I used to make Christmas puddings every year – as well as the cake and mincemeat for mince pies. There was the classic time when we went down to stay with my Dad in October/November and I began the preparations there, mixing the different fruit, nuts, almonds, peel – and suet for the pudding, and soaking them in different spirits. I can’t remember exactly now but there definitely would have been rum, and maybe brandy, and possibly whisky. Why I decided to do it at dad’s and not at home I have no idea, but when it was time to go back I had the three bowls full of boozy ingredients. I covered them in foil or film, and wedged them among the luggage and set off, thinking that if for whatever the police stopped us and opened the car door they would have had a full blast of alcoholic fumes! Thankfully they didn’t – and of course, even if they had, we hadn’t actually drunk anything!
Here is Mrs Beeton’s recipe for a rich Christmas pudding:
- ½ lb of beef suet (skinned and chopped finely)
- 2 oz of flour
- ½lb of raisins
- ¼ lb of mixed peel
- ½ oz of ground cinnamon
- ½ grated nutmeg
- 1 gill of milk
- ½ of mixed spice
- 1 wineglassful of rum or brandy
- ½ lb of breadcrumbs
- ¼ lb of sultanas
- ¼ lb of currants
- 1 lemon
- 2 oz of desiccated coconut or shredded almonds
- a pinch of salt
- 4 eggs
- clean and stone the raisins, finely shred the mixed peel, peel and chop the lemon rind
- put all the dry ingredients in a basin and mix well
- add the milk stir in the eggs one by one at a time
- add the rum or brandy and the strained juice of the lemon
- work the whole thoroughly for some minutes, so that the ingredients are well blended
- put the mixture in a well-buttered basin or pudding-cloth; if the latter is used it should be buttered or floured
- boil for at least 4 hours or steam for at least five hours
AVERAGE COST 1s 10d (1 shilling 10 pence) SUFFICIENT for 8 or 9 persons
I have to say it doesn’t sound very appetising, more like mincemeat – and quite boozy, a wineglass holds between 6 and 8 fluid ounces apparently! I don’t think I’ll try and replicate it with those quantities, but maybe next year I will try using the same ingredients but slightly differently!
PS with regards to the true story in my opening paragraph – by the time we had got home I had completely forgotten which bowl was for which – cake, pud or mincemeat!!
Lois Elsden 