From Once Upon A Time to Quaking Pudding
Via Funeral Feasts, Spiced Wine, Elixirs & Samuel Pepys
Hello gentle reader,
It’s wonderful to be with you again. How shall I start today? I bet if I started with once upon a time, in a place far, far away …. You’d know where I was taking you, wouldn’t you? I mean not exactly where, and not exactly when but you’d have an idea that even if I took you through some gruesomeness to get there, the good would triumph, there would probably be a happy ending and there would almost certainly be some adventure and possibly a touch of magic. You’d be comfortable that you knew roughly what was in store and you’d settle in for a story. It isn’t even just because you are reading this in English either, lots of communities across the world have a similar starting point to a folk or fairy tale.
I went through a lot of tales and I’ve picked my 20 favourite starting lines (which was a very hard choice and I can’t guarantee I’d choose the same ones even tomorrow. I imagine that even though some of them aren’t from your own culture, you would have a similar reaction:
Far away in a hot country, where the forests are very thick and dark, and the rivers very swift and strong,
On the shores of the west, where the great hills stand with their feet in the sea,
A long, long time ago, almost before the world began.
In a land far away where the trees grow big and tall
In a very cold country, far across the seas, where ice and snow cover the ground for many months in the year, there lived
Once upon a time, in the middle of winter when the snow-flakes were falling like feathers on the earth,
Long, long ago, as far back as the time when animals spoke,
In olden times, when the camel was a horse-dealer, the mouse a barber, the cuckoo a tailor, the tortoise a baker, and the ass still a servant, there was
Once upon a time there lived a king and queen who ruled over a country so small that you could easily walk round it in one day.
Far away over the sea of the West
Long, long ago, beyond seven mountains, beyond seven forests
Near a big river, and between two high mountains, a man and his wife lived in a cottage a long, long time ago.
Once upon a time what happened did happen, and if it had not happened this story would never have been told.
There was once a king who ruled over a kingdom somewhere between sunrise and sunset.
A very long time ago when the fairies lived
Like many of us who are, have been, and shall be in the world, there was
Somewhere, nowhere, in a certain kingdom, in a certain empire, time out of mind, and in no land of ours
Once there was a queen who was as cruel as winter.
This happened or maybe it did not. The time is long past and much is forgot
A long long time ago, when goats had feathers
I bet you’d love to know the stories that follow on from these wouldn’t you? Once you’ve brushed off this distracting thought, have you ever wondered why we start these stories this way? Some say it dates from when storytellers told these tales to differentiate folk and fairy tales from those of great legends. The vagueness of time and place doesn’t happen when telling great legends and storytellers wanted to let their audiences know what to expect.
Others say that by distancing the tales from recognisable places and times, it enables the listener or later the reader to open up to the tale in a way that something identifiable would not. You can allow yourself to get invested because its’ not here, it’s not now, so you can relax and see what is going to happen. Marina Warner, the wonderful writer and scholar, says that:
“In pre-literate cultures, fairy tales were vehicles for processing trauma, transmitting ancestral wisdom and debating cultural beliefs, values and norms”.
The distancing and vagueness of ‘once upon a time, in a land far, far away’ allow for this to happen. The human brain finds emotionally charged things easier to deal with when there is some distancing, it gives us the opportunity to see and deal with the situation better than if we try and process those emotions in the heat of the moment. A world which is in a different time and place is less threatening and lets us relax in a safe space, enjoy a story that may be true or may not have ever happened. In our current difficult world, maybe those words that start many a tale really are magic, if they allow us a brief moment of safety and relaxation; however illusory and fleeting they may be.
Our food folklore for the week is at first glance a little morbid but I think it is also celebratory. We are going to talk funeral customs or perhaps ritual funeral food in the form of Arval (also spelled Avril) biscuits or bread. The word Arval is, according to the OED, derived from the Old Norse, meaning Heir-ale which was derived form the old danish/icelandic custom where the inheritor of an estate would provide ale to his family and tenants in a ceremony where he claimed his inheritance.
This translated over time to the biscuits or cake that were presented to guests at the end of a funeral wake. In Yorkshire they were wrapped in paper and dipped in black sealing wax at the edges, as a memento mori of the deceased. The type of cake/biscuit ranged in type from shortbread tails to rich fruit cake, to squares of moist gingerbread to sponge biscuits. The tradition was prevalent in Yorkshire but there is record of it in Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire, Herefordshire and into Wales. Those attending the funeral were often also given cake of a similar type, not wrapped, to be served with hot spiced ale or wine.
Early twentieth century folklorists were convinced drinking wine and eating arval biscuits had nothing to do with the practice of sin eating. This practice was where a person of low social standing was paid to eat bread or cake with cheese and milk or beer over the body of the corpse after it was brought from the house but before the funeral procession started. It was thought that the sins of the dead would be taken into the sin eater with the food that they ate.
I haven’t read enough to have an opinion about the connection but in both Herefordshire and Derbyshire there is some evidence that people believed that every drop of wine drunk at a funeral was a sin removed from the dead. Wine was often given to the pall bearers to drink for the same reason. So I’ll leave it up to you do more research to decide what you think but I’d say that it isn’t that far removed from modern toasts honouring the dead at a modern wake. The more people drink, the more improved the character of the dearly departed. It’s certainly of more comfort to the living than the dead.
Do you feel like a little pick-me-up, an elixir? I can provide one, or the recipe for one at least. This particular recipe is for what we now call bitters but at the time it was invented it was the second medicine that received a patent in Britain. The original was concocted by a pharmacist - Richard Stoughton in 1690 and it was originally meant to be added to ale, beer or sack to create a soothing draught for the stomach. It was later advertised as being taken by ‘Gentlemen in their wine’
Our homemade recipe from The Lady's Companion Or, An Infallible Guide to the Fair Sex, (from 1763 but it appears in other books too, copyright not being a big issue in the 18th Century) probably can’t compare to the original which apparently had 22 ingredients but gentian played a big part as it does in our remedy recipe. The cochineal is really for colour so it’s not essential.
This elixir predates the classic angostura aromatic bitters by many years, and bitters generally didn’t properly appear as the classic cocktail ingredient until the late 19th century. They really came into their own during prohibition when they distracted from the flavours of poor quality spirits. If this tiny taste of the history of bitters has interested you, then you can read more in Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All, with Cocktails, Recipes, and Formulas by Brad T Parsons.
So we’ve been on a whirlwind ride through fairytales, funeral biscuits and elixirs, do you fancy a chance to relax with something a little more soothing? A pudding perhaps, pudding is always calming. Or is it? This one is perhaps a little nervous, a Quaking Pudding if you will. I’m teasing, its only quaking because its essential a custard tart middle without the pastry and it shakes and wobbles in its dish a little like a jelly but without even a whiff of gelatine. Its a beautiful gentle thing which has been reinvented by Heston Blumental in its more recent history. He doesn’t make the sherry sauce but I think he might be missing out. Samuel Pepys even wrote about enjoying this pudding in his famous diaries.
Don’t forget if you want to read more of these thoughts about folklore, food and fairytales or the interesting spaces inbetween you can subscribe at the bottom to have this letter delivered on a roughly weekly basis wrapped in a bow* in your inbox.
*sadly no bow but I would if I could, I promise.
So, after all that I’ll sign off now with a beginning: This happened or maybe it did not. The time is long past and much is forgot.
Loved the opening fairytale lines! These are my favorites:
“On the shores of the west, where the great hills stand with their feet in the sea,”
“Long, long ago, beyond seven mountains, beyond seven forests”
“This happened or maybe it did not. The time is long past and much is forgot”
Could you tell me the stories they’re from?