Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” — A Christmas Dinner in Honor of the Cratchits (Victorian Menu)

Updated: August 19, 2025

Featuring recipes for: Roast Goose, Sage & Onion Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Apple Sauce, Beef Gravy, Christmas Plum Pudding — plus bonus pantry sauces: Harvey’s Sauce & Mushroom Ketchup.

A Christmas Dinner in Honor of the Cratchits

The Third Visitor — John Leech, 1843

Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management, 1861

A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas (1843) is my perennial December re-read. It’s timeless, hopeful—and born of a darker reality Dickens refused to ignore. Before we sit down to the Cratchits’ dinner, a little context.

Menu at a Glance

• Roast Goose with Sage & Onion Stuffing
• Mashed Potatoes & Apple Sauce
• A Good Beef Gravy
• Christmas Plum Pudding
• Harvey’s Sauce & Mushroom Ketchup (bonus pantry recipes)

Context: Work, Want, and a Victorian Christmas

Dickens had read the 1842 parliamentary report on children employed in mines and factories—thousands of pages of testimony about brutal, dangerous labor. Children as young as three were cheap workers: small bodies sent into machinery, days that stretched to sixteen hours, six days a week. That hard truth undergirds the warmth of the Cratchits’ table, and it shapes Scrooge’s flinty worldview.

“You’ll want all day to-morrow, I suppose?” said Scrooge.… “A poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every twenty-fifth of December!”… “But I suppose you must have the whole day. Be here all the earlier next morning.”

Victorian moral philosophy often framed poverty as a personal failing. Reverend Thomas Malthus’s population theory was widely (and harshly) read as an argument against relief for the poor—aid would only “encourage” idleness.

“If they would rather die,… they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”

Yet, for all that, the Cratchits make festivities out of little: a “feathered phenomenon” of a goose, hissing-hot gravy, potatoes mashed with vigor, apple sauce sweetened to cheer, and a pudding that blazes into the room crowned with holly.

“…when she did [carve], and when the long-expected gush of stuffing issued forth, one murmur of delight arose all round the board….”

Today’s recipes come from Isabella Beeton’s Book of Household Management (1861, public domain, Project Gutenberg) and recreate the spirit of the Cratchits’ Christmas dinner.

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Victorian Recipes (Mrs. Beeton, 1861)

Roast Goose

968. INGREDIENTS.— Goose, 4 large onions, 10 sage-leaves, 1/4 lb. bread-crumbs, 1-1/2 oz. butter, salt and pepper to taste, 1 egg.

Choosing and Trussing.— Select a goose with a clean white skin, plump breast, and yellow feet: if these latter are red, the bird is old. Should the weather permit, let it hang for a few days… (text as in Beeton).

Mode.— Make a sage-and-onion stuffing… keep it well basted, and roast from 1-1/2 to 2 hours, according to the size… Serve with good gravy and apple sauce. (Beeton, abridged from your supplied text.)

Time.— A large goose, 1-3/4 hour; a moderate-sized one, 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 hour.

Seasonable.— September to March; in perfection Michaelmas to Christmas.

Cook’s Notes (Modern): If goose is scarce, substitute duck or a small turkey. Prick and render goose fat early to help crisp the skin. Save the fat for potatoes.

Sage-and-Onion Stuffing (for Geese, Ducks, Pork)

504. INGREDIENTS.— 4 large onions, 10 sage-leaves, 1/4 lb. bread-crumbs, 1-1/2 oz. butter, salt and pepper, 1 egg.

Mode.— Parboil onions 5–7 minutes; add sage for 1–2 minutes; drain. Chop very fine; mix with crumbs, butter, seasoning, and egg. (Optional: add finely minced goose liver.)

Cook’s Notes (Modern): For a milder stuffing, do parboil; for punchier flavor, use onions raw as Beeton notes—milder is friendlier to 21st-century palates with rich goose.

Mashed Potatoes

1145. INGREDIENTS.— Potatoes; per lb. allow 1 oz. butter, 2 tbsp milk, salt.

Mode.— Boil in skins; dry thoroughly; peel and mash hot with butter, milk, and salt. Rough up the surface; brown if desired.

Apple Sauce (for Geese, Pork, &c.)

363. INGREDIENTS.— 6 apples, sugar to taste, a piece of butter, water.

Mode.— Pare, core, quarter; simmer with a little water until soft; beat to a pulp with sugar and butter to taste.

A Good Beef Gravy (for Poultry, Game, &c.)

435. INGREDIENTS.— 1/2 lb lean beef, 1/2 pint water, 1 shallot, 1/2 tsp salt, pepper, 1 tbsp Harvey’s sauce or mushroom ketchup, 1/2 tsp arrowroot.

Mode.— Simmer beef with water, shallot, seasoning ~3 hours; thicken with arrowroot; finish with Harvey’s sauce or mushroom ketchup; strain and serve very hot.

Christmas Plum Pudding (Very Good)

1328. INGREDIENTS.— 1-1/2 lb raisins, 1/2 lb currants, 1/2 lb mixed peel, 3/4 lb bread-crumbs, 3/4 lb suet, 8 eggs, 1 wineglass brandy.

Mode.— Prepare fruits and suet; mix dry ingredients; add beaten eggs and brandy; press into a buttered mould; tie tightly with a floured cloth; boil 5–6 hours. Reheat 2 hours on the day; serve with brandy sauce and, if you like, light it at table.

Bonus Pantry Sauces

Harvey’s Sauce

INGREDIENTS.— 6 anchovies, 1 pint strong vinegar, 3 tbsp India soy, 3 tbsp mushroom catchup, 2 heads garlic (bruised), 1/4 oz cayenne, cochineal powder (for colour).

Mode.— Dissolve anchovies in vinegar; add soy, mushroom catchup, garlic, cayenne; tint with cochineal. Infuse 2 weeks, shaking daily; strain and bottle (small bottles; leather over corks).

Cook’s Notes (Modern): A near-modern stand-in is Worcestershire sauce (anchovy-based). Skip cochineal if colouring isn’t desired.

Mushroom Ketchup

INGREDIENTS.— To each peck mushrooms: 1/2 lb salt. To each quart mushroom liquor: 1/4 oz cayenne, 1/2 oz allspice, 1/2 oz ginger, 2 blades mace.

Mode.— Layer full-grown mushroom flaps with salt; macerate 3 days, stirring to extract liquor. Measure liquor; add spices; jar, cover closely, and set in a water bath to boil 3 hours. Simmer a further 1/2 hour; settle overnight; decant gently; strain for clarity if needed. Add a few drops of brandy per pint; bottle and seal. (Reboil with peppercorns if spoilage threatens.)

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Dietary Notes 🥕

• Gluten-free: Use GF bread for stuffing and crumbs in pudding; check soy/ketchup for GF certification.
• Vegetarian options: Swap the goose for a baked squash or nut roast; use veg stock for gravy and omit anchovy-based sauces.
• Suet swap: Use vegetarian suet or grated frozen butter for the pudding if needed.

Sources

• Isabella Beeton, The Book of Household Management (1861), public domain via Project Gutenberg. Link: Project Gutenberg edition.
• Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (1843), public domain.