In the spirit of both Christmas and Historical Cookery I endeavored to cook Recipe 1328 from The Book of Household Management by Isabella Beeton: "Christmas Plum-Pudding (Very Good)"
This book is full of recipes, anthropology, history, and a surprising amount of perspective into the lives of Victorian housewives. A first edition facsimile like I used can be gotten here, or you can simply pick up the free Kindle edition, or the one at Project Gutenberg.
For those who don't know, Christmas Pudding / Plum Pudding / Figgy pudding is a traditional Christmas dessert which, paradoxically, neither contains plums nor figs, and does not fit the American definition of pudding. What it is is the boozy predecessor to the fruit cake.
Like fruitcake, this is very dense. Beeton says this recipe produces a 1 quart mold of pudding suitable for 5 or 6. In my experiment I got 2 1 quart molds, that would feed ~8 people each for a total of 16 servings.
Traditionally this is made the weekend before Thanksgiving, and stored at least a month to "age".
The Ingredients: (by weight!)
 |
| Bread Crumbs |
- 1.5lb raisins
- 0.5lb currants
- 0.5lb mixed peel
- 0.75lb bread crumbs
- 0.75lb suet (unrendered beef fat)
- 8 eggs
- 1 wineglass full brandy
- Pudding Basin
- Parchment paper
- Cheesecloth
- A big mixing bowl
Before we can start cooking we need to cover some of these ingredients more in depth. . .
Mixed Peel: We're talking candied citrus peel, usually a 50 / 50 mix of orange and lemon. You can make this on your own (if enough people ask I will post a recipe for this), but I bought mine at Berkeley Bowl. Make sure to mince the peel.
Bread Crumbs: These need to be super fine. Beeton recommends grating them on a cheese grater, but I pulsed them in a food processor. Also the bread should be dried in an oven, not stale. I made a really basic white bread ala Ratio (5 parts / 600g flour, 3 parts / 360g water, 2 tspn yeast, 1.5 tspn salt, 1 tbspn sugar) and then sliced and dried it.
Suet: This can be hard to find. I recommend going to a butcher that cuts/trims their own meat. Make sure they stick the suet through a meat grinder for you, so you don't have to finely mince it on your own.
"1 wineglass" of Brandy: I added a modern white-wine-glass-ful, and then worried it was too much compared to Victorian wineglass volumes, but the final product does not at all taste too much of brandy so just go with any modern glass you have lying around.
Pudding Basin: You have 3 options here. You can buy fancy aluminum basins at cooking stores or online that give your pudding cool shapes , or go for a classic ceramic British pudding basin, or just use a glass or ceramic bowl you have lying around. Whatever you use needs to have a lip to tie string around. As mentioned above, the recipe calls for a 1 quart mold but I filled 2 1 quart molds, so best to have a second one handy or buy a 2 quart mold.
Disclaimers out of the way, let's get on to the cooking!
*If you are using an aluminum mold, steps 8-10 will be different for you
- Mix all the dry ingredients in a big mixing bowl
- Add the suet and continue to mix
- Add the brandy to the eggs and whisk until blended
- Pour egg/brandy mix over the other ingredients
- Mix again (At this point you are dealing with large messy volumes and your goal is a homogeneous mixture, so I recommend abandoning the spoon and using your hands.)
- Butter your mold/basin/whathaveyou generously
- Pack the pudding into the mold. You don't want to go above the edge, but you do want to compact it down
- Cut out 2 circles of parchment paper to the same diameter as the bowl, and place them on top of the pudding mix
- Cover the top of the bowl with a square of 4-ply cheesecloth big enough to be tied down under the lip
- Using kitchen twine, tie the cheesecloth onto the basin, then make a handle out of twine for moving the bowl into and out of boiling water.
- Boil the pudding for 6 hours
- DO NOT let the water level get above the top of the pudding. Start with the water ~1 inch below the top of the bowl, and keep the pot covered and simmering with the water at this level. This will require you to frequently top up the pot with more hot water. (I found an electric kettle indispensable)
- After 6 hours remove the pudding and put it away in a cupboard to store. Do not remove/replace the cheesecloth or parchment paper as everything is now boiled and sterile.
- Before serving reboil for 2 hours as per step 11
- Upend the basin / mold onto a pate
- Light a ladle of brandy on fire, and pour it over the pudding
- Serve with heavy cream, whipped cream, or hard sauce (recipes for all of these can be found online)
 |
| Mixed Pudding |
 |
| Pudding Unveiled |
 |
| Pudding After Boiling, Ready for Storage |
Another traditional way to make the pudding it to forgo the mold/basin/bowl and simply make a tight round sphere of pudding encased in 4 ply cheesecloth. Because this is more open to the air, you need to keep spoilage at bay by pouring a generous amount of brandy over the pudding 1-2x a week. However, Beeton's version does not recommend this step, she merely stored the pudding in cupboards, so I did not make my pudding this way. I added the parchment paper lids under the cheesecloth specifically because I was worried about aerobic bacteria growing on the pudding without regular brandyings
 |
| Tiny Currants and Huge Raisins |
This pudding came out much mellower than other Christmas puddings I have had. The beef suet and the relatively small amount of currants and peel gave it a smooth and less tart flavor that I quite like. I would say it beats modern store bought versions hands down, and that if you find modern home made Christmas Pudding to be too tart, you will find this a pleasant alternative. Another contributor to the excellent flavor may have been the extremely plump flame raisins I bought from Berkeley Bowl.
 |
| Pudding on FIRE! |
To finish I would like to thank Walter for his technical expertise from years of making modern Chrstmas Puddings, which helped me interpret some of Mrs. Beeton's instructions.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thoughts? Suggestions?