Inspired by Poldark

Christmastide in the Poldark Novels #2

Two years ago was my first post about Christmas in the Poldark novels but I only went through the first four books ending with the epic Christmas of 1793 in Warleggan! That blog was also full of inspirational recipes that hopefully some people tried. See November, 2016 blog.

It has been great fun going through the novels looking for Christmas celebrations. Some years little mention of  Christmas is made, others fortunately for us, details were made known.

Christmas, 1794 in The Black Moon... Clowance has been born and her Christening takes place on Christmas Day.  Caroline came to visit on Christmas Eve and stays the night.   She is Clowance's godmother. Dwight is not there because he is in a French prison. They supped late, and went to bed early because of the cold. It was so cold the Christmas carolers didn't come. Demelza had mince tarts and ginger wine ready for them.

In the morning they find it has snowed a great deal but Ross decides it is safe enough to go to the church. Nearly everyone in the neighborhood is there including Jud who is indignant they named a cheel (child)  Clarence! Years later Clowance tells Lord Edward Fitzmaurice about an old man in Cornwall who still calls her Clarence...........

Dr. Choake attended the christening and Ross asks about his Aunt Agatha. He decides to go see her and Demelza sends Caroline with him thinking no harm will come to him if she is with him. This starts his weekly visits to his ancient Aunt. Until the Warleggans are back in residence at Trenwith!

Christmas scene. The song they were singing:

Mincemeat Tarts Recipe

1/2 orange, squeezed & zest
1/2 lemon, squeezed & zest
2 c. golden raisins
1 c. currents
4 tart apples, I used Granny Smith, diced, unpeeled
1 c. diced candied orange peel
2 c. apple cider
1 3/4 c. dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg & cloves*
1/2 tsp mace
recipe also called for powdered coriander but I didn't have that
Brandy, Bourbon or Whiskey to taste... I did about 3T Brandy, more would have been even better!
Rum or Sherry to taste

Add the orange & lemon juices & zest to medium stainless steel stock pot. Add raisins, currents, candied peel, core, but do not peel the apples..chop up small dice, and cider. Bring to a boil, then simmer until the mixture is fairly dry, about 15 minutes. Add sugar & spices and simmer 10-15 minutes longer or until thick. Stir in Brandy. This made approximately 5 cups. Half was used for 48 tarts.

*fairly strong in the spice taste. I like it. My husband thought it too much. Might want to go lightly. You can always add more.  Recipe adapted from Visions of  Sugarplums by Mimi Sheraton, 1996

Shortcrust Pastry Dough (so much better than just pie dough)

4 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c.  butter (cold)
4 T confectioner's sugar
2 egg yolks

Add sugar to flour, then cut in butter until it resembles coarse meal, add egg yolks and then
ice cold water to mix...add a little at time, enough to form a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

This can be made into pies, which has a top, or tarts, which I made open face. Uncover the dough, knead a couple times to make sure it is all incorporated. Flour surface and roll out to 1/4". I used a 2" fluted biscuit/scone cutter. I sprayed the pan with baking spray. place dough in the pan. Place about 1 Tablespoon in each mini-tart and bake at 350 until dough is nicely browned. About 30 minutes. WATCH THEM.

Left to right - mixture cooking on the stove top, to placing in tart pan, to individual tarts. These traditionally are made with a top crust or a pastry star on top...

In The Four Swans we have Ross and Demelza and both children bathing on December 21st. "The water was icy to get in but the air delicious to come out into, and while they rubbed themselves with towels the low sun peered over the sea, casting long cadaverous shadows of themselves across the silent beach. Then indoors, giggling and still damp, to stand before the fire and sup bowls of steaming soup and sip toddy. It was Jeremy's first taste of spirituous liquor and it went to his head and he lay on the settle shrieking with laughter while Clowance gazed gravely at her brother thinking he had gone off his head."

Christmas, 1798, The Angry Tide finds Dwight alone at Nampara. Caroline has left Cornwall after the death of their daughter. Although the Poldarks were a bit sad, Demelza had a party and for a time made her heart glad.  The Blameys arrived from Falmouth with their five-year-old son and James, Verity's step-son.

James was the great success.  While it was still daylight he played lions with the children, and when it was dark he told them stories of wild days at sea and storm and battle that held them goggle-eyed.

The day after Christmas they gave a children's party. In the series it was Dwight who was there, not the Blameys. He and Ross go for a walk and  Ross tears down the offensive fence at Trenwith! The chapter ends with Ross and Verity having a serious conversation. Verity realizes all is not quite well at Nampara and Ross says: "But now and then you do not have all the control of your feelings that you should have - and then thoughts and feelings surge up in you like - like an angry tide. And it is hard, sometimes it is hard to control the tide."


Here's a recipe for a meat pie, perhaps like the one Demelza made for Ross in season one? I just loved that scene. She was so pleased he liked her efforts (and the genuine blush Eleanor had was so cute!) and like a wise husband, throughout the novels, Ross always says he prefers her cooking.

The Youtube video of that scene: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/202732420704705633/

Prudie has recovered her "skillage!"

The Tale of the Pork Pie.....

I have many, many recipes books from Cornwall and thought I would try one called Truro Pork Pie. Just so you know, I have never made one of these and like pasties, aren't a "thing" in the US as far as I can tell.

The hot water (in this case milk) pastry dough is a dream. Goes together well, used warm, not cold. I have done some research and there is a difference between the way these were made historically and today it seems.

According to Jas Townsend & Son, a purveyor of historic goods who has done many great Youtube videos on historic foodways, the dough is allowed to rest for at least four hours or even over night. But the modern method you use it while still warm.

I was determined to make a meat pie that looked like the one Demelza made for Ross in season one.

My Pork & Apple Pie

 Demelza's Pie

My friend in Cornwall, Elaine Pluckrose, told me about a recipe from the BBC and it has a very good video!  I will provide the link here with the recipe too. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipe/raised-pork-pie

I did make something more successful and that was an Apple Chutney.  The original recipe, Truro Pork Pie, called for chutney or pickled walnuts as an accompaniment.   I had a recipe for chutney that I wanted to try.  I think it is good and can accompany several meats.

Apple Chutney

1 1/2 c. apple cider vinegar

1 1/2 c. granulated sugar

1 1/2 c. brown sugar

5 c. finely chopped apples

1 c. golden raisins

1 tsp minced ginger

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp mustard

1/2 tsp garlic (optional, I didn't use)

Bring vinegar and sugars to a boil over high heat. Reduce to medium and add remaining ingredients.  Simmer until mixture thickens about 30 minutes.

Makes about 4 1/2 cups. Cover and refrigerate. Should last at least a couple weeks in refrigerator with all the vinegar and sugar!

Near Christmas 1812 (The Miller's Dance) Demelza delivers a son named Henry (sometimes called Harry). Ross sends a letter to Clowance...........  ".......... So I can tell you I live hopefully - not optimatically, for that would be foreign for me too - but hopefully, that our  Christmas will be a happy one after all.  Come home soon. We do not need you but we want you. Tear yourself away from Verity and rejoin us.  As ever your loving Father."

********** SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE TWISTED SWORD******

The Twisted Sword takes place in 1815 and is one of the most exciting and also devastating of all the books. I cry every time I get to the part where Ross finds Jeremy on the battlefield......... So naturally Christmas that year would be half-hearted because Jeremy won't be there.

It's Christmas Eve, a mild grey day. "The library is decorated with holly and ivy and ferns and a few early primroses, as was the parlour." They also decorated Sawle Church. Cuby, Jeremy's widow was with them because her baby was due soon and she promised to come to Nampara for her lying-in.

It wasn't too cold for the carolers to come. They sang the Dilly Song, Noel and Joseph Was An Old Man.

Again, mince tarts and ginger wine are mentioned.

On  Christmas Day they attend church and the Rev Odgers (who must be ancient by now!) read from Psalms...... "Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help." And then Psalm 22, Verse 20 (same as opening page of the book) "Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog," Demelza put her hand quietly into Ross's. His hand closed on hers.

After church they went to Killewarren to spend Christmas with the Dwight and Caroline Enys and their two girls, Sophie and Meliora.

"They had bought Caroline a piece of fine French lace, Dwight a neckerchief, and silk pinafores for the girls; the Enyses had a pair of wine goblets for Demelza, riding gloves for Ross, a finely crocheted child's bonnet for Cuby, a book of songs for Bella, a toy horse for Harry that however much it would always swing upright again."

Because of the children they dined early, and laughed a good deal and ate consumedly and drank good wine and generally made merry, though there was ice underneath, ice that clung around the heart. Shut out thoughts of other Christmases, other shadows on the wall.........Life was to be lived - it had to go on. Chiefly for the sake of the young, but even for themselves, it must go on.... Do not think of Jeremy lying in the cold Flanders clay."

At 6:30 Henry was fretful so they left for home.... As they go home Ross, ever the introspective man he is(!) thinks about how little has changed (the topography) from the time he rode this way in the  Autumn of 1783- thirty-two years ago - returning from the American War to find his father dead, Nampara in ruin with Jud and Prudie drunk in his father's old box bed.

And  Cuby goes into labor delivers a girl the next morning named Noelle.  Little Henry saw her and said "smaller'n me" with a strong Cornish accent!

In Bella, 1818-1820, Christmas is glossed over but as we near the end of the book we learn that there is to be a  Christmas party at Nampara.  Demelza said, "I am planning this Christmas party. It would give us all such pleasure - in return. Ross and I and Bella are leaving for home next Thursday. Christopher will  come down with Edward and Clowance on Saturday. Dwight and Caroline will certainly join in with their children. Then my daughter-in-law Cuby - who I think you have never met - with my granddaughter, will certainly be there...." (Demelza says this to Mrs. Pelham, whom Bella lived with in London).

The year is 1820. Unfortunately we do not get to experience this  Christmas in the book. Ross, Demelza and Bella are coming back to Cornwall after her successful appearance in Romeo and Juliet, so the Christmas party is only discussed.

However, before Winston Graham died, he wrote a short story called Christmas at Nampara, 1820 and it lies in the Royal Cornwall Museum where his papers are stored. There are three short stories that would be a great small volume to print. So let's hope it happens!

The three short stories:

*Meeting Demelza is out-of-print... listen to it being read on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyaA1klDxgg

*Jud The Horse Dealer was published in a magazine and is hilarious!

*Christmas at Nampara, 1820, never published. The book ending to Bella we didn't get... ends nicely, ties up remaining questions.

 Merry Christmas from me and the Nampara Poldarks! I am beyond sad that it seems season 5 will be the last series.  Perhaps after a break the cast will come back and finish the series? We can hope. We will always have the books to enjoy over and over again.

Thanks for reading!  On Christmas, give a toast to Ross & Demelza with your favorite tipple,  be it Ross's Brandy or Demelza's Port and thank them for all the entertainment they have given us these last years. For me, I like to think they are still at Nampara, sitting by the fireplace sipping their favorite beverages.


Bonny Wise

PS. If you liked this, please take the time to leave a comment... I really like that :-)