NANA MOON'S CHRISTMAS PUDDING

Old-fashioned Christmas boiled pudding

This recipe differs from others I've seen in that it uses no spices!just dried fruit and brandy. Perhaps spices were too difficult to get!it tastes great anyway.

Ingredients

• 300 g flour (unbleached)
• 200 g suet (see note below)
• 200 g brown sugar
• 120 g bread crumbs
• 350 g raisins
• 350 g sultanas (or golden raisins)
• 100 g currants
• 250 ml brandy (or orange juice, or a mixture of both)
• 15 ml golden (cane) syrup
• 5 eggs
• 2.5 ml baking soda
• 15 ml milk

Procedure

1. Combine the suet, flour, sugar, breadcrumbs, fruit and brandy.
2. Cover, and allow to stand overnight.
3. Add the syrup and beaten eggs.
4. Dissolve the baking soda in the milk, and add to mixture. Stir until everything's combined. (The mixture will be fairly thick. My mother used to get help at this stage by telling us that if we stirred it three times and made a wish, the wish would come true. This only works with Christmas puddings.)
5. Place in two 1.5 l pudding basins, cover with paper and several layers of aluminium foil, and steam for 4 hours.
6. When you're going to eat it, steam it for a further 2 hours. Serve by turning it out of the bowl, and pouring flaming brandy over it (see below). Serve with brandy butter (hard brandy sauce).

Notes

Each pudding will serve about 8-10 people. If you halve the recipe, use 3 eggs. You can also add cherries, figs, almonds, and so on when you're adding the fruit.

The suet can be replaced with some other form of shortening. The packaged suet we used to be able to get in Australia was only about 35% suet, the rest was cornflour (cornstarch). Avoid that at all costs. For a few years, we bought suet from the butcher and grated it ourselves (ok, we used a blender), but no one should have to do that (at least, not during an Australian summer).

If you decide to go for authenticity and use a pudding bag, here's how:

Get a large piece of calico (it must have a tight weave), and boil it for a few minutes. Rub flour into the inner surface. Place 1/2 the mixture on it, and bring the corners together, leaving room for the mixture to rise. Tie with string. Cook by immersing in boiling water!when you add extra water, it must be already boiling, or the pudding will get soggy. The pudding will be rounder, and have a better crust than one steamed in a pudding bowl. A good crust means that the brandy won't soak in when you light it, so it'll burn for longer. Age the pudding by hanging it in a cool, dry place. The problem with using a pudding bag is that it tends to grow mold if the climate is too humid.

To light the pudding, heat about 75 ml of brandy in a saucepan. Light it, then pour over the pudding and carry it to the table.

Rating

Contributor

 
Kathy Morris 
Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif., USA 
sun!navajo!morris morris@navajo.stanford.edu 
 

Original header

Path: decwrl!recipes
From: morris@diablo (Kathy Morris)
Newsgroups: mod.recipes
Subject: RECIPE: Christmas pudding
Message-ID: <7005@decwrl.DEC.COM>
Date: 19 Dec 86 02:45:58 GMT
Sender: recipes@decwrl.DEC.COM
Organization: Stanford University, CS Dept, Palo Alto CA
Lines: 116
Approved: reid@decwrl.ARPA


 Copyright (C) 1986 USENET Community Trust
Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted
provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial
advantage, the USENET copyright notice and the title of the newsgroup and
its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of
the USENET Community Trust or the original contributor.

This old recipe originally used pounds, ounces, cups, teaspoons and
tablespoons . I translated it into metric, after a fashion, so I could make
it in Australia. Then I had to translate it back when I got to the U.S.,
though it now uses pounds instead of just cups, so it's not in "American"
either.