FACTORALY - CHRISTMAS: DAY 6 - DINNER

Episode Date: December 29, 2024

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Merry Christmas, Simon. Merry Christmas, Bruce. Welcome to Factorial, everyone. Yes, hello, everyone. This is a special because we are going to be giving you 12 in 12 days, because there are 12 days of Christmas. Indeed, instead of the usual one a week, you get one every single day for the whole 12 days of Christmas. But because it's one a day, they're obviously not as long as they normally are. Indeed. So these are going to be relatively short, relatively punchy, quick little snippets of festive, Christmassy, informative fun.

Yeah, of course we're going to take a subject every day. Yes. But the subjects will be Christmas relevant. Indeed. So that's the plot. Let's get on with it. Off we go. So what is the Christmassy subject that we are talking about today, Bruce? Well, if you're peckish, we're talking about Christmas dinner today. Yummy.

Mmm, sprouts. Yes. Do you like sprouts? I love sprouts, and I'm proud to say that my son loves sprouts as well. Well, he should, because it's genetic. Is it really? Yes. No.

So, there's a substance in sprouts which mimics a thing called the ptc gene right and if you've got the ptc gene or sensitivity to the pct gene in your system yeah anything that's bitter tastes 60 times more bitter than it does to people who haven't wow that's quite a lot more bitter it is a lot more bitter but but sprouts are incredibly good for you yes they are i mean they have more vitamin c than orange well 80 grams of sprouts have more vitamin c than an orange really yeah unless you've boiled it for like two and a half hours like sure then it's different yeah yeah but nowadays people should like pan fry them with yes almonds and garlic and things yes yeah i'm always surprised when i see sprouts on a stick i kind of forget

that this is how they grow you think somebody's threaded them onto a stick well they remind me of those those batons that morris dancers jingle around yeah with all the bells on yes they just look i'm a bit disappointed that they don't jingle um apparently uh uk supermarkets sell around 750 million brussels sprouts around christmas time wow but no but at no other time yeah no other time um but only about half of those that are purchased are actually eaten oh they get away. Half are pushed to one side of the plate and said, ugh. Have these people never heard of bubble and squeak? I love bubble and squeak. All the uses.

The other thing, of course, that goes on a Christmas dinner plate is turkey. Yes, often too dry. Yes. There are myriad sketches and jokes around about the fact that once a year we all sit down to eat what is essentially a dry, flavourless, large chicken. And no one really likes it. But at the same time, no one really wants to abolish it. Yes. Strange things. Well, the people who eat the most turkeys are Israelis.

Is that right? Israel eats more turkeys than anywhere else. Really? Yeah. Huh. I don't know why. I imagine it's because it's kosher or something. Could be.

But you know after you've had your meal, you kind of sit there and you feel kind of sleepy. Yeah. That's actually a chemical thing. Okay. Because there's a chemical in turkey called tryptophan. Oh. And tryptophan oh and tryptophan makes you tired really so if you've had lots of turkey you will feel tired afterwards so don't worry about it it's not just you it's everybody so if you substitute the turkey for something else

yeah goose or something you won't feel so tired yeah huh brilliant Brilliant. Do you know what? I wondered what they call turkeys in Turkey. I wonder. And I found out. Oh, oh, go on. They call them the American bird. Do they?

Yes. That's brilliant. Translation from the Turkish. Because the Americans first started eating turkey around Thanksgiving. Yeah, they are an American bird. Turkey is indigenous to America. They are natives to America, yeah. I wonder if that's why we started using them at Christmas, do you think?

They'd overstocked on the turkeys for Thanksgiving. They had too many left over and someone said, ah, let's just use one for Christmas dinner one day. That's quite possible, isn't it? Could be. Not verified, but it's a theory. there are so many different elements to the christmas dinner and and what i actually prefer is sort of the boxing day buffet okay the cold the cold picky bits and the snacks and the pickles and the crisps and the nuts and the cheeses apart from the

pudding you can't you can't have a cold pudding cold christmas pudding no you can't no that would be right do you like a Christmas pudding? Actually, I do, especially with some really nice thick brandy butter and cream and all that stuff. Very nice. And if it's been lit. Sure. Do you know the secret of lighting one is that you mix the brandy with vodka. Oh, okay.

And then when you pour it over, it's actually slightly more flammable. Oh, really? Mm then when you pour it over, it's actually slightly more flammable. Oh, really? Mm-hmm. Great idea. And I still have old silver sixpences that my mum used to use in her puddings. Oh. And used to wrap them up in little bits of silver foil. Oh.

And put them into a pudding. How lovely. Yeah. This is vaguely Christmas dinner related, I suppose it's food. Yule logs. Yes. One of my favourite Christmassy facts is the origin of the yule log, again, comes back from this yuletide celebration

going back a couple of thousand years in Europe. They would have a really, really big log that they would burn in the fireplace for the whole of the yule tide season to to heat the house at the end of the season they would stump out the fire and they would keep a little bit of that log behind to light next year's yule log oh that's a sort of a symbol of ongoing etc um and uh then then at some point or other someone said hey do you know what we should do with that little stump of a symbol of ongoing etc um and uh then then at some point or other someone said hey do you know what we should do with that little stump of a yule log that's sitting in the corner we should put it on the table and decorate it and make a feature of it um and then that eventually turned into

someone saying do you know what would be even better chocolate chocolate log on the christmas table oh yeah definitely you know i mentioned putting money into a christmas pudding oh yes Oh, yeah. Definitely. You know, I mentioned putting money into a Christmas pudding. Oh, yes. The Danes do something similar. Do they? So when you finish a Christmas dinner in Denmark, there's a large bowl of rice pudding. Right.

And hidden in the rice pudding are some almonds. OK. So you kind of do a serving of rice pudding and people eat the rice pudding. And if you find the almond, then you're given a treat. And there's usually, if it's a large Christmas dinner, there'll be more than one almond. Yeah. So children will kind of ask for like sevenths and eighths. Never mind seconds. They'll just keep eating through the

rice pudding until they find and find an almond brilliance well thank you for listening to this christmas special indeed thank you very much for coming along we hope you'll join us again next time for another fun-filled episode of factually bye