Roast Goose
This recipe appeared in The Emigrant, a paper published in Winnipeg in 1887.

After it is picked, the plugs of the feathers pulled out and the hairs carefully singed, let it be washed and dried and a stuffing made of onions, sage, pepper, salt and bread crumbs (many like a few potatoes also in the stuffing); have a brisk fire, keep it well basted and roast according to size - a large goose, one hour and three-quarters, a moderate sized one, one and quarter to one and a half hours. Serve with good gravy and apple sauce.

Christmas Dinner in the 1850's T.M.
The Christmas dinner was generally a substantial meal - the plum pudding being the principal dish Turkeys and geese were scarce, and fresh beef not over plentiful, but partridge, wild geese, hares, and a haunch of venison were easily procured. There were no game laws in those times.

Cranberry Sauce
This recipe, attributed to a Mrs McLaren, comes from the High River Cook Book, published by the Ladies Aid of Chalmer's Church in 1907.

One and one-half quarts of cranberries, pressed through a colander,
one and one-half quarts of chopped onions,
two pounds of brown sugar,
one and one-half tablespoonsful of salt,
one quart vinegar,
one tablespoonful each of ginger, allspice, and cinnamon.
Boil until thick.

Outport Christmas Dinner in the 1950's D.W.S. Ryan
Newfoundland's outport Christmas dinner is a homely meal. The roast is usually a fine cut of fresh pork that some neighbour brought along or that was raised by the housewife during summer and fall. With the fresh pork baked in the oven are a couple of rolls of thick fluffy pastry, occupying both ends of the large bake pan or roaster. This is burnt to a deep crust that blends in with toast brown gravy.
In a pot on the stove are salt meat, salt pork, select vegetables - turnips, carrots, parsnips, cabbage, and potatoes. These vegetables, raised the organic way, have their full sweet, natural flavour.
In addition is an old-fashioned boiled pudding. This pudding, made of soaked bread and flour crammed with raisins and suet or small cubes of salt pork and seasoned with spices, is boiled in a bag or cloth in the pot with the vegetables. When it is taken up and "skinned", that is slipped out of its cloth, it takes central place on the table. Folks cut deep into the pudding which they eat along with their vegetables and meat. There is also a bowl of vinegared beets to dig into.
The dinner in a good many cases is a one-course meal. Where a cup of steaming tea is served there is a cut of the season's cake to go along with it or a steamed pudding or one baked in the oven.
The meal is a fine hardy one and thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Cretons
A pork pate excellent on toast or crackers. From the Lebelle farm in Quebec (turn of the century)*Note: This has been translated recently, hence the use of sour cream containers and refrigeration.
7 1/2 lbs ground pork (get butcher to mince)
1 1/2 lbs onion, minced
1 or 2 cloves garlic, or more
2 1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp & 1/2 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves.

Cook on medium to low heat, lid off, for 6 hours, pressing out lumps. Have pots ready (sour cream containers are good). Pot up. Fat rises as it cools. Keeps about 2 weeks in refrigerator. When using, invert onto a plate.

In the Days of Champlain

by E.C. Guillet
Perhaps the earliest Christmas celebration in Canada was at Saint Croix or Port Royal, in Nova Scotia, in the early years of the seventeenth century; but we have the details of one at Quebec a few years later in Champlain's lifetime. At the feast the seignior* and his lady were seated in rough chairs at the head of a long table which stretched the full length of the main room of the log manor-house. Ranged below them were lesser persons on crude benches. There was but little silver plate in those days, but squares of birchbark and Indian bowls of polished basswood served the same purpose. Everyone carried his own knife; there were no forks, but bark spoons were provided. The feast had the tang of another age. There were cakes of corn bread, great kettles of eel, salmon, and beans all boiled together and served in bowls. Then the same bowls were filled with a rich meat soup thickened with pounded nuts. Corn, peas, and baked squash formed the next course, and then, after the appetizers, came the piece de resistance. Great joints of roast venison were carved up, and deep squirrel pies were served; and there were baked wild pigeons, partridges, blackbirds, and owls, usually all together. For the dessert there were cakes of maple sugar and a sweetmeat compounded of nuts and sunflower seeds, with a sauce made of dried berries and boiling water.
* Seignior means a member of the landed gentry of Canada

Glenedyth Christmas Pudding
Mrs. Nordheimer donated this recipe for Christmas pudding to a cookbook of the time. It may sound immense but would have been insufficient for her own family and servants.

1 1/2 lbs bread crumbs
1/2 lb flour
2 lbs chopped suet
2 lbs raisins, chopped
2 lbs currants
2 lbs sugar
2 oz sliced almonds
2 oz candied peel
2 oz citron(or lemon peel)
2 oz preserved ginger
2 small nutmeg, grated
2 limes, rind and juice
1 tsp salt
18 eggs, beaten
5 fl oz brandy
3-4 fl oz maraschino.

Finely chop ginger. Combine all ingredients except last three; stir in eggs and if mixture needs more moistening, add a little milk to the egg mixture, but be careful as milk will make the pudding heavy. Add brandy and liqueur last. Put in a floured cloth and tie loosely. Boil 10 hrs, in a large kettle, keeping the water level 3/4 full and the temperature at boiling.
SAUCE:
10 egg yolks
4 oz sugar
2 c milk
1 1/2 c Madeira

Stir in a double boiler until a rich custard has formed. Add Madeira. Strain and serve hot.
The Canadian Family Cookbook, Toronto, 1914

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