Christmas Pudding Recipes

Grandma's Christmas Pudding Recipes Offer Fine Dining And Tradition

A Christmas Carol

Mrs. Cratchit left the room alone -- too nervous to bear witnesses -- to take the pudding up and bring it in.

Suppose it should not be done enough! Suppose it should break in turning out! Suppose somebody should have got over the wall of the backyard, and stolen it, while they were merry with the goose -- a supposition at which the two young Cratchits became livid! All sorts of horrors were supposed.

Hallo! A great deal of steam! The pudding was out of the copper. A smell like a washing-day! That was the cloth. A smell like an eating-house and a pastry-cook's next door to each other, with a laundress's next door to that! That was the pudding! In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit entered -- flushed, but smiling proudly -- with the pudding, like a speckled cannonball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top. Oh, a wonderful pudding!

Bob Cratchit said, and calmly too, that he regarded it as the greatest success achieved by Mrs. Cratchit since their marriage. Mrs. Cratchit said that now the weight was off her mind, she would confess she had had her doubts about the quantity of flour. Everybody had something to say about it, but nobody said or thought it was at all a small pudding for a large family. It would have been flat heresy to do so. Any Cratchit would have blushed to hint at such a thing.

Ingredients: 1-1/2 lb of raisins, 1/2 lb of currants, 1/2 lb of mixed peel, 3/4 lb of bread crumbs, 3/4 lb of suet, 8 eggs, 1 wineglassful of brandy.

Mode: Stone and cut the raisins in halves, but do not chop them; wash, pick, and dry the currants, and mince the suet finely; cut the candied peel into thin slices, and grate down the bread into fine crumbs. When all these dry ingredients are prepared, mix them well together; then moisten the mixture with the eggs, which should be well beaten, and the brandy; stir well, that everything may be very thoroughly blended, and press the pudding into a buttered mold; tie it down tightly with a floured cloth, and boil for 5 or 6 hours. It may be boiled in a cloth without a mold, and will require the same time allowed for cooking.

As Christmas pudding recipes are usually made a few days before they are required for table, when the pudding is taken out of the pot, hang it up immediately, and put a plate or saucer underneath to catch the water that may drain from it. The day it is to be eaten, plunge it into boiling water, and keep it boiling for at least 2 hours; then turn it out of the mold, and serve with brandy sauce.

On Christmas day a sprig of holly is usually placed in the middle of the pudding, and about a wineglassful of brandy poured round it, which, at the moment of serving, is lighted, and the pudding thus brought to table encircled in flame.

Preparation Time for Christmas Pudding Recipe: 5 or 6 hours the first time of boiling; 2 hours the day it is to be served. Sufficient for a quart mold for 7 or 8 persons. Seasonable on the 25th of December, and on various festive occasions till March.

Note: Five or six of these puddings should be made at one time, as they will keep good for many weeks, and in cases where unexpected guests arrive, will be found an acceptable, and, as it only requires warming through, a quickly prepared dish. Molds of every shape and size are manufactured for these puddings.

Christmas Plum Pudding Recipe

Soak one pound of stale bread in a pint of hot milk and let it stand and cool. When cold, add to it one-half pound of sugar and the yolks of eight eggs beaten to a cream, one pound of raisins, stoned and floured, one pound of Zante currants, washed and floured, a quarter of a pound of citron cut in slips and dredged with flour, one pound of beef suet, chopped fine and salted, one glass of wine, one glass of brandy, one nutmeg and a tablespoonful of mace, cinnamon, and cloves mixed; beat the whole well together and, as the last thing, add the whites of the eight eggs, beaten to a stiff froth; pour into a cloth, previously scalded and dredged with flour, tie it firmly, leaving room for the pudding to swell and boil six hours. Serve with wine or brandy sauce. It is best to prepare the ingredients the day before and cover closely.

Superior Sauce For Plum Pudding

Cream together a cupful of sugar and half a cupful of butter; when light and creamy, add the well-beaten yolks of four eggs. Stir into this one wineglass of wine or one of brandy, a pinch of salt, and one large cupful of hot cream or rich milk. Beat this mixture well; place it in a saucepan over the fire, stir it until it cooks sufficiently to thicken like cream. Be sure and not let it boil. Delicious!

Cold Brandy Sauce For Plum Pudding

Two cupfuls of powdered sugar, half a cupful of butter, one wineglass of brandy, cinnamon and nutmeg, a teaspoonful of each. Warm the butter slightly and work it to a light cream with the sugar, then add the brandy and spices; beat it hard and set aside till wanted. Should be put into a mold to look nicely and serve on a flat dish.

The above dessert sauce recipes are perfect for use with any of the vintage Christmas pudding recipes.

Charitable Christmas Pudding Recipe

Take some human nature as you find it --
The commonest variety will do;
Put a little graciousness behind it,
Add a lump of charity -- or two.

Squeeze in just a drop of moderation,
Half as much frugality -- or less,
Add some very fine consideration,
Strain off all of poverty's distress.

Pour some milk of human kindness in it,
Put in all the happiness you can,
Stir it up with laughter every minute,
Season it with goodwill toward every man.

Set it on the fire of heart's affection,
Leave it till the jolly bubbles rise,
Sprinkle it with kisses -- for confection,
Sweeten with a look from loving eyes.

Flavor it with children's merry chatter,
Frost it with the snow of winter's dells,
Place it on a holly garnished platter,
And serve it with the song of Christmas bells.

--Anon.

Grandma's Homemade Dessert Recipes
Copyright © 2004-2012 by Donald R Bell
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