THE REASON FOR THE SEASONING

Photo: Caroline Gannon

I really love Christmas food, and every year I‘m, deeply  moved by the thought of Mary and Joseph and the Three Wise Men sitting down to a plate of turkey with roasties and giblet gravy.  The baby Jesus obviously had his own special arrangements.

But you know, what I personally like best, rather than the big roast bird, are the extras and the afters, the stuffing, the bread sauce, the mince pies, and I suppose pigs in blankets fit into that category too.

 

And I do wonder when pigs in blankets became a “thing.”  My mum never served them, and I suspect she’d never even heard of them.  But now they seem to be ubiquitous – pigs in blanket flavoured crisps for instance.  And I understand there is even pigs-in-blankets flavoured vaping liquid, though that might be an urban myth.

 

And at the Goose pub in Walthamstow, a name that in itself evokes the spirit of Christmas, they are, at the time of writing, serving “Giant Pigs-in-Blankets, Yorkie and Mash; Cumberland sausages wrapped in bacon served in a giant Yorkshire pudding, served with mash, peas and onion gravy.  1042 calories.”

Photo - Caroline Gannon

 

So obviously the inamorata and I had to order a plateful – it was the mention of the giant Yorkshire pudding that really clinched it, though that proved to be a bit of a letdown, being more like an-oblong shaped pancake, but it tasted ok.  The peas were surprisingly good too.

 

Of course in reality you’re just eating sausage and bacon, and if you buy a Marks and Spencer Pigs-in-Blankets Sandwich, sausage and bacon is pretty much what you get, though with the addition of some amazingly weird, sticky onion and port chutney. 

 

Of course we must suppose that Jesus never knew the joy of pigs in blankets since he presumably grew up eating kosher, but thanks to later developments in Christianity we are now free to eat pigs in all their many forms, from ears to trotters to crackling and beyond.  Don’t let anybody tell you that religion is all bad.