Christmas Through the Years: New Brunswick Recipes and Recollections

Dean Tudor is a journalism professor at the Ryerson Polytechnical
Institute and founding editor of the CBRA.

This is a chronologically arranged series of tidbits about the celebration of Christmas in New Brunswick, from 1784 (and a “soused” salmon) to 1982 (and the New Brunswick Department of Agriculture’s Home Economics Branch version of maple candy, both pulled and brittle). There are entries for Fredericton (1804), Woodstock (1806-1822), Saint John (1808), Centreville (1893), and others.

The 27 recipes are all sourced through bibliographic footnotes, and have been drawn from the New Brunswick Provincial Archives, the Legislative Library, the Saint John Regional Library, and the New Brunswick Museum. They cover cakes, candies, cookies, mincemeats, and some entrees such as tortiere.

This is an interesting book that perhaps needs a bit more explanation for each of the historical events on occurrences mentioned; in addition, the index, though short, needs to be revised since some of the entries do not match the pages listed.