Set the Pudding Aflame! The Most Traditional Christmas Dessert

Dec. 20, 2011 - PRLog -- Charles Dickens is revered as a literary icon credited with helping popularize the Victorian-era Christmas traditions that have survived into the 21st century. But one of those traditions has fallen by the wayside: the Christmas pudding. Also known as plum puddings, Christmas puddings are closer to a cake than what we would consider a pudding today, and although they are rarely seen nowadays, they were a fixture in English homes in the mid-1800s.

Christmas puddings, originally an English treat from the Renaissance period, are typically made from a combination of dried fruits, fat, flour or bread crumbs, spice, and liquor. Dickens writes at some length about the importance of the Christmas pudding in “A Christmas Dinner,” his first Christmas story, and goes on to mention the devilish dessert in many other works. Traditionally, it would be served on Christmas night, a massive ball drenched in brandy, set ablaze, and brought to the table to commemorate the return of lengthening days and the promise of a fertile season to come.

Readers can now seize a special opportunity to try this recipe and many others, as well as learn about the history and importance of Christmas traditions and symbols (like Christmas pudding). “A Christmas Dinner” by Charles Dickens, with Peter Ackroyd and Alice Ross, is now available at a special 40% discount at http://www.ADickensChristmas.com for just $15.

You can try this neglected icon of the holiday season by following the recipe below, which appears in its original form from an 1845 cookbook as well as in its updated form, meticulously tested by culinary historian Alice Ross.

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ELIZA ACTON’S CHRISTMAS PUDDING

So three ounces of flour, and the same weight of fine, lightly-grated bread-crumbs, add six of beef kidney-suet, chopped small, six of raisins weighed after they are stoned, *six of well cleaned currants, four ounces of minced apples, five of sugar, two of candied orange rind, half a teaspoonful of nutmeg mixed with pounded mace, a very little salt, a small glass of brandy, and three whole eggs. Mix and beat these ingredients well together, tie them tightly in a thickly-floured cloth, and boil them for three hours and a half. We can recommend this as a remarkably light small rich pudding: it may be served with German wine, or punch sauce.
-Eliza Acton. The Best of Eliza Acton (London, 1845), selected and edited by Elizabeth Ray (1968)

WINE SAUCE FOR SWEET PUDDINGS

Boil gently together for 10-15 minutes the very thin rind of half a small lemon, about an ounce and a half of sugar, and a wineglassful of water. Take out the lemon-peel and stir into the sauce until it has boiled for one minute, an ounce of butter smoothly mixed with a large half-teaspoonful of flour; add a wineglassful and a half of sherry or Madeira or other good white wine, and when quite hot serve the sauce without delay. Port wine sauce is made in the same way with the addition of some grated nutmeg and a little more sugar. Orange-rind and juice may be used for it instead of lemon.
Eliza Acton. The Best of Eliza Acton (London, 1845), selected and edited by Elizabeth Ray (1968)

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Christmas Pudding (for the Modern Cook)
Serves 12-16

½ cup flour
½ cup lightly grated bread crumbs
¾ cup beef kidney suet, chopped fine
¾ cup raisins
¾ cup dried currants
1 large apple, peeled, cored, and diced
1 cup + 2 tbsp. sugar
4 tbsp. candied orange rind or candied citron
½ tsp. ground nutmeg
3 ounces brandy
3 eggs
Salt to taste
Additional flour to dredge the pudding bag, if used
6 ounces brandy for flaming

Mix all ingredients thoroughly together.
Boil a large pot of water. Dip the pudding bag into it, flour thoroughly, and place in a large bowl. Pour in the mixture, tie up securely, leaving an air space to allow for swelling, and a length of cord to hang it suspended into the pot. (A large wooden spoon that bridges the rim of the pot holds it nicely.) Fill in the small opening left at the knot with flour and water paste, to keep the pudding dry. Boil for 3 ½ hours, replenishing with additional boiling water to keep it immersed.

OR: Butter an 8-inch melon mold, add the pudding mixture, and cover with the buttered lid. Place on a rack in a large covered pot, and steam over 2 inches of water for 3 1/2 hours.
Cool a bit before removing from mold.
You’ll want to place the pudding in a ceramic bowl and set that on a large metal tray, for safety’s sake, before proceeding with the final steps.
Pour 2 ounces of brandy into the pudding.
Heat additional brandy, pour it over the pudding and ignite with a long match just before presentation in a darkened room.
Serve with wine sauce.

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For more information or recipes, contact Dan Kleinman at Red Rock Press.

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Daniel Kleinman
Red Rock Press
Daniel@RedRockPress.com
212-362-8204
www.ADickensChristmas.com