It's the 25th of December, 2025.

In millions of homes across the world,

people are gathering to celebrate the

birth of Jesus Christ. That's right.

It's Christmas. So,

merry Christmas to all of you, from me

and everyone else on the Flashback team.

This time last year, we had maybe 2,000

subscribers, but now there are nearly

350,000 of you. And that's truly

mind-blowing. So, thank you. And that is

some cause for celebration. And since

it's Christmas Day, I will be

celebrating by stuffing myself with an

absolutely atrocious number of calories

carved off of turkey, stuffed into

sausages, whipped through gravy, and

folded into custard. That's right, we're

talking about the traditional British

Christmas dinner. And that means that

for you American viewers, this may not

be totally relatable to you. But I'll do

my best to be inclusive. And it's worth

it because despite its international

reputation, British food, especially

British Christmas food, is actually

quite underrated. So, the classic

Christmas dinner, turkey, roast

potatoes, pigs in blankets, Yorkshire

puddings, Brussels sprouts, gravy,

cauliflower cheese, delicious, classic,

timehonored, traditional.

>> CAULIFLOWER IS TRADITIONAL.

>> Except actually none of this is

traditional. Most of these foods have

been on our table for less than a couple

of hundred years. Of course, that sounds

like a lot of time until you remember

that Christians have been celebrating

Christmas since the 2n century AD, about

1,800 years ago. But there is one item

on your table today which has stood the

test of time, more or less unchanged,

since the medieval period. But first,

let's take a look at your classic

traditional lunch. Our biggest offender

for being non-traditional is, funnily

enough, pigs in blankets. Pigs in

blankets actually didn't become an

accepted part of the classic meal until

the 1970s with the birth of the

supermarket and the rise of processed

foods. This actually surprised me

because sausages and bacon have been

part of the British diet for thousands

of years and yet hadn't come together as

a named item until about 60 years ago.

Anyway, next up we have turkey and

potatoes. These both came from the New

World, which means they didn't exist as

part of the medieval diet. The first

potatoes came to England in the 16th

century, but they didn't become

regularly eaten until the 18th century.

So, not traditional either. Gravy is

classic and always has been a rich deep

sauce to bring the roast together.

Although back in the day, it would have

been much thinner or it would have been

a sludgier mix of meat stock, roasting

juices, and breadcrumbs for thickening.

That means that most of the central

items on our plates are relatively new

additions enjoyed only in maybe the last

10% of all the Christmases that humans

have ever celebrated. Well, that is

apart from one thing, the mince pie.

This hasn't actually changed much in

about 500 years and has a history that

stretches all the way back to pagan

Rome. Perhaps these little pies are

older than Christmas itself. For the

Americans watching, a mince pie is

essentially a pastry stuffed with minced

meat. It's not actually meat. It's a

mixture of dried fruits and raisins and

orange pills mixed with sugar and spices

and then wrapped in a really thick,

slightly firm short crust pastry.

They're sweet and have a very

Christmassy flavor from all the

cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. For

British viewers, seeing these appear on

supermarket shelves is a surefire sign

that the exmus fever has begun and thus

inspires either joy or dread depending

on the individual's disposition towards

Christmas. 800 million of these are

eaten per year, which averages at about

20 pies per person. By today, the 25th

of December, most people would have had

more than enough minced pies and will

not want to ever look at one ever again.

They will have forgotten this feeling by

October 2026 when they will once again

be flying off the shelves. They always

stand the test of time and they always

have. The most recognizable mints pie

that looks and tastes like this appears

in about the 16th century, so about 500

years agoish. The flavor was a little

bit different, but more or less in

broadstrokes the same. The only real

difference is that they wouldn't be

vegetarian. There would be some meat

inside the pie and maybe sew it which is

animal fat in the crust instead of

butter. But the flavor dried fruits,

Christmas spices and so on was still

overwhelmingly present and sweet. Yes,

sweetness with meat was quite normal for

a medieval palette. Some say that the

unique flavor that we so often associate

with Christmas, cinnamon, cloves,

nutmeg, mace, dried fruits and oranges,

dried citrus pills, actually comes from

the crusaders who brought these goods

back from the Holy Land before stuffing

them into the mince pies. So all of

these traditional flavors that we

associate with Christmas, even for you

Americans, too, actually starts with the

minced pie. Not just a survivor, but

also

a trend setter. In fact, the reason that

it's called a mince pie is because it

once had meat in it. If you want to make

a mince pie the lazy way, you can buy

the filling and then bake them at home.

That filling is called mince meat, but

it contains neither mints nor meat. It's

just fruit, spices, and sugar. If you

wanted to make it back in the day, you

might refer to the 14th century text,

the form of curry. Here we can find one

of the oldest recipes for something we'd

recognize as a minced pie, but at the

time they were known as chewits. Here's

the recipe. Take their meat of pork and

carve it all to pieces, and hence

therewith, and do it in a pan, and fry

it, and make a coffin as to a pie small,

and do therein, and do thereupon yolks

of eggs, hard powder of ginger, and

salt, cover it, and fry it in grease.

Otherwise, bake it well and serve it

forth. So, it's called a chew it, but

it's really looking a bit like a minced

pie. It's a pastry with a meaty sweet

filling with Christmas spices like

ginger and the richness coming from egg

yolks instead of butter. By the tuda

period, just 150 years later, it's

almost identical, and we've got the

introduction of classic flavors like

mace, nutmeg, clove, and dried fruits.

But although mince pies have changed

little over time, relatively speaking,

they have had an enormous influence on

future Christmas tastes. They were of

course in turn also influenced by what

came before. The idea of a pieshaped

bake with special ingredients served as

parts of celebrations can be traced back

to the ancient Roman celebration of

Satinelia. Some historians therefore

argue that the mince pie draws its

traditions from Roman pie culture. Of

course, the origins are not the only

controversy surrounding our humble mince

pies. They had taken a quai religiously

symbolic status at one point with the

pastry taking on the role of the manger

in which Christ was born and the spices

taking the role of the three wise men

with their frankincense and myrr and of

course the eating them becoming a ritual

too not unlike bread and wine at

communium. They even attracted the wrath

of the Puritans under Oliver Cromwell in

the 17th century as they were seen as

overly decadent indulgences which

corrupted the spirits of whoever embied

them. Mince pies, unfortunately, were

one of Cromwell's many collateral

damages during his war on Christmas and

fun. To get a true idea of just how much

this guy hated Christmas fun, when he

was Lord Protectorate of England, he

would send thugs round to people's

houses on Christmas Day to see if anyone

was preparing an extravagant meal or

extra food in anticipation of guests.

Those who looked like they might be

guilty of planning to enjoy themselves

by sharing an above average dinner with

their family had their pots thrown into

the street. Try as he might though,

Cromwell didn't kill Christmas and he

certainly didn't kill mince pies. Who on

earth could? So, if for no other reason,

eat one last minced pie this year as a

chance to spite Mr. Cromwell and his

hatred of fun. In the meantime, merry

Christmas. And don't forget, I'll be

speaking in London on the 5th of Jan. If

you're interested, there are tickets in

the description below. Merry Christmas.

Happy New Year.