Christmas Pudding Recipe

Christmas pudding is the dessert traditionally served on Christmas day in the United Kingdom (especially England) and some other Commonwealth countries such as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada. It is sometimes known as plum pudding, though this can also refer to other kinds of boiled pudding involving a lot of dried fruit.

Christmas pudding being flamed with brandyThe pudding needs to be made and cooked well in advance, to allow the flavours to mix (and to save the cook labour on Christmas day); it is merely reheated when it is to be eaten.

The following is a Sussex recipe for Christmas

pudding that is known to have been in annual

use for over 50 years without a break, and is

believed to have been used largely unaltered

since the late nineteenth century, despite the

difficulties in gathering the ingredients during

the rationing in force in the UK in two world

wars. All measurements are in imperial units

(with metric measurements in brackets),

generally meaning that volume measurements

are 20% larger than with the Queen Anne units

used in the USA. Originally, twice or even four

times these quantities would have been made.

(As an aside; Jane Grigson notes in her wonder-

ful book "English Food" that Mrs Beeton's recipe

for Steak and Kidney pudding was sent in by a

correspondent from Sussex and mentions that

by the 1850s, when Mrs Beeton was writing,

that Sussex had been famous for its puddings

for at least a century. Mrs Grigson thus

conjectured that steak and kidney pudding also

had its origins in Sussex. The most famous

pudding indubitably linked to the county is

Sussex Pond Pudding, the most magnificent of

all suet puddings.)

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Notes

Suet can be difficult to find in some countries, e.g. the USA. Butter is an excellent substitute. To incorporate the butter in the mixture, melt it in a microwave or saucepan, and pour into your mixing bowl.

It was common practice to include small silver coins in the pudding mixture, which could be kept by the person whose serving included them. The usual choice was a silver 3d piece (the threepence), or a sixpence. However this practice fell away once real silver coins were not available, as it was believed that alloy coins would taint the pudding.

Once turned out of its basin, the Christmas pudding is traditionally decorated with a spray of holly, then dowsed in brandy, flamed, and brought to the table ceremonially - where it should be greeted with a round of applause. It is best eaten with brandy butter, cream (lemon cream is excellent) or custard. Christmas puddings have very good keeping properties and many families keep one back from Christmas to be eaten at another celebration later in the year.

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See Also:

More about Christmas Pudding

Traditional Christmas Food

Resources:

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