Happy Christmas Memories.

[Richard Quartermaine]

Re#27 My father very rarely turned his hand to cooking but about twice I remember he announced he was going to make a 'baby's Head'. It was a great ball of meat, onions and herbs and I am not sure what else. I vaguely recall, and I am going back a long way, it was wrapped in dough and put in a cloth or even a pillow case and boiled. As a kid I thought it was heaven on a plate.
Richard

[Jim Brady]

Members have written about Christmas memories,given another ten years that's what Christmas will be,just a memory,it's finished as the Christmas we knew and celebrated.Remember even in recent years the way in which the pubs had the Christmas decorations up a lot of effort went into it to give it that Christmas feeling.Over the holiday great sing songs going on what an atmosphere,thats why we all wanted to be home for Christmas,Christmas now is just like any other weekend.I didn't see one pub decorated just a Christmas tree in the corner in some,maybe elf & safety they are not allowed to climb ladders to put the decorations up.I was out Christmas Eve and Christmas day not a problem getting served in the pub.Wetherspoons normally a terrible place for getting served I had three bar staff helping each other to serve me on Christmas day.My sons and wives were in Liverpool One yesterday they said people were loaded down with shopping,the sales is now what Christmas is becoming known for.When I moved into this house New Years Eve everyone came out for midnight and the ships blowing off,that was the older generation,my family still go out and you see the young one peeping from behind their curtains What are they doing out there.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Louis the fly]

Agree Jim Christmas is shopping and sales figures. Which stores made the most profits.
All is not lost however soon we can celebrate Eid-Ul-Adha and Eid-Ul-Fitr which marks the end of Ramadan.

[gray_marian]

#31, Baby's Head Pudding. Recipe courtesy of Graham Kerr SHOW:"The Galloping Gourmet"
Richard I presume the oysters were optional!
A classic English dish based upon a pudding made at the Exeter Inn, Devon, England

4 servings
Ingredients
4 cups flour, plus more for dusting
1 1/8 cup suet
1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup water
8 ounces beef kidney, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 1/2 pounds rump steak, cut into 1-inch pieces
Freshly ground salt
Freshly ground pepper
6 parsley stalks, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 cup mushrooms, cut into 1/2-inch slices
12 oysters plus their juice
1/4 cup red wine


For pastry: Combine flour, suet, baking powder, salt and water to form a smooth dough. Dust a smooth surface with flour and press out pastry with fingers to form a circle 1/4 inch thick. Lay a pudding cloth or cheesecloth into a basin or large ovenproof bowl and mold the pastry to it. In a separate bowl, combine kidney and steak. Season well with salt and pepper. Add parsley and thyme. Dust with a little flour.

Place half the meat mixture into the suet crust. Add half the mushrooms, then the remaining meat, and the mushrooms again. Add enough oyster juice to the wine to make 1/2 cup and pour into the pudding.

Brush the edges of the crust with water. Use the cloth to fold the pastry sides over to cover the filling. Cut away excess dough. Tie cloth with a string.

Bring a pot (large enough to completely enclose the pudding bowl) filled half way with water to a boil. Place pudding bowl in pot-the water should reach up to 3/4 of the sides of the bowl. Cover with lid. Or to mold the pudding to the shape of a baby's head, remove the nob from the lid of the pot and thread the cloth's string through the exposed holes. Secure the string to the pot's handles to suspend the pudding in the pot. Boil pudding for 3 1/2 hours. Make sure the water doesn't boil away. One hint: place two marbles in the pot with the water. Their pinging will notify you when the water completely evaporates.

Remove pudding from bowl. Carefully pull away pudding cloth and invert pudding onto a large, heated serving dish. Cut out a top in the pudding's crust and add the oysters, mixing them in with a fork.

Read more at: Baby's Head Pudding Recipe : Food Network

[Keith at Tregenna]

[QUOTE=Evan Lewis;219292](Vernon) Can you perhaps put me right on this. The "Ticky" a Three or Sixpenny ,coin?
QUOTE]

tickey/ticky/tickie/tiki/tikki/tikkie - ticky or tickey was an old pre-decimal British silver threepenny piece (3d, equating loosely to 1¼p). The tickey slang was in use in 1950s UK (in Birmingham for example, thanks M Bramich), although the slang is more popular in South Africa, from which the British usage seems derived. In South Africa the various spellings refer to a SA threepenny piece, and now the equivalent SA post-decimalisation 2½ cents coin. South African tickey and variations - also meaning 'small' - are first recorded in the 19th century from uncertain roots (according to Partridge and Cassells) - take your pick: African distorted interpretation of 'ticket' or 'threepenny'; from Romany tikeno and tikno (meaning small); from Dutch stukje (meaning a little bit); from Hindustani taka (a stamped silver coin); and/or from early Portuguese 'pataca' and French 'patac' (meaning what?.. Partridge doesn't say). Additionally (thanks K Gibbs) apparently the word 'tickey' has specific origins in the SA Cape Malay community, said to derive from early Malaccan slaves who brought with them a charm called a 'Tickey'. Furthermore (thanks R Rickett) in 1960-70s South Africa the extra inner right front 'watch' or 'fob' pocket on a pair of jeans, popularized by Levi, was called a 'ticky pocket', being where pocket money was kept. money slang history, words, expressions and money slang meanings, london cockney money slang words meanings expressions

[Richard Quartermaine]

Blow me down Marian, that really is something. Let alone the oysters I have a feeling that there would have been a few improvisations in the ingredients. Thanks. Richard

[John Gill]

Just reading through post 35, would there be a connection with the 'tickey ockey' shops in Durban where the price of goods were usually no more than threepence & sixpence- similar to some Woolworths shops which were called the threepence & six penny stores, similarly the 'five & dime' in the US.