123 Fun Facts About Christmas Food Around the World

Which corn-dough parcel wrapped in plantain leaves and filled with meat stew is Venezuela's Christmas dish?

The hallaca is Venezuela's Christmas dish: corn dough filled with a stew of beef, pork or chicken with raisins, olives and capers, wrapped in plantain leaves and boiled. Families assemble them together in December.

What Italian city is considered the birthplace of panettone?

Panettone originated in Milan in the 15th century. The name derives from the Milanese dialect word "panattón," meaning luxury bread.

What is France's traditional Christmas dessert?

The Bûche de Noël (Yule Log cake) is a traditional French Christmas dessert made from rolled sponge cake decorated to look like a log, referencing the old custom of burning a Yule log.

Eggnog is believed to have evolved from which medieval English drink?

Eggnog has its roots in the medieval English posset, a monastic holiday beverage made of curdled milk mixed with wine or ale, often enriched with eggs and spices.

Which German city is most famous for its Christmas stollen, holding an annual festival in its honor?

Dresden is the home of the most famous stollen tradition, with the annual Stollenfest celebrating the Dresdner Christstollen, which has Protected Geographical Indication status in the EU.

What fairy tale is credited with popularizing the tradition of building gingerbread houses?

German bakers began creating ornamental gingerbread houses in the early 1800s, inspired by the Brothers Grimm fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel" in which the children discover a house made of sweets.

In Poland, the traditional Christmas Eve dinner consists of how many dishes?

The Wigilia supper is meat-free, and the courses stand for the twelve Apostles. Tradition also holds that animals gain the power of speech at midnight.

What is traditionally hidden inside a British Christmas pudding for good luck?

A coin, usually a silver sixpence or threepence, went into the mix, and finding one was believed to bring wealth and good luck.

Nuremberg's Elisenlebkuchen must contain at least what proportion of nuts to earn the name?

Elisenlebkuchen must be at least 25 percent nuts (almonds, hazelnuts or walnuts) and no more than 10 percent flour; Nuremberg's Lebkuchen bakers were recorded as early as 1395.

During Las Posadas, the meal after the piñata usually includes atole, buñuelos and which dish?

Ponche, a hot punch of tejocote, guava and cinnamon, is poured alongside. Families often make the tamales together at a "tamalada" in the run-up to Christmas.

"Stir-up Sunday" is the traditional day for making Christmas pudding. When does it fall?

Stir-up Sunday falls on the last Sunday before Advent (the fifth Sunday before Christmas). The name comes from the Book of Common Prayer collect for that day, which begins "Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord."

What hot spiced drink, sold as Glühwein in Germany, is the signature of European Christmas markets?

Glühwein is mulled wine: red wine heated with cinnamon, cloves, star anise and citrus, served at Christmas markets across Germany and Austria. Feuerzangenbowle adds a flaming rum-soaked sugar loaf.

What fish is the centerpiece of the traditional Polish Christmas Eve dinner?

Carp is the star of the Polish Wigilia feast. In some families, the live carp is kept in the bathtub before Christmas Eve, a tradition that is both beloved and controversial.

Which pope's 1490 "Butterbrief" let Saxony's bakers use butter in Advent stollen?

Pope Innocent VIII's Butterbrief of 1490 lifted the Advent ban on butter for Saxony's bakers; earlier stollen had been made with oil. The request had gone unanswered under five previous popes.

What roasted meat is traditionally served as the main course at a British Christmas dinner?

Roast turkey is the British Christmas centrepiece; farmer-poet Thomas Tusser listed turkey among Christmas fare in his 1573 Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, long before the Victorians popularised it.

What small sausages wrapped in bacon are a staple side dish at a British Christmas dinner?

Pigs in blankets — small sausages (usually chipolatas) wrapped in streaky bacon — are a beloved and essential part of the traditional British Christmas dinner.

What is the name of the traditional Filipino whole roasted pig served at Christmas celebrations?

Lechon, a whole roasted suckling pig with crispy skin, is the centerpiece of Filipino Christmas Eve celebrations (Noche Buena) and other major festivities.

Which country serves risalamande, rice pudding with cherry sauce, on Christmas Eve?

In Denmark, risalamande (rice pudding with almonds and cherry sauce) is served on Christmas Eve with a whole almond hidden inside. Whoever finds it wins a prize, traditionally a marzipan pig.

What Italian Christmas cake from Verona is traditionally star-shaped and dusted with powdered sugar?

Pandoro is a traditional Christmas cake from Verona, known for its distinctive 8-pointed star shape when sliced. It is lighter and butterier than panettone and is dusted with vanilla-scented powdered sugar.

The tradition of leaving cookies and milk out on Christmas Eve is meant for whom?

Children in the US and Canada have been leaving cookies and milk out for Santa since the 1930s. In many homes the parents quietly eat them.

What is the Nordic name for the spiced hot wine, of Swedish origin, drunk around Christmas?

Glögg is Sweden's mulled wine, spiced with cinnamon, cardamom and cloves and served with raisins and almonds alongside pepparkakor; the name comes from glödgat vin, 'heated wine'.

What sweet treat shaped like a walking stick is traditionally associated with Christmas trees?

The earliest known mention of a "candy cane" is an 1866 short story, and by 1882 magazines described them hung on Christmas trees. Peppermint may also have helped keep mice away from the tree.

Which cold dish is a fixture of the Argentine Christmas table?

Vitel toné (from the Italian vitello tonnato) is a beloved Argentine Christmas dish featuring cold veal sliced thin and covered in a creamy sauce made with tuna, capers, and mayonnaise.

The Italian Christmas nougat torrone is a speciality of which Lombardy city?

Cremona's torrone ranges from soft (morbido) to brittle (duro), flavoured with citrus or vanilla. The city is better known abroad for Stradivari's violins.

Which small green vegetable is the most divisive fixture on a British Christmas dinner plate?

Brussels sprouts are the divisive Christmas-dinner vegetable: overboiled they turn grey and smell sulphurous, but roasted or fried with bacon and chestnuts they win converts.

What is the name of the Greek Christmas bread decorated with a cross on top?

Christopsomo means "Christ's bread". Some of the dough is set aside to form the cross on top; its Easter cousin lampropsomo has dyed whole eggs pressed into the braid.

What is the traditional Christmas dessert in Australia, reflecting the country's summer holiday season?

Pavlova, a meringue-based dessert topped with whipped cream and fresh summer fruits, is a popular Christmas dessert in Australia and New Zealand, where Christmas falls during the summer.

A popular origin story says candy canes began in 1670 with the choirmaster of which cathedral?

The legend names the choirmaster of Cologne Cathedral, who in 1670 supposedly bent sugar sticks into shepherds' crooks to keep children quiet during the Nativity service; no record of the tale predates the mid-20th century.

Which Polish city is famous for its pierniki gingerbread, baked there since the Middle Ages?

Toruń, founded by the Teutonic Order in 1233, has baked pierniki since the Middle Ages; Copernicus, the city's most famous son, was born there in 1473.

The French Christmas Eve dinner 'réveillon' survives in which US city's restaurants?

New Orleans restaurants revived the Creole réveillon in the 1980s as prix-fixe December menus; the name comes from réveil, 'waking', because the feast after Midnight Mass ran into the small hours.

Mince pies, a staple of British Christmas, originally contained what?

Medieval mince pies actually contained minced mutton or beef mixed with suet, dried fruits, and spices. Over the centuries, the meat was gradually removed, and modern mince pies contain only the sweet "mincemeat" filling of dried fruits, suet, and spices.

Norway's Christmas dish pinnekjøtt is made from which cured and dried meat?

Pinnekjøtt is lamb ribs, salted and dried (sometimes smoked), then soaked and steamed over birch sticks, served with mashed rutabaga and akevitt; it is the Christmas main across western Norway.

What Ethiopian spiced stew is traditionally served on Christmas Day with injera flatbread?

Wat (also spelled wot) is a spicy Ethiopian stew made with meat and vegetables, traditionally served on Christmas Day (Ganna) atop injera, a spongy sourdough flatbread used as both plate and utensil.

What is the name of the traditional German Christmas market, famous for its food stalls?

Weihnachtsmarkt (literally "Christmas market") is the traditional open-air market held in German towns during Advent, famous for Glühwein, Lebkuchen, Bratwurst, and roasted almonds.

In the classic poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas," what food are the children dreaming about?

In Clement Clarke Moore's 1823 poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (also known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas"), "the children were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads."

What year did KFC Japan launch its famous "Kentucky for Christmas" marketing campaign?

KFC Japan launched 'Kentucky for Christmas' (Kurisumasu ni wa Kentakkii) nationally in 1974, pitching fried-chicken party barrels as a substitute for the turkey Japan lacked; the campaign made KFC a Christmas Eve ritual.

What Swedish soft drink outsells Coca-Cola during December?

Julmust is a Swedish Christmas soft drink created in 1910 that outsells Coca-Cola in Sweden during December. Its name combines "jul" (Christmas) and "must" (a word for unfermented juice).

What do children in the Netherlands traditionally leave out for Sinterklaas's horse on December 5th?

Dutch children leave a carrot in their shoe by the fireplace for Sinterklaas's horse, hoping to find small gifts and treats in their shoes the next morning.

The French Yule log dessert is traditionally baked from which kind of sponge before being rolled?

The genoise is baked flat in a Swiss roll pan, spread with buttercream and rolled, then iced to look like bark, often with a stub "branch" cut off and stuck on the side.

Which custard-like dessert is paired with buñuelos at a Colombian Christmas?

Natilla, a set custard of milk, panela and cornstarch flavoured with cinnamon, is served with fried buñuelos throughout Colombia's Novena de Aguinaldos in the nine days before Christmas.

Which warmed spirit is poured over a British Christmas pudding and set alight before it comes to the table?

Brandy is warmed, poured over the reheated pudding and lit for a blue flame at the table, a custom called 'flaming the pudding'.

What Western-style cake is traditionally eaten at Christmas in Japan?

Japan's Christmas cake is a strawberry shortcake: white sponge layered with whipped cream and strawberries, sold by the confectioner Fujiya from the 1920s and a Christmas Eve fixture in the post-war years.

Wassail, a traditional Christmas punch, gets its name from an Old English phrase meaning what?

Wassail comes from Old English wæs hæl, 'be in good health'; the reply was 'drink hail'. The drink became hot mulled cider with sugar and spices, topped with toast and passed round a communal bowl.

In the older sense of 'plum pudding', the word 'plum' meant which fruit?

In old recipes 'plum' meant raisins or other dried fruit, so plum pudding never needed plums; Victorian cooks also baked in a wishbone for luck or a thimble for thrift alongside the coin.

In the Provence region of France, how many desserts are traditionally served on Christmas Eve?

The Provençal tradition of "Treize desserts" (13 desserts) represents Jesus and the 12 apostles at the Last Supper. They typically include nougat, dried fruits, nuts, fougasse, and calissons.

The red "sorrel" drink that is a Christmas mainstay in Jamaica is brewed from the calyces of which plant?

Jamaican sorrel is spiced with ginger and often spiked with rum, and is poured alongside fruitcake or sweet potato pudding. The same roselle drink appears as bissap in West Africa and agua de Jamaica in Mexico.

Which late-December Roman feast is considered a precursor to Christmas food traditions?

Saturnalia was a Roman festival held from December 17-23 honoring the god Saturn, featuring extravagant feasting, gift-giving, and revelry. Many of its food customs influenced later Christmas traditions.

The official Christstollen from Saxony's capital carries a seal depicting which ruler?

Only about 110 bakeries in the city may use the seal. In 1730 the same Augustus had the bakers' guild make a 1.7-tonne stollen so every subject could have a slice.

Which German city's finger-sized bratwurst are sold three to a roll at its Christmas market?

Nuremberg's Rostbratwurst are finger-sized, marjoram-seasoned pork sausages sold as 'Drei im Weggla', three in a roll, at the city's Christkindlesmarkt, and carry EU protected geographical status.

At which institution did the whiskey-fuelled Eggnog Riot break out on Christmas Eve 1826?

Cadets at West Point had been told the official eggnog would be alcohol-free, so they smuggled whiskey into the barracks; around 70 of them took part in the Christmas Eve 1826 riot.

What is coquito, Puerto Rico's answer to eggnog, made with?

Coquito blends coconut milk, cream of coconut, condensed milk and cinnamon with Puerto Rican rum; Mexico's rompope is its egg-yolk cousin.

What gives traditional eggnog its frothy texture?

Whipped eggs give the froth; brandy, rum or bourbon are optional, and in North America the cartons appear in shops between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Which cookery writer published the first recipe titled 'Christmas pudding', in 1845?

Eliza Acton's Modern Cookery for Private Families (1845) carried the first recipe under the name 'Christmas pudding'; Mary Kettilby had printed an early plum pudding recipe in 1714.

Which king is nicknamed the 'Pudding King' in an unsubstantiated plum pudding myth?

The tale claims he demanded it at his first Christmas in England in 1714.

During which period did Puritans attack the mince pie as indulgent and Catholic?

Some sources say parliamentarians banned it outright.

What was the thick, often discarded pastry case of a medieval mince pie called?

The coffyn (coffin) was the tough flour-and-water pastry case that held a medieval pie's filling and was often discarded rather than eaten; mince pies were later made oblong, said to recall the manger.

Which dried fruit joins sultanas and raisins in a traditional English Christmas cake?

Zante currants, sultanas and raisins are the classic dried-fruit base of an English Christmas cake, soaked in brandy, baked weeks ahead, fed with more brandy and finally covered with marzipan and royal icing.

Which Milanese baker gave panettone its tall domed shape from 1919?

Angelo Motta, whose Milan firm opened in 1919, gave panettone its tall cupola by wrapping the dough in paper and letting it rise three times over almost 20 hours; rival Gioacchino Alemagna soon copied him.

Dresden stollen was first mentioned in an official document in which year?

A 1474 invoice from Dresden's St Bartholomew hospital is the first official record of the bread, then called Striezel, the name that survives in the city's Striezelmarkt.

Which Dutch spiced biscuits, pressed in carved wooden moulds, are a December staple?

Speculaas are thin, crisp Dutch and Belgian biscuits spiced with cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, pressed into carved wooden moulds shaped as windmills or St Nicholas before baking.

Which Armenian monk is claimed to have brought gingerbread to Europe in 992?

Gregory of Nicopolis, an Armenian monk who settled at Bondaroy near Pithiviers, is said to have taught French priests to bake gingerbread from 992 until his death in 999.

Which monarch's court is credited with the first gingerbread men, served to dignitaries?

Elizabeth I is credited with the first gingerbread men: her court reportedly had figures baked in the likeness of visiting dignitaries. Market Drayton in Shropshire claims to be the home of English gingerbread.

Which 2nd-century BC Roman play contains the first record of wine being spiced and heated?

Plautus's comedy Curculio, written in the early 2nd century BC, contains the earliest known mention of wine being heated and spiced; Roman legions later carried the habit, and viticulture, across Europe.

Besides France and Belgium, in which Asian country is bûche de Noël traditionally served?

Vietnam inherited the bûche de Noël from French colonial rule; bakeries in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City sell the rolled log cake each December, as do Lebanon and Quebec, two other French-influenced places.

The Christmas ham is thought to descend from a boar sacrificed to which Norse god?

The Christmas ham is traced to the Yule boar, the sonargöltr, sacrificed to the fertility god Freyr, whose golden-bristled boar Gullinbursti appears in Norse myth.

Which US state is turducken associated with?

Turducken, a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey, is a Louisiana speciality popularised by New Orleans chef Paul Prudhomme and by Cajun butchers such as Hebert's of Maurice in the 1980s.

What is the culinary term for stuffing one animal inside another, as in turducken?

Engastration is the technique of stuffing one animal inside another; turducken is the modern example, and the 1807 French 'rôti sans pareil' described by Grimod de La Reynière nested seventeen birds.

Which Christmas biscuit was favoured in Sweden by the 16th century?

Pepparkakor, Sweden's thin, crisp ginger biscuits, were already a Christmas favourite in the 16th century and are cut into hearts, pigs and goats; Swedish lore says eating one makes you kind.

Which three ingredients did the earliest Roman fruitcake recipe combine?

The earliest Roman fruitcake recipe mixed pomegranate seeds, pine nuts and raisins into a barley mash; honey, spices and preserved fruit joined the mix in the Middle Ages.

Which confectioner created Pfeffernüsse in Offenbach am Main in 1753?

Johann Fleischmann, a confectioner in Offenbach am Main, is credited with creating Pfeffernüsse in 1753; Goethe reportedly praised them and Felix Mendelssohn travelled to Offenbach to buy them.

Besides Spain and Italy, where is turrón sold as qubbajd at parish feasts?

Malta sells turrón-style nougat as qubbajd from stalls at parish festas, a legacy of the islands' Arab and Sicilian influences; Tunisian street vendors sell a similar nougat.

Which dough is a New Orleans king cake traditionally made from?

A New Orleans king cake is a ring of sweetened brioche dough iced in purple, green and gold, with a plastic baby hidden inside; whoever finds it buys the next cake.

At the Lithuanian Kūčios supper, small biscuits called kūčiukai are eaten with what?

Kūčiukai, small yeast-dough biscuits, are soaked in aguonų pienas, poppy-seed milk, a drink of ground poppy seeds, water and honey, at the Lithuanian Kūčios supper on Christmas Eve.

Which two dishes are mandatory at a Ukrainian Sviata Vecheria?

Kutia, a wheat-berry dish with honey, poppy seeds and nuts, and uzvar, a dried-fruit compote, are the two obligatory dishes at the Ukrainian Sviata Vecheria; ethnographer Khvedir Vovk traced both to the Neolithic.

What is the symbolic sheaf of wheat on a Ukrainian Christmas table called?

The didukh ('grandfather spirit') is a sheaf of wheat placed in the icon corner on Christmas Eve to honour the ancestors; kolach is the braided bread and koliadky are the carols.

Which soup, served with mushroom-filled uszka dumplings, traditionally opens Polish Wigilia?

Clear red barszcz, a beetroot soup, served with uszka, tiny mushroom-filled dumplings, opens many Wigilia suppers; żurek is an Easter soup and rosół the Sunday chicken broth.

What is spread beneath the Polish Wigilia tablecloth as a reminder of the manger?

A handful of hay is spread under the Wigilia tablecloth to recall the manger where Jesus lay; an extra place is also set at the table for an unexpected guest.

Which thin wafer with a pressed holy picture is shared in Poland at Christmas?

Opłatek is a thin unleavened wafer embossed with a Nativity scene; before Wigilia each person breaks a piece from another's wafer while exchanging wishes, and a pink one is sometimes given to the animals.

Which spherical Danish pancake puffs are eaten with gløgg through December?

Æbleskiver are spherical pancake puffs cooked in a dimpled cast-iron pan and served with jam and icing sugar; Danes eat them with gløgg through December, though the name, 'apple slices', recalls an old filling.

Lutefisk is dried whitefish cured in what?

The name literally means 'lye fish'.

Which Western Norwegian pre-Christmas dish is a salted, dried sheep's head?

Smalahove is a sheep's head, salted, sometimes smoked and dried, then boiled or steamed for about three hours and served with mashed swede and potatoes in western Norway in the weeks before Christmas.

What is the beetroot, carrot and potato salad served with ham on a Finnish joulupöytä?

Rosolli is the Finnish Christmas salad of diced boiled beetroot, carrot and potato, often with apple and pickled cucumber, served with beetroot-tinted whipped cream beside the ham.

Which meat is the most common Danish Christmas Eve roast?

Roast duck (andesteg) is the most common Danish Christmas Eve main, served with caramelised potatoes, red cabbage and brown gravy; roast pork with crackling (flæskesteg) is its main rival.

What is the traditional Czech Christmas Eve meal?

Fried carp in breadcrumbs with cold potato salad is the Czech Christmas Eve (Štědrý den) supper; live carp are sold from street tubs in the days before, and a carp scale kept in the wallet is said to bring money.

Which two dishes are Germany's traditional Christmas mains?

Roast goose (Weihnachtsgans) with red cabbage and dumplings, and carp, the Christmas Eve fish, are Germany's traditional Christmas mains; suckling pig, duck and venison also appear.

What do Italians call the Christmas Eve feast?

Cenone, 'big supper', is the Italian Christmas Eve feast; in the South it is a meatless spread of fish dishes, while Christmas Day centres on the pranzo di Natale lunch.

Which female eel is a popular Christmas dish in Naples?

Capitone is the large female European eel, fried or stewed on Christmas Eve in Naples and across southern Italy; northern Italy prefers capon and central Italy abbacchio lamb.

Which Neapolitan Christmas dish is deep-fried dough balls mixed with honey?

Struffoli are marble-sized balls of fried dough coated in warm honey and heaped into a wreath, decorated with coloured nonpareils called diavulilli and candied fruit, a Neapolitan Christmas fixture.

Panforte is a Christmas tradition of which Italian province?

Panforte, the dense spiced cake of honey, nuts and candied fruit, is a Sienese Christmas tradition; a document of 1205 records Siena's pepper-and-honey bread being paid as a tithe to a local monastery.

Sienese cavallucci pastries take their name from what?

Cavallucci means 'little horses': the Sienese Christmas biscuits of honey, walnuts, candied fruit and anise were once stamped with a horse and sold at the coaching inns where travellers changed horses.

Genoa cake is a British variant of which 16th-century Ligurian Christmas cake?

Pandolce, Genoa's Christmas cake of sultanas, pine nuts, candied peel and fennel seed, is the ancestor of Britain's Genoa cake; the Genoese version comes as a low, dense 'basso' or a taller yeasted 'alto'.

Which Greek honey-soaked Christmas biscuit is made mainly with flour, olive oil and honey?

Melomakarona are oval Greek Christmas biscuits of flour, olive oil and orange juice, baked then soaked in honey syrup and topped with crushed walnuts; kourabiedes are their sugar-dusted butter cousins.

Whose feast day, 1 January, is the Greek coin-hiding vasilopita associated with?

Vasilopita honours St Basil of Caesarea, whose feast falls on 1 January; the cake is cut at New Year with a coin hidden inside, the Greek counterpart of the Western king cake.

Filipino bibingka is baked in a terracotta oven lined with what?

Bibingka, a rice-flour cake topped with salted egg and cheese, is baked in a clay pot lined with banana leaves with coals above and below, and sold outside churches after the Simbang Gabi dawn Masses.

Puto bumbong gets its purple colour from which heirloom rice variety?

Pirurutong, a purple heirloom glutinous rice, gives puto bumbong its colour; the soaked rice is packed into bamboo tubes, steamed, then rolled in butter, sugar and grated coconut after Simbang Gabi.

How many dawn Masses make up the Filipino Simbang Gabi before Christmas?

Simbang Gabi is a novena of nine dawn Masses from 16 to 24 December; bibingka and puto bumbong are sold outside the churches afterwards.

Which KFC manager first promoted 'party barrels' as a Japanese Christmas meal in 1970?

Takeshi Okawara, manager of Japan's first KFC in Nagoya, began selling 'party barrels' as a Christmas meal in 1970 after hearing expatriates lament the lack of turkey; he later became president of KFC Japan.

What is the Goan platter of Christmas sweets such as bebinca and kulkuls called?

Kuswar (or consoada) is the Goan and Mangalorean assortment of Christmas sweets, typically including bebinca, kulkuls, neureos and dodol, prepared by families in the weeks before and shared with neighbours.

Chile's Christmas cocktail cola de mono mixes coffee, milk, spices and which spirit?

Cola de mono ('monkey's tail') blends coffee, milk, sugar, cloves and cinnamon with aguardiente, a clear grape spirit, and is drunk at Chilean Christmas alongside pan de Pascua fruitcake.

Which crown-shaped Portuguese Christmas cake traditionally hid a dried fava bean?

Bolo Rei, 'king cake', is a crown-shaped brioche ring studded with crystallised fruit and nuts, eaten in Portugal from Christmas to Epiphany; whoever found the dried fava bean had to buy next year's cake.

Printen, hard spiced gingerbread bars sold at Christmas, are a speciality of which German city?

Printen are hard, spiced gingerbread bars from Aachen, sweetened with sugar-beet syrup and sold plain or chocolate-coated; Aachener Printen carry EU protected geographical status.

Which Hungarian Christmas roll is filled with walnut or poppy seed?

Bejgli is the Hungarian Christmas roll, a thin yeast dough wound around a dense walnut or poppy-seed filling and baked into a marbled log; both versions sit on most Hungarian Christmas tables.

Which 14th-century cookbook contains fygey, an early figgy pudding?

The Forme of Cury, compiled for Richard II's court around 1390, includes 'fygey', a pottage of figs, raisins, wine and spices that is the earliest English ancestor of figgy pudding.

Cranberry relish is first mentioned as a companion to turkey in which 1796 book?

Amelia Simmons's American Cookery (1796), the first cookbook written by an American, is the earliest book to pair cranberry sauce with roast turkey.

Terry's Chocolate Orange was created in which English city in 1932?

Terry's of York launched the Chocolate Orange in 1932, following its Chocolate Apple of 1926; the York factory closed in 2005 when production moved abroad.

Which pastry-wrapped Scottish fruitcake moved from Twelfth Night to Hogmanay?

Black bun is a dense fruitcake of raisins, currants, almonds and spice baked in a pastry case; once a Twelfth Night cake, it became Hogmanay fare after the Reformation discouraged Christmas feasting in Scotland.

Which Irish city is famed for the spiced beef eaten at Christmas?

Spiced beef, a joint cured for days in salt, sugar, saltpetre and spices then boiled, is a Christmas speciality of Cork, sold from stalls in the city's English Market.

What filling runs through the centre of a Dutch kerststol?

A kerststol is the Dutch Christmas loaf of raisin-studded sweet bread with a log of amandelspijs, almond paste, through its centre, dusted with icing sugar; the same bread is baked as paasstol at Easter.

Läckerli, hard spiced honey biscuits made with kirsch, come from which Swiss city?

Basler Läckerli are hard, chewy bars of honey, candied peel, hazelnuts and kirsch under a sugar glaze; they have been baked in Basel since the Middle Ages and are sold year-round but especially at Christmas.

Vanillekipferl crescents originated in which city?

Vanillekipferl are Viennese: the crescent shape is shared with the Kipferl, Vienna's older crescent roll, and early recipes used walnuts before almonds took over; Hungary and Bohemia adopted them from Vienna.

Bethmännchen marzipan cookies are a speciality of which German city's Christmas market?

Bethmännchen are small marzipan balls studded with three almond halves, named for the Frankfurt banking family Bethmann and sold at the city's Christmas market, which dates to 1393.

Who invented the Dominostein in Dresden in 1936?

Herbert Wendler, a Dresden confectioner, created the Dominostein in 1936 as an affordable praline: a cube of Lebkuchen, fruit jelly and marzipan under dark chocolate.

What does the German name Baumkuchen literally mean?

Tree cake is the literal meaning, after the rings that show in its slices like tree rings.

What does the Scandinavian name kransekake mean in English?

Kransekake means 'wreath cake': concentric rings of almond-meringue dough stacked into a cone and piped with white icing; Norwegians also call it tårnkake, tower cake.

Which spice flavours Swedish lussekatt buns eaten around St Lucy's Day?

Lussekatter are S-shaped saffron buns with raisin eyes, baked for St Lucy's Day on 13 December; Cornwall's saffron bun is a close cousin.

Ethiopian wat stews begin by cooking chopped onions how?

Berbere spice and niter kibbeh butter follow.

What drink is paired with panetón on a Peruvian Christmas Eve?

Peruvians pair panetón with hot chocolate on Christmas Eve; December 'chocolatadas', charity events handing out hot chocolate and panetón to children, are a fixture of the season.

In Mexico, whoever finds the baby Jesus figurine in a rosca de reyes must take it to church on which feast day?

Candlemas Day is the deadline; the hidden figure represents the Holy Family's flight from Herod's Massacre of the Innocents.

Which Quebec region is known for a deep-dish tourtière of cubed meat and potatoes?

The Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean tourtière is a deep-dish pie of cubed pork, beef and game with potatoes, baked for hours, unlike the shallow minced-meat tourtière eaten at réveillon elsewhere in Quebec.

Ponche crema, a bottled egg-and-rum cream liqueur, is the Christmas drink of which country?

Ponche crema is Venezuela's Christmas liqueur, a cream of egg, milk, sugar and rum created by Eliodoro González in Caracas in 1900 and sold under that brand name ever since.

Rabanadas, the Christmas dessert of Portugal and Brazil, are a version of which dish?

Rabanadas are French toast: slices of bread soaked in milk or wine and egg, fried, then rolled in cinnamon sugar, eaten in Portugal and Brazil at Christmas.

Pernil, the Christmas roast of Puerto Rico and Cuba, marinated overnight with sofrito pushed into cuts, is which meat?

Pork shoulder or leg, roasted slowly with the skin on, is pernil; it is common from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic to Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador.

Finland's star-shaped Christmas pastry, joulutorttu, is traditionally filled with which jam?

Joulutorttu are pinwheel-shaped puff-pastry stars with a spoonful of prune jam in the centre, dusted with icing sugar and served with glögi at Finnish Christmas.