Questions about Food: Christmas Twist
- What other names/forms/varieties does your food have?
- Bohemian Christmas Twist
- Czech Braided Bread (Vanocka)
- Czech Christmas Hoska
- What are the main ingredients of your food (if it is a dish)? What are additional ingredients added sometimes or in some places?
- 4 cups of flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup butter (chilled and cut into small pieces)
- ½ teaspoon Mace
- Grated rind of ½ lemon
- 1 package yeast (dissolved in ¼ cup of water @105 to 115 degrees with one 1 teaspoon sugar—this usually foams in about 10 minutes)
- 1 Cup of scalded milk
- 1 beaten egg
- Where does your food come from? Where do the ingredients come from?
- The food is a family recipe but is a combination of a few Czech Christmas bread recipes
- The recipe is made up of Bohemian Christmas Twist, Czech Braided Bread (Vanocka), Czech Christmas Hoska
- Who eats your food? Who doesn’t eat your food?
- The main people that eat Christmas Twist is my family (the Pokorny family), no one else really eats the twist because it is a family recipe, but people in the Czech Republic each a more common variation of it
- What is your food associated with?
- Christmas Twist is associated with Christmas and family coming together hence the name, it is usually made the evening before Christmas and all the family members help out in a little way
- What does this food mean to you? What associations do you have with this food?
- This food to me carries the meaning of family and joining together because the recipe has been passed down generations
- List as many memories associated with this food as you can.
- I have countless memories associated with Christmas Twist because my family makes it every year since I was little, making it with my cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents
- These images are the closest images I could find that looks like Christmas Twist
Then, list 5 questions you have about your food – what do you want to find out about your food through research?
- Through my research I would like to find out where the different bread variations came from?
- I would also like to know how commonly the different variations are eaten in the Czech Republic?
- A more personal question I have is I would like to know which of my family members came up with the recipe?
- I would like to know the specific location Czech Christmas bread originated from so I try to see if my ancestors lived around there causing them to create their own recipe or if it was just a popular dish and my family just made variations to it?
- What time period did the recipe and all its variations originate?
