Christmas ham

A traditional Christmas ham in modern Sweden.

A Christmas ham or Yule ham is a traditional ham dish associated with modern Christmas, Yule and Fennoscandian Jul. It is a ham from a pig that has been cured and sometimes smoked, that is cooked either in the oven or boiled (the broth is often saved for Christmas Eve to be used as a sop). It is traditionally in the Nordic countries coated with a layer of mustard mixed with eggs and breaded with breadcrumbs.

The tradition is suggested to have begun among the Germanic peoples as a tribute to Freyr, a god in Germanic Paganism associated with boars, harvest and fertility.^[1] It was later popularized by the Catholic Church as a test of truthful conversion from Judaism. Backsliding Marranos would decline to eat the Christmas ham, while authentic converts could enjoy the pig meat with equanimity.

Origins

According to some folklorists and historians^[2] the Christmas ham's origins in England lay in a:

"...tradition [that] was initiated in all probability on the Isle of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons, although our knowledge of it comes substantially from medieval times....[In ancient Norse tradition] sacrifice carried the intent of imploring Freyr to show favor to the new year. The boar's head with apple in mouth was carried into the banquet hall on a gold or silver dish to the sounds of trumpets and the songs of minstrels."^[3]

In Scandinavia and England, Saint Stephen may have inherited some of Freyr's legacy. His feast day is December 26 and thus he came to play a part in the Yuletide celebrations which were previously associated with Freyr (Ingwi in England). In old Swedish art, Stephen is shown as tending to horses and bringing a boar's head to a Yuletide banquet.^[4] Both elements are extra-canonical and may be pagan survivals.

See also

• Boar's head carol
• List of smoked foods
• Sonargöltr
• Yule Goat
• Yule log

References

External links

Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on Christmas ham