Even if each family has its own classic recipes for Christmas, most French people eat the same things for Christmas. Christmas turkey, chocolate truffles… What is the best French food for Christmas? What should you cook or try this Christmas?
Around Christmas time, people get excited about presents, snow and food… All around the world, friends and families cook traditional Christmas dishes. What would you cook in France? Here are some appetizers, main dishes and desserts to enjoy.
The Best French Food for Christmas: les entrées
Christmas is all about taking time to get together as a family or with friends. And in France, we like using this time to eat delicious food! It explains why French dinners can be very long. Do you want a 4-course service? Or a 6-course service? French people have plenty of delicious food to keep you interested for hours.
Foie gras
Foie gras, which is French for “fatty liver”, is a product made of the livers or ducks or geese that have been fattened. Gavage-based foie gras production is controversial, since it goes against the well-being of animals.
You can eat foie gras in various forms : raw, half-cooked, cooked, in a terrine, on a piece of beef, etc. This delicacy is best served with stewed red onions and a sweet white wine like Montbazillac.
Saumon fumé
Smoked salmon is also a staple during Christmas, especially if you spend it with people who love seafood. You can eat it alone, with cream or with blinis and lemon juice.
Huîtres
Either you love oysters, or you despise oysters. There is no middle ground, right? If your Christmas dinner starts with a seafood platter, you will most likely find some oysters in it. You can eat oysters with shallot vinegar or even cooked with some leeks and cheese.
Coquilles Saint-Jacques
And finally, scallops! There are plenty of ways to cook scallops, but we recommend you fry them with a lot of garlic and parsley. Finish the dish with some cream, and enjoy! If you have scallops in their shells, you can add some white whine and bechamel sauce before popping them in the oven.
Escargots
French people are well known for eating escargots (snails) in garlic butter. Should you try it? Absolutely! Most of the time, you will only taste the delicious garlic butter.
French Food for Christmas: le plat principal
Dinde
Originally, geese were eaten for Christmas. But around 1570, the Spanish came back from America with turkeys! As an exotic and rare bird, turkey was a meal of choice for Christmas. Nowadays, turkeys are stuffed with sausage meat, chestnuts and herbs (or croutons and sage in Quebec).
Gibier
Looking for the most unique French food for Christmas? Have some venison. In France, it’s a tradition to have some venison (deer, boar, partridge) during the end of the year celebrations. But this meat may seem strong in taste, which is why it is often replaced by poultry.
Homard
If you’re not a meat lover, you can have lobster for Christmas. Obviously, you might not be as full as with some turkey or ham, but since Christmas dinners are very heavy, it’s a blessing in disguise. Enjoy your lobster and all the sides!
French Food for Christmas: les accompagnements
Gratin dauphinois
Looking for a side dish that everybody will love? The gratin dauphinois (or potatoes à la dauphinoise) is pretty simple to cook. You just need thinly sliced potatoes, milk, butter and garlic. In the original recipe, there isn’t any cheese. But we have to admit, it’s even better with cheese on top, like a gratin.
Pommes de terre sautées
Even easier than gratin dauphinois. To cook these potatoes, you just have to make sure that every potato piece is covered in something greasy. You can use olive oil, butter, or duck fat. In the South-West en France, potatoes are cooked in goose fat (or duck fat), garlic and parsley, and are called “pommes sarladaises”.
Purée de patates douces
Like our friends from North America, we sometimes have mashed sweet potato. You can prepare it with only sweet potatoes and butter, or add some Christmas spices like ginger and nutmeg.
Poêlée de champignons
Finally, why not go outside for a walk and pick some wild mushrooms? Sautéed mushrooms are a great side dish for meat and potatoes. But be careful if you’re cooking mushrooms that you picked yourself: they might be toxic.
French Food for Christmas: le dessert
Cheese platter
Not a sweet tooth? Well, obviously French people love cheese. So you’ll be sure to find a cheese platter before or during dessert. Try to eat the most delicate cheeses first, in order to end your tasting with strong cheeses. Otherwise, the subtle taste of delicate cheeses will be ruined.
La bûche de Noël
It’s difficult to cook a French Christmas dinner without a yule log for dessert. Yule log is a traditional cake served for Christmas, especially in Belgium, France, Switzerland, Quebec, etc. It is traditionally made with a genoise rolled in the form of a cylinder, filled with cream or jam, and iced on the outside with chocolate or coffee buttercream.
Nowadays, you can find plenty of modern versions that are made with fruit flavors, liqueurs or even ice cream.
Marrons glacés
As a sweet treat at the end of this long meal (and if you’re still hungry), you can have some candied chestnuts.
Truffes au chocolat
Do you still have room for (yet another) treat? Have some chocolate truffles! Supposedly, it was invented by Louis Dufour, a pastry cook, in 1895. Since he didn’t have enough chocolate to make some Christmas sweets, he decided to mix some crème fraîche, vanilla and chocolate powder, before adding this in some melted chocolate. Regular chocolate truffles are rolled in chocolate powder, but you can also roll it in coconut powder, caramel, broken candy canes, etc.
Hopefully, this article didn’t give you any indigestion. But if you want to have the best French food for Christmas, you have to be all in. And that means listening to French Christmas songs while you cook! You might also want to try these Thanksgiving dishes with a French twist.
