televisión Española.

Last but not least on the Christmas fare list is the KIngs’ Tart which, apart from the filling,always contains a toy figure and a bean. The toy figure is a recent innovation, but the bean has been hidden in the tart for centuries, and the tradition is also common in Provence. Joan Amades explains that this game was used to choose a member of the family, by chance, to represent the whole family during the adoration of Christ in the Kings Day mass (Epiphany), a ritual which was not open to everyone.