French Christmas Foods
By Joy J. Fine
Unlike in North America when the French Christmas celebration begins though the children look forward to the gifts, the adults are waiting for the feasting that is about to begin. What usually happens in France is that everyone attends the midnight mass before returning to the Christmas Eve dinner. This dinner is called le réveillon; in English it means the wake up meal. For the French this is the important meal of their Christmas celebration, not the dinner on Christmas day. This meal is a true feast.
Le réveillon, which is either enjoyed at home or just as often at a restaurant, most often includes oysters, foie gras, snails and goose or other roasted poultry, as well as salads and ham and is then followed by lots of wine or champagne. There is also a yule log for dessert during the celebration of the French Christmas. It is called Bûche de Noël. This dessert is made to look like a real log. It is made from a variety of sponge cakes which are rolled out and covered with frosting then filled with a chocolate cream and rolled up to look like a log and then frosted again. That is the traditional way it is made but there are several different flavors that can be used as filling. Sometimes the French bakers will decorate this dessert treat with icing sugar to make it look like snow, other times it will be with berries or small tree twigs to add realism to the appearance of the log.
One of the stories that are told about the origins of this tasty dessert eaten during the French Christmas celebration was that it began in the time of Napoleon the first. The story goes that the normal celebrations were interrupted by an edict that chimneys were to be kept closed during the winter. This was to prevent the spread of disease, which he believed were transmitted through cold air. But this meant they were unable to bake their usual Christmas pastries. So, instead, they made the Bûche de Noël. It was made in the shape and style of the Yule log to remind the people what they should have had in their fireplaces. Another story that explains this delicious pastry is a much simpler tale. Bakers in the nineteenth century were supposed to have thought the burning of the Yule longs at Christmas so beautiful that they designed this pastry to honor it. Whichever is true, the tradition continues to this day.
No French Christmas would be complete without the wine. Usually there are different wines drunk during the different courses. Often the meal will be begun with an aperitif and then change to something else based on what is being eaten. If it is seafood that is being served, a dry white wine should accompany it. Foie gras should be eaten with a sweet white wine, while the poultry should have a red wine to wash it down. The meal ends with the dessert and this should be enjoyed with a glass of champagne. To the French the wines that are chosen for this meal are as important as the meal itself.
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