Marinated with some heat, garnished with red and green, we could eat a dozen of these Christmas oysters. Photo courtesy Louisiana Seafood.

Oysters are a treat at any time of the year.

The old advice to avoid them except in months that end in “r” came from the time before refrigeration, to avoid potential spoilage in the warmer spring and summer months.

“Christmas oysters” are garnished in red and green for a festive Christmas appetizer.

To warm up the holiday season, the recipe below, from Louisiana Seafood, has a bit of heat—which is how they like things in Louisiana.

If you don’t like heat, substitute green bell pepper for the jalapeño and eliminate the hot sauce.

The recipe calls for Louisiana oysters, but you can use any variety that are fresh and appealing. Our personal preference is for jumbo Pacific oysters from Willapa Oysters—the larger and meatier the oyster, the happier we are.

CHRISTMAS OYSTERS RECIPE

Ingredients

Preparation

1. CLEAN shells and shuck oysters. Strain and reserve liquid. Reserve bottom half of shell; discard top half.

2. COMBINE oyster liquid, red onions, cilantro, jalapeños, lime juice, lime zest, tomatoes, hot sauce and olive oil. Add oysters and marinate for 5-7 minutes.

3. ARRANGE oyster shells on a bed of ice or kosher salt (it’s much less expensive to use in bulk than coarse sea salt). We prefer shredded red cabbage with some white cabbage mixed in—it’s more festive for the holidays (you can shred it in the food processor or slice it thinly with a knife) and you can eat it with some lemon juice or cocktail sauce. Place 1 oyster on each shell and top with cherry tomato half, red onions, 1 slice of jalapeño, some juice from marinade and a couple of crystals of sea salt.

Growing oysters off the coast of Louisiana. Photo courtesy Louisiana Seafood News.

4. GARNISH with fresh cilantro leaves and serve immediately.
 
Find more of our favorite seafood recipes.

*Any oysters eaten raw must be freshly shucked, to avoid bacteria build-up.

Born on the Iranian side of the Caspian Sea (home to the beluga, sevruga and osetra sturgeon) and raised on the Russian side, Melkoum and Mouchegh Petrossian emigrated to France to continue their studies of medicine and law, which had been interrupted in 1917 by the Bolshevik Revolution.

Unable to gain entrance to French medical and law schools, they became caviar merchants. Had they become a doctor and a lawyer, their names would probably have been lost to history. Instead, they became known worldwide for setting the standard in fine caviar and creating a dynasty of purveyors of the finest delicacies.

They pestered the Soviet embassy to sell them caviar and, eventually, the diplomats arranged for a shipment to Paris.

Initially, the French were uninterested in the salty, fishy eggs. The first customers to patronize their shop and restaurant were White Russian émigrés. Finally, Cesar Ritz, the great hotelier, placed an order and caviar became the rage. The rest is history—exquisitely delicious, if pricey, history.

The current generation of Petrossians does not rest on the family laurels. Their creative product development has been remarkable. Three of our favorite food products of last year—and forever—were the Petrossian’s newly-launched Caviar Powder, Caviar Cubes (see photo below) and Papier Russe (Russian Paper—think nori, the sushi wrapper, made of caviar instead of seaweed).

Many thanks to Alexandre Petrossian (grandson of Mouchegh and son of Armen), director of the New York shop and restaurant, for introducing us to these marvels of quality and creativity.

INTRODUCING CAVIAR CREAM

Sturgeon caviar is one of the most expensive foods on earth. But create Caviar Cream by mixing it with some heavy cream (plus a pinch of salt and some stabilizer), and it brings the cost down—as well as creates a simply delicious spread for hors d’oeuvre: blini, brioche, toast points and potato slices, for example, or stuffed into miniature tomatoes and potatoes. Had we won the recent half-billion-dollar lottery, we’d be ordering it by the case as a dip.

Definitely at the top of the “good things come in small packages” category, Caviar Cream will be a long-remembered gift for the caviar lover. Buy it at Petrosian.com. A two-ounce jar is $42.00; but the memories are worth far more.

For a bit of romance, all you need are a bottle of Champagne, a jar of Caviar Cream and some toasted brioche.

CAVIAR POWDER

We’re on our second refill of Petrossian Caviar Powder, a unique way to enjoy caviar. We gave it our Food Innovation Award of 2011.

Fine caviar is dried via a proprietary technique that intensifies its flavor. It comes in a grinder that enables you to grind the pearls over your food (eggs, buttered toast, grilled fish or seafood, potatoes and pasta for starters) or sprinkle full pearls of the caviar on the food.

A 30 gram mill of Caviar Powder is $88.00; refills are $74.00, at Petrossian.com.

The greatest garnish for a Martini: Caviar Cubes. Photo courtesy Petrossian.

CAVIAR CUBES: THE PERFECT MARTINI GARNIS

Another beloved caviar innovation: Petrossian Caviar Cubes. Wow your guests with these cubes of pressed caviar, the size of a cocktail garnish.

On a martini, atop canapés and other hors d’œuvre, these cubes of caviar create luscious memories.

To paraphrase Loreli Lee, upon seeing her first diamond tiara in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, “I just LOVE finding new ways to eat caviar.”*

Get them at Petrossian.com: 20 grams, 16 to 20 cubes, $45.00.

Learn all about caviar in our Caviar Glossary.

*The original quote: “I just LOVE finding new places to wear diamonds.”

Then here’s the perfect item: Belle Chevre’s Do It Yourself Goat Cheese Kit. It’s so easy (and fun) to make goat cheese at home.

Belle Chevre is one of our favorite makers of goat cheese: a Top Pick Of The Week twice for their wonderful flavored goat cheese spreads and heavenly goat cheese cheesecake.

The award-winning cheesemakers have put together a cheesemaking kit with everything you need to make goat cheese in your kitchen in just a few hours, and with only about 10 minutes of active kitchen time.

The gift-ready box and storage container includes:

 
You need only supply the goat milk, available in most supermarkets and all natural food stores.

The same day your kit arrives, you can be rolling your own chevre logs or mixing a bowl of fromage blanc, a fresh cream cheese that’s much lower in fat and calories (and one of our favorite foods).

 
And of course, there are hundreds and hundreds of recipes, from appetizers to desserts, like goat cheese cheesecake and ice cream.
 
Get your goat cheese kit from BelleChevre.com.

The kit is $27.95, but after you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to buy the ingredients for very little and make goat cheese for less than it costs to buy it.

What’s inside the box. Pick up goat’s milk at the supermarket. Photo by Elvira Kalviste | THE NIBBLE.

Long before the advent of Christianity, evergreen plants and trees had special significance during the bleak winter months.

Early Romans marked the winter solstice† with a feast called the Saturnalia (in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture), celebrating that farms and orchards would soon be green and fruitful again. As part of the festivities, they decorated their homes and temples with evergreen boughs.

In Northern Europe the Druids,** the priestly class of the ancient Celts, also decorated their temples with evergreen boughs as a symbol of everlasting life.

The use of evergreen trees, wreaths and garlands to symbolize eternal life was shared by the ancient Chinese, Egyptians and Hebrews. According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, tree worship was common among pagan Europeans and survived their conversion to Christianity.

Other ancient peoples would hang evergreen boughs over their doors and windows, a tradition that continues today—although back then, there was a prevailing belief that evergreens would keep away evil spirits, ghosts, witches and illness.

The decorated evergreen tree first appeared at the turn of the 15th century in the upper Rhineland, an area in the middle western border that includes Bonn, Düsseldorf and Köln (Cologne), cities on the Rhine River. The area is home to many evergreens, including fir, pine and spruce trees.

According to TheHolidaySpot.com, in 1605, a groundbreaking moment in Christmas occurred: an evergreen tree was brought indoors and decorated. It occurred in Strasbourg, a city on the Rhine that is now part of France. The tree was adorned with paper roses, lighted candles, wafers, nuts and sweets.

The concept spread through Germany, and in 1800 the Christmas tree was brought to the U.K. by Queen Charlotte, the German-born wife of George III, who decorated a small yew tree in with candles, sweets and toys. The tradition did not spread outside of the royal court until 1848, when the Illustrated London News magazine published an illustration featuring the royal family gathered around their Christmas tree. That’s all it took for Christmas trees to begin to pop up in British homes.

Germany, home of the Christmas tree, threw themselves into the tradition in a big way:

Electric Christmas lights were born in the U.S.A. It was in New York City, in 1882, that the first Christmas tree was lit by electricity.

This pioneering effort was accomplished by Edward Johnson, using 80 small electric light bulbs. Johnson was an inventor who worked for Thomas Edison, whose laboratory had delivered the first workable incandescent light bulb in October 1879. Johnson went on to create the first strings of electric Christmas lights, which were mass produced around 1890.‡

Tree lights really took off when American Albert Sadacca replaced the white lights with brightly colored bulbs. The company he founded became the largest Christmas lighting company in the world. The first artificial tree appeared in the 1930s. The early ones were silver, designed to be lit by a revolving colored light source under the tree.

An edible version of the historic Christmas tree. Here’s the recipe. Photo courtesy Cabbot Creamery.

HOW TO MAKE A CHEESE CHRISTMAS TREE

As long as you can cut even cubes, this is an easy and fun project.

Select your favorite semihard cheeses: young Asiago, Cheddar, Colby, Edam, Fontinella, aged Gouda, Jack, Manchego, Provolone and Queso Blanco, for starters (learn more about these cheeses in our Cheese Glossary).

Cheeses that already are formed into rectangular blocks are the easiest to cut into cubes. Here’s the full recipe.

*The word derives from the name of a pagan feast lasting 12 days.

†The winter solstice, which typically occurs on December 21st, is the shortest day of the year. It’s the on which the noontime sun is at its lowest altitude above the horizon. More.

**The Celts and Druids occupied Britain, Ireland, and Gaul (France), and possibly other parts of Celtic Europe and Galatia during the Iron Age. In Britain, they built the magnificent and fascinating monument, Stonehenge.

‡It seems amazing, but electricity in homes and businesses is fairly recent. According to Wikipedia, by 1900 most American cities had electric street lights and most new houses were wired for electricity. By 1920 almost all businesses had electricity, and many houses were converted from gas light to electric light in this period. By 1930 even cold water tenements had electric lights. However many rural areas and farms still did not have lights due to the cost of wiring. By 1950 most homes had electricity.

[1] A brioche bun is a breakfast delight. This variation, called brioche à tête, has a small ball of dough (the tête, French for head_ crowning the top (photo © Elena Moiseeva | iStock Photo).

[2] Brioche is made in the classic bread shapes: loaves, rolls, and buns. Here’s the difference between rolls and buns (photo © Elena Moiseeva | iStock Photo).

[3] Brioche rolls, here topped with an egg wash and black and white sesame seeds (photo © Amanda Lim | Unsplash).

[4] Almond brioche (photo © King Arthur Baking).

[5] A classic brioche loaf. This one is topped with pearl sugar to become an even sweeter breakfast bread. Here’s the recipe (photos #5 and #6 © Liz Neily | King Arthur Baking).

[6] Another enhancement of brioche for breakfast: a strawberry swirl. Here’s the recipe.

[7] Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria, the later Queen Marie Antoinette of France, at the age of 12, in 1767. At that age, she was chosen to marry Louis XVI of France. When she arrived in France in May 1770, she was 14 years old (portrait attributed to Martin van Meytens [1695–1770], Public Domain).

[8] Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who first wrote the expression, “Let them eat brioche,” at age 41 (portrait by Maurice Quentin de La Tour, 1753, public domain).

This is the story of brioche, but first, an introduction:

Almost 200 years ago, Brie was crowned the Queen of Cheeses. Following the Battle of Waterloo (June 18, 1815), representatives of 30 nations convened in Vienna to reconstruct the map of Europe. It wasn’t all work: During a lively discussion on the merits of different cheeses, Brie was unanimously proclaimed “Queen of Cheeses.”

But what about a Queen of Breads to go with the cheese? None has been proclaimed in the history books, so we’re doing the enthroning here.

The luscious butteriness and elegant crumb* that makes Brie the queen maker brioche (pronounced bree-OASH), our nominee for Queen of Breads. In fact, it already has a crown (see photo #1).
 
 
WHAT IS BRIOCHE?

Brioche is a light, slightly sweet bread made with eggs, yeast and butter, and glazed with an egg wash. The butter and eggs make it very rich. It’s the most buttery bread.

Brioche is served as a breakfast bread, used to make French toast (better than challah!—see the difference in the footnote††) and with luxury ingredients such as foie gras and smoked salmon. (Perhaps our favorite luxury food is pâté de foie gras on toasted brioche.)

> National Brioche Day is May 14.

> The history of brioche and the different type of brioche are below.

> So is the origin of “Let them eat cake,” i.e., brioche.

> The history of brioche.

> The different types of bread: a photo glossary.

> The history of bread.

> Recipe: Brioche French Toast Recipe With Dulce De Leche.
 
 
LET THEM EAT BRIOCHE!

The word “brioche” derives from Old French, broyer, to knead. The famous phrase Americans know as “Let them eat cake” actually refers to brioche. It was mis-translated as cake.

The expression is, “S’ils n’ont plus de pain, qu’ils mangent de la brioche.”

That is to say, let them eat brioche.

But Marie-Antoinette never said it. See why she has taken the rap for centuries, below.
 
 
THE TYPES & SHAPES OF BRIOCHE

Brioche is made in different shapes:

 
Beyond French toast, leftover brioche makes heavenly bread pudding, bread salad, croutons, eggs in a basket,* fondue dippers and grilled cheese sandwiches.
 
 
REGIONAL VARIETIES OF BRIOCHE

Different regions in France developed their own styles. Some examples (the regions are in parentheses):

 
 
BRIOCHE HISTORY

Brioche has been made in France to at least the 15th century. The word brioche first appeared in print in 1404, although it could have existed hundreds of years before then.

The name likely derives from the Old French word brier, meaning “to knead,” or from broyer, “to grind,” which could reference the kneading or grinding of flour.

While it is believed to have sprung from a traditional Norman recipe, some culinary historians have argued that brioche is probably of Roman origin.

By the 17th century, brioche was a well-established delicacy in France, but quite pricey due to its high butter and egg content and thus particularly enjoyed by the upper class.
 
 
Why Was (And Is) Brioche So Expensive?

The ingredients are expensive. Unlike standard white bread, which is made primarily from flour, water, salt, and yeast, brioche contains additional costly ingredients: butter, eggs, and sugar, plus milk.

Not to mention white bread in general. From Roman times, removing the bran from wheat was a labor-intensive, costly process. White bread was a luxury; poorer people ate coarse, whole grain bread. (Little did they know the benefits of whole grains.)

Brioche, being even richer and more refined than regular white bread, was an indulgence of the aristocracy.

The process is labor-intensive. Brioche requires multiple kneading and resting periods, and sometimes overnight fermentation. It was more difficult to produce in large quantities.

Due to these factors, brioche was mostly made in wealthy households and royal courts. It certainly was not available in bakeries that supplied the masses.
 
 
Why Is “Let Them Eat Cake” Attributed to Marie Antoinette?

Poor Marie Antoinette (image #7) couldn’t get a break. Like all royal women, she had an arranged marriage to a stranger to secure political alliances. She arrived with daggers pointed at her by the lords and ladies. After she failed to conceive, the king’s ministers sought to find a new queen and send her to a convent. She finally bore four children, including the heir and a spare, only to have the French Revolution cost her her head at age 34.

During the French Revolution, revolutionaries used the phrase as anti-monarchist propaganda, portraying Marie Antoinette as insensitive to the suffering of the poor. Over time, the myth stuck, despite no historical record of her ever saying it.

So who did say it?

The phrase appeared in the autobiography of philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (photo #8), “Les Confessions,” written in 1765 and published in 1782‡. The original French quote is:

Enfin je me rappelai le pis-aller d’une grande princesse à qui l’on disait que les paysans manquaient de pain, et qui répondit: Qu’ils mangent de la brioche.

The English translation:

Finally I remembered the last resort [i.e., course of action] of a great princess who, when told that the peasants had no bread, replied: “Let them eat brioche.”

Rousseau did not name the person who supposedly said “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche.” In “Confessions,” he attributes the phrase to “a great princess” (une grande princesse), but he does not specify who she was.

Since Rousseau wrote this before Marie Antoinette even arrived in France (in fact, she was between 10 and 14 years old when he wrote the book), historians believe he may have been referring to an earlier royal figure, possibly:

 
And who knows…Rousseau could have simply made the phrase up.
 
___________________

*Eggs In A Basket Recipe: Cut a round hole in the center of two slices of brioche. Melt a tablespoon or two of butter in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the brioche slices and brown on one side; flip over. Crack two eggs and add one to each hole. Cook until the eggs reach desired degree of doneness.

†The word “crumb” refers to the soft, inner part of a bread loaf—the soft portion inside the crust. Depending on the air pockets within the dough, the crumb can be denser or more airy, coarse or delicate. As bread baking terminology developed in the 18th century, bakers needed a way to distinguish between the soft, airy interior and the crispy crust.

The word “crust” had existed since Roman times, deriving from the Latin crusta, meaning shell or hard outer layer. It entered Old English to describe the hardened outer layer of bread, as well as natural properties that formed a solid surface, like ice or the Earth. At that time, crumb (from Old English cruma) entered from a Germanic word meaning “small piece” that originally referred to broken bits of food, particularly bread.

Essentially, the term split into two meanings: one referring to the texture of the bread (crumb), and the other to the little pieces that result from breaking or cutting it (crumbs).

††The difference between brioche and challah: Both are enriched breads, meaning they contain eggs, fat, and sometimes a bit of sugar. But they differ in ingredients, origin, flavor, and texture:

Brioche originated in France and uses butter as its fat. It can be used in pastry (challah is not). It is often sweeter than challah, softer, more tender, and richer with a fine crumb. It has both sweet and savory uses, from pastries to the uses detailed below. Brioche contains dairy, so is not kosher for eating with meat.

Challah is an Ashkenazi Jewish bread, originating in Central and Eastern Europe, originally to be eaten on the Sabbath and holidays. It is mildly sweet, light, fluffy, and slightly chewy. The fat is oil which is pareve (neither meat nor dairy), so the bread can be eaten with meat per kosher dietary laws). Braiding is a hallmark of traditional Ashkenazi challah, but it is not a requirement.

Both typically use an egg wash, for a shiny, golden crust.

Both can be used for burger buns/sliders/rolls, bread pudding, croutons/breadcrumbs, sandwiches/toast/rolls.

‡Rousseau’s “Confessions,” published posthumously in 1782 but written between 1765 when Marie Antoinette was either a 10 year-old-in Austria or a 15-year-old princess in France (neither a “great princess” nor known to Rousseau—they never met, and the quote was never published elsewhere). The book was released in two volumes, with Volume 1 coming out in 1782 and Volume 2 following in 1789—the year that the French Revolution began. The work was groundbreaking for its time as one of the earliest autobiographies, where Rousseau openly explored his personal life, emotions, and flaws, creating a new genre of self-reflection in literature.
 
 

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