The Christmas Chronicles: Notes, stories & 100 essential recipes for midwinter. Nigel Slater
copper wire, is used. As the wick burns, the heat travels downwards, melting the wax that supports it. The wax vapours rise around the wick, catch light and burn, feeding the flame. The wax is fuel to the burning wick. The thicker the wick, the larger the flame. The liquid pool of wax around the wick is known to some as the bishop, though I have absolutely no idea why.
Trimming your wick
Candle wicks are treated to encourage them to burn more slowly. The wick should be kept trimmed – snip off any burned cotton with scissors before lighting. Too long a wick will encourage the candle to smoke. In some cases a long wick can collapse back into the wax. No one wants that. I often pinch the burned cotton between my fingers when I can’t be bothered to go and fetch the scissors. If my fingers aren’t covered in fountain pen ink, they are sporting smudges of candle soot.
A life lived by the light of a candle
This is an old house, and candlelight suits it. The wobbly walls, the floorboards that creak even when you are still, the draughts that seep from every window and door. Most rooms have a fireplace; three of them, including the kitchen, have two. The space comes alive when candles are lit, shadows are exaggerated, corners deepen, here and there walls show the outline of doors long blocked up. These rooms have stories to tell. In daylight or under electric lights, the house is like any other, a closed book.
At the table
Candlelight has the extraordinary ability to make any meal into a special occasion, even when it is simply a bowl of soup and some bread and cheese. The light it gives welcomes and warms, soothes and calms. Faces glow, details are accentuated. Our lines, scars and wrinkles are more beautiful than ever.
Scented candles for Christmas
Much as I appreciate the purity of an unscented beeswax candle, scented candles can be interesting. They can be charming or hideously overpowering, depending on the type of scent used.
Scents come in every possibility, from wet cloisters to toasted brioche, wax floorboards to freshly ironed linen, and every imaginable flower, leaf and spice. I have to hold my hands up here and admit that I may not be a food snob but I am most certainly a candle snob. Cheap scented candles are simply disgusting. They smell of air freshener. Here are a few I recommend for burning at Christmas. All are subtle, and I promise they are not going to make your house smell like a cheap gift shop or a massage parlour.
Carmelite by Cire Trudon
A favourite of mine, often to be found burning in my basement kitchen, and whose ‘wet’ scent seems appropriate for the old stone floors, low ceilings and rough white walls. A deeply peaceful scent, of mossy stone and water. Not for Christmas Day, but for quiet moments before everyone gets up. There are the faintest notes of orange and clove, with heart-notes of violet and cardamom. Or, as the creator puts it, ‘the black and white silhouettes of nuns, walking through the silence of a ritual mass’. Which is probably why it seems so appropriate in this house.
Spiritus Sancti by Cire Trudon
‘Splinters of crimson, gold and olibanum,’ says the creator, ‘under the nave of a cathedral, the jubilant choir and holy scents rise into the souls.’ There is magic in this scent, the perfect candle for Christmas Day. A fleeting note of incense too.
Santa Maria Novella
In 1221 Dominican friars built a monastery, just outside the city gate in Florence, and began to experiment with herbs grown in their gardens. Initially intended for the monastery’s infirmary, the pharmacy opened to the public in 1612, and the Dominicans officially started selling their ‘curative and ephemeral products’. To this day they sell their fragrances around the world. Their Melograno soap has been a permanent feature of my bathroom for many years. Their pale ivory Melograno candle is said to bring good luck and fortune for the coming year.
Ash by Perfumer H
A mixture of carde (a relative of the juniper plant), frankincense and amber. This is the candle I have burning pretty much permanently in my house on winter mornings. Understated, like the company that makes it, gentle and haunting, a scent as old as time.
Diptyque produce some fine fragances too, especially Ivy and Bay, both perfect for winter. And yes, they all cost a small fortune but let’s be honest, the ‘Christmas candles’ that smell of cinnamon and mulled wine are particularly unpleasant. I will walk a mile to save a penny, but when it comes to candles, I think we should go for broke.
Candle myths and tips
Storing
There is a candle shelf in the larder, next to my collection of balls of string. (I have string for every occasion, some as fine as cotton thread, and some for the garden that smell of tar. It’s a borderline obsession.) Like Christmas pudding, I buy candles one year for the next. I have been led to believe that the older and drier the wax, the longer they will burn. If you keep the lid on the box, the scent will not disappear for a good year or more. Aged candles seem to last longer. Candle experts disagree. This is distinct from curing, ageing a candle for a few weeks before it is first used, a process by which the wax and the perfume bond. Maybe I just like storing candles.
Bloom
Candles that have been in store sometimes develop a powdery coat, like a damson. This can be wiped off with a soft, dry cloth.
Burn rate
Look for candles with a long burn rate. It is usually marked on the box. This will tell you roughly how long a candle should burn for if burned continuously. Burning the candle in a draught will reduce its life.
A smoking candle
Occasionally a candle will produce plumes of black smoke. This is usually because the flame is being disturbed by a draught, causing the natural teardrop of light to distort and flicker. Rather appropriate if you happen to be reading a ghost story on a winter’s night. Annoying if not. Which is why candles on window ledges often burn less evenly than those on a table in the centre of a room.
Chilling your candles
I was brought up to believe that candles should be stored in the fridge, as a cold candle burns more slowly. Sadly, although based on truth, the wax warms so quickly once lit that the practice is somewhat pointless.
Incidentally, Fortnum & Mason department store, one of the capital’s prettiest Christmas sights, is, as Tom Parker Bowles says in The Cook Book, ‘a company built on spent wax’. William Fortnum, footman to Queen Anne, was allowed to keep the spent candles, which he then successfully sold on, before eventually teaming up with Mr Mason to open their eponymous Piccadilly store. Their selection of dinner candles remains dazzling to this day.
Roast cabbage with cheese sauce
Happy tweets and emails have been coming in today about my recipe for roast cabbage. There is something particularly heart-warming about this, especially as I wasn’t initially sure about the idea. I make it again, tonight, and sure enough, the readers are right, it is really good for a cold night. The Parmesan and old-fashioned sauce ensure its frugality goes unnoticed.
Serves 4
garlic – 2 cloves
olive oil – 2 tablespoons
lemon juice – 2 tablespoons
a small cabbage
Parmesan – 55g
milk – 500ml
bay leaves – 2
half an onion
butter – 30g
plain flour – 30g
bread, open-textured, such as ciabatta – a thick slice
smoked paprika – a pinch (optional)
sprouted seeds
Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6. Peel the garlic and crush to a paste with a little salt. Put the paste into a small mixing bowl and stir in the olive oil and lemon juice. Season with a generous grinding of black pepper.
Slice