Festive Treat

A kitchen scene, (Luttrell Psalter, British Library, Additional Ms. 42130, f. 207v).

Ask me my favourite thing about Christmas and I would probably reply: marzipan. I’m one of those terrible people who goes to some trouble to dig out the Christmas Cake so that at the end I’m left with the delicious dual marzipan-icing shell.

Despite its availability to the modern shopper all year around, marzipan remains a quintessential part of a traditional Christmas. This tradition can be traced back right through history, where ‘marchpane’ was a luxury food brought out during the medieval Christmas feast to impress guests. Not only were the ingredients to make marchpane expensive, but the process was time consuming and it was often elaborately decorated – perhaps even with gold leaf. Marchpane remained an important status dish well into the sixteenth century.

And so there you have it, marchpane/marzipan, another reason why the Middle Ages are so marvellous!