358 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR 



any number through the winter months. Hence there 

 was an excess of fresh meat and fat about Christmas 

 time, and the " roast beef," plum puddings, and mince- 

 meat of Christmas fare were abundant. The true Christ- 

 mas pudding and mince-pie had meat as part of their 

 components, and, of course, beef-suet enters largely into 

 their composition at the present day. 



The practice of eating sweet fruits and preserves 

 with meat (as in the true mince-pie) still lingers in this 

 country, but has become less general than it is in Ger- 

 many. We still eat red-currant jelly with roast mutton, 

 and also with hare, and apple sauce is considered appro- 

 priate to roast pork and to goose ; but pickled plums and 

 cherries and sugared crab-apples, which are usually taken 

 with meat in Germany, are not known to us. I have 

 heard a schoolboy express indignation at being given 

 plums with roast meat. Mincemeat, for mince-pies, was 

 originally (like a " Cornish pasty," in which raisins are 

 mixed with meat) one of these combinations of sweet- 

 ness and strength of sugar and meat the taste for 

 which has unaccountably disappeared in these days of 

 mechanical uniformity and lack of " homely cheer." 



The introduction of the turkey as a Christmas dish 

 dates from the early time of the importation of that 

 bird into Europe, namely, about 1550. It is already 

 spoken of in connection with Christmas fare in 1570. 

 The " turkey-cock," as its full name was, is an American 

 bird, and was brought originally from Mexico to Europe, 

 though it is possible that the more northern American 

 species may have been also introduced by the navigator, 

 Jean Cabot. There is a very gorgeous turkey-cock of 

 iridescent bright blue and green, with orange-red warts 

 on his head and neck, found in Honduras. But he has 

 never been acclimatised. He is on view in the Natural 

 History Museum. The turkey belongs to the pheasant 



