Jay Rayner on Christmas aromas, 2019’s most memorable meals, and lunch with Mark Gatiss
We dragged the Christmas tree in the other day, tugged off its corset of netting, and watched as the branches splayed out, as if stretching after a blissful sleep. The house filled with the resinous, spicy scent of Nordic sap. The smell of a Nordmann fir tree will always be the heart and soul of Christmas to me. More indicative of the season than any roast turkey or Christmas pudding. It is the background on which the other seasonal scents sit, from hot mince pies and clementines to the dark, sugary notes of sweet sherry.
In this, our second festive issue of the year, Jay Rayner writes about the smells that make up his own Christmas, from the “virtuous interplay of cured pig and its clove-studded treacle glaze” to the “sickly sweetness inside a tin of Quality Street”. Could the smells of Christmas be just as enjoyable as its traditional flavours?
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