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richard-in-cincy

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Years ago an elderly family friend used to make the most amazing traditional steamed plum puddings for christmas with hard sauce. She bought her suet from a local farmer and minced it by hand and all that. Of course I asked for the recipe and I promptly lost it years ago. Is anyone using an old heirloom christmas pudding recipe that includes suet that they could share? TIA!

 
Here is one I have used often........

This is from my very tattered and stained "Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbood" 1956. (By the way, the price was $3.75, ah, those were the days.)

English Plum Pudding

1 C sifted flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 tsp mace

Mix in...
1.5 C finely cut raisins (1/2 lb)
1.5 C currants plumped
3/4 C finely cut citron
3/4 C finely cut candied orange and lemon peel
1/2 C chopped walnuts
1.5 C coarse soft bread crumbs

Mix and blend in...
2 C ground suet
1 C brown sugar
3 eggs beaten
1/3 C currant jelly
1/4 C fruit juice or brandy or sherry

Pour into a well greased 2 quart mold. Steam 6 hours. Serve hot with Hard Sauce

16 servings

 
A couple of comments

Be sure to grease the grooves in your mold very well so the pudding will release nicely and look good. I used to make this at least a week before and sprinkle it with brandy while it was warm. Then wrap tightly in foil and refrigerate until needed. Then pop it back in the mold and re-steam it until it is hot.

I haven't made it for a long time because it is quite heavy after a big meal. I prefer a lighter one that I make, Steamed ginger pudding. It is still festive but seems more popular. No suet, though.

 
Richard, here's one I make every year.

KING GEORGE I CHRISTMAS PUDDING

TO MAKE TWO

225 g (1/2 lb) fresh breadcrumbs
225 g (1/2 lb) flour
350 g (3/4 lb) suet
225 g (1/2 lb) demerara sugar
225 g (1/2 lb) ordinary raisins
225 g (1/2 lb) large stoneless raisins (Malaga)
100 g (1/4 lb) Sultanas
225 g (1/2 lb) mixed candied peel, lemon, orange and citron
1/2 tsp. mixed spice
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. salt
4 eggs, size 2
150 ml (1/4 pint) milk
1 wineglass brandy

Hard Sauce

100 g (4 oz softened sweet butter)
50 g (2 oz castor sugar)
2 - 3 tbsps. brandy
1/4 tsp. grated lemon rind

In a large bowl mix together all the dry ingredients, Beat the eggs thoroughly until frothy, add the milk and brandy and stir the liquids into the fruit, flour, and suet mixture. Cover the bowl and let it stand at room temperature for 12 hours. (This is important as it gives the flavours a change to mellow.)

Share the mixture between two buttered 1.2 litre (1 quart) pudding basins. Leave at least 3 cm (i inch) headroom for the puddings to expand. Cover with a sheet of greaseproof paper and then a layer of foil, tie it with string, crossing the string across the top to make a handle to lift the puddings. *

Place an upturned saucer in the bottom of a large pan of water and bring it to the boil. Lower in the puddings--the water should come to within 3 cm (1 inch) of the top; bring it back to the boil, cover the pan and simmer steadily for 5 hours. Check the water level from time to time and fill up with boiling water when necessary.

When the puddings have had 5 hours cooking they should be covered with clean covers and put in a cool place to mature for at least a month.

On Christmas Day boil them for at least 2 hours before serving with hard sauce and a traditional sprig of holly. (I microwave the pudding for 5 minutes instead of boiling.)

HARD SAUCE

Beat the butter and sugar together in the bowl, either with an electric mixer or by hand, until the mixture is light. Beat in the brandy and lemon rind. Mound the mixture in a bowl or roll into little balls the size of walnuts and chill.

For Vegetarian Pudding replace suet with butter.

Sylvia's Notes: Just for a change I substitute the dried raisins with dried cranberries, cherries and blueberries.

* I cover the pudding bowl with plastic wrap and put the whole bowl into a heavy ziplock bag, make sure it is tightly closed and immerse it in the water. This has worked quite well for me.

 
Thanks so much

some great info here (Love your boiling technique Syl!). We're doing very traditional Victorian Christmas dindin this year, and since I have a local source for my beef and suet, I just had to do up the Christmas pud the right way!

Thanks everyone.

 
Here's my English dad's

These mellow and darken with time, and I've eaten 10-year-old puddings.

Don't use supermarket suet, which is crappy quality and best given to birds. A good butcher should be able to provide proper kidney suet (though sometimes they need advance notice). Same goes for any steamed pud with suet.


10-Day Plum Pudding
(Fills 6 pudding bowls)

Combine:
2-1/2 cups sifted flour
1 lb suet
3-1/4 cups fine fresh breadcrumbs

Dust with flour and add:
1 lb mixed candied peel
2 cups currants
2 cups sultanas
1-1/2 cups raisins

Add
3 cups shredded tart apples
1-1/4 cups chopped blanched almonds
1-1/2 cups light brown sugar
Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp each: mace, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt
1/2 tsp ground cloves

Mix well, preferably with your hands. The mixture must be well bound together. Then add:
1 cup rum

Mix again.

Cover and keep in a cool place or in the fridge for 10 days. Each day, add 1/4 cup rum (or cognac or orange liqueur or any combo thereof). Mix well each time.

On the 11th day, add:
6 well-beaten eggs.

Mix well.

Fill pudding bowls, leaving some room for expansion.

To Steam:
Cover bowls with wax paper and tie it tightly with string.
Cove that with foil and tie it tightly.
Place bowls on a rack in a deep pot and add water to come halfway up the sides.
Cover and boil for 6 to 8 hours, depending on size of pudding bowl.
Remove puddings and let cool.
Uncover them, pour a glass of rum (or whatever) over each, and cover them with plastic wrap (add an elastic band to seal well).
Store in a cool place and occasionally add a little rum (or whatever) while they are ripening to keep them moist and mellow.

To Microwave: (Note: I've never done this)
Loosely cover bowl with paper towel.
Cook at Medium for 6 minutes.
Cook at High for 2 minutes. Insert a knife to test for doneness: the batter at the centre should be moist but not wet.
Repeat cooking at High for 2 minutes if necessary.
Let cool, then splash with rum (or whatever), tightly cover with plastic wrap, and add an elastic band to seal well.
Store in a cool place and occasionally add a little rum (or whatever) while they are ripening to keep them moist and mellow.

Reheating:
Remove plastic wrap.
Splash with alcohol of choice.
Cover with wax paper, using a fold to allow for expansion, and tie tightly.
Cover that with foil, using a fold to allow for expansion, and tie tightly.
Place the bowl on a rack in a deep pot and add water to come halfway up the bowl.
Boil for 2 to 3 hours.

Serve with Brandy Butter or Hard Sauce.

 
PS. The bowls are the smooth-sided ironstone bowls, usually

about 4 cup volume, not the metal fluted tins with the tube in the middle and the lid, also known as pudding bowls. None of my English relations ever used those.

 
Ah yes. Gold old Mom's. She made it in October, steamed it in old jam cans that

don't exist any longer. We always had it for Christmas dinner.

Hers had carrots in it. Do you want it with carrots? And no plums. Just currants and raisins.

It was a British recipe as well.

Not sure if that's what you're looking for but I do have it somewhere.

 
Richard, this recipe comes from a British cookbook that claims it to be authentic.

I've been making it for years now and always serve it with hard sauce but also offer rum sauce or lemon sauce for those who might prefer it.

BTW.......I put a coin wrapped in foil deep into the pudding for someone to find. A warning to guests to look for it is a good idea......wouldn't want to be responsible for a broken tooth.

 
Puddings are somewhat like fruitcake but are served hot and with a sauce of some sort.

The most traditional is "hard sauce" which is basically a mixture of icing sugar, butter and rum or brandy.

 
If you're worried about the suet

don't be. It's better for you than butter and it melts into the pudding as it is steamed and gives an amazing depth to the flavors. It isn't greasy if you're worried about that.

 
Fascinating. I wonder if the carrots started as a war-time ration/sub?

Many interesting recipes since I've started looking into this. If you have the time, I would love to see the carrot pudding.

 
1896 Recipe for "English Plum Pudding"

Going through my recipes tonight I've found some interesting things. This on is from the Fannie Merritt Farmer Boston Cooking-School Cookbook (1896)

1/2 lb. Stale Bread Crumbs
1 cup Scalded Milk
1/4 lb. Sugar
4 Eggs
1/2 lb. Raisins, seeded, cut in pieces, and floured
1/4 lb. Currants
1/4 lb. Finely Chopped Figs
2 oz. Finely Cut Citron
1/2 lb. Suet
1/4 cup Wine and Brandy mixed
1/2 Grated Nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/3 teaspoon Clove
1/3 teaspoon Mace

Soak bread crumbs in milk, let stand until cool, add sugar, beaten yolks of eggs, raisins, currants, figs, and citron; chop suet, and cream by using the hand; combine mixtures, then add wine, brandy, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, mace, and whites of eggs beaten stiff. Turn into buttered mould, cover, and steam six hours.

 
1860 Recipe for "Rich Plum Pudding"

from Godey's Lady's Book, 1860

Stone carefully one pound of the best raisins, wash and pick one pound of currants, chop very small one pound of fresh beef suet, blanch and chop small or pound two ounces of sweet almonds and one ounce of bitter ones; mix the whole well together, with one pound of sifted flour, and the same weight of crumb of bread soaked in milk, then squeezed dry and stirred with a spoon until reduced to a mash, before it is mixed with the flour. Cut in small pieces two ounces each of preserved citron, orange, and lemon-peel, and add a quarter of an ounce of mixed spice; quarter of a pound of moist sugar should be put into a basin, with eight eggs, and well beaten together with a three-pronged fork; stir this with the pudding, and make it of a proper consistence with milk. Remember that it must not be made too thin, or the fruit will sink to the bottom, but be made to the consistence of good thick batter. Two wineglassfuls of brandy should be poured over the fruit and spice, mixed together in a basin, and allowed to stand three or four hours before the pudding is made, stirring them occasionally. It must be tied in a cloth, and will take five hours of constant boiling. When done, turn it out on a dish, sift loaf-sugar over the top, and serve it with wine-sauce in a boat, and some poured round the pudding. The pudding will be of considerable size, but half the quantity of materials, used in the same proportion, will be equally good.

 
From the London Times: 1915, 1918, & 1927 Puddings

1915: War Christmas Pudding.

From: The Times, December 8th 1915.

CHRISTMAS PUDDING ECONOMY.
DATES FOR RAISINS
DATES IN CHRISTMAS PUDDINGS.

We are using dates as far as possible in our puddings to replace raisins, and also in mincemeat as the supply of raisins in the country appears to be getting low. We have a cheap recipe for a war Christmas pudding in which we use dates. To make a 4 lb. pudding the ingredients are:- ½ lb. suet or dripping, ½ lb flour, ½ lb. breadcrumbs, ½ lb dates, 1 lb grated carrots, ½ lb currants, 4 oz. mixed peel, grated rind of lemon, 4 oz. sugar, one egg, and spice to taste. Figs are not much used to replace raisins as the seeds give away the substitution.

1918: Peace At Last.

Peace Christmas Pudding.
(large enough for six)
Ingredients:
4 oz flour, 4 oz soaked bread, 6 oz chopped suet, ½ teas salt, 1 dessert spoonful mixed spice, 4 oz sultanas, 2 oz mixed chopped peel, ½ lb apples, 2 oz grated carrot, 1 egg (dried), ½ gill milk, 2 oz treacle, grated rind and juice half a lemon
Method
Weigh out and measure all the ingredients. Prepare the dry materials and put them in a mixing bowl, stir all well together, then add the egg and milk. When thoroughly mixed, put the mixture into two well-greased basins, cover each with a cloth and boil or steam for fully three hours.

(‘could not aspire to pre-war richness’)

1927: The Empire Strikes Back.

The King’s Christmas Pudding.
All-British (Empire) Pudding.

5 lb. currants (Australia)
5 lb. sultanas (Australia)
5 lb. stoned raisins (South Africa)
1 ½ lb. minced apple (Canada)
5 lb. breadcrumbs (United Kingdom)
5 lb. beef suet (New Zealand)
2 lb. cut candied peel (South Africa)
2 ½ lb flour (United Kingdom)
2 ½ lb. Demarara sugar (West Indies)
20 eggs (Irish Free State)
2 oz. ground cinnamon (Ceylon)
1 ½ oz. ground cloves (Zanzibar)
1 ½ oz. ground nutmegs (Straits Settlements)
1 teaspoonful pudding spice (India)
1 gill brandy (Cyprus)
2 gills rum (Jamaica)
2 quarts old beer (England)

This was prepared by “the usual method” of course.

 
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