O Night Divine: Majestic Imperial Regal Yuletide Plum Pudding

This post is dedicated to my dear friend Kari. Kari shared this Christmas pudding recipe with our homeschool group and I have yet to try it but have always wanted to. It's not going to happen this year since my house is under construction and we are in a state of chaos. I do hope some of you will give it a go and let us know how it works out.

Some history

Christmas pudding is the traditional end to a British Christmas dinner. It began, not as a sweet but as a fasting meal made of leftover meats, raisins, currents, wine and spices. It was a soup like consistency and was eaten during Advent. In the Elizabethan era prunes were added and were so popular that the dish became known as plum pottage. The sauce was thickened and in the eighteenth century the savory aspects of the dish diminished and the sweets became dominant. It is thought that Mrs. Beeton's Cookbook was the first to refer to it as Christmas pudding.

In the Anglican tradition the pudding was steamed on stir-up Sunday which is a reference to the text in the Book of Common Prayer;

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Stir-up Sunday is what we Catholics refer to as The Solemnity of Christ the King. While this started as an Anglican tradition many Catholics have adopted it as their own in keeping with the enjoyment of the anticipation of Christmas Day and some of the symbolism associated with Christ in the making and ultimate display of the pudding.

It is said that originally the pudding had only thirteen ingredients to represent the twelve apostles and Jesus. Silver coins were distributed among the pudding to represent the betrayal of Christ (sounds more Easter than Christmas). Often the finished pudding would be displayed with a sprig of holly stuck in the top to represent the crown of thorns. And finally when set upon the table the pudding would be doused in brandy and lit on fire to represent the power and love of Jesus.

So even though it is Protestant in origin I thought it would be fun to post the recipe and see if anyone is interested. I'm posting early because it may take some time to assemble the ingredients.

Kari tells me that she fiddled with this recipe from a book called Beat This by Ann Hodgman .

Majestic Imperial Regal Yuletide Plum Pudding

1 pound finely chopped beef suet
1 pound dark brown sugar, packed
1 pound regular raisins
1 pound golden raisins
1 pound chopped mixed peel (highly recommend some that is homemade or from Williams-Sonoma or somewhere – just not that grocery shelf stuff that tastes like “sugared asphalt shingles” as Ann Hodgman says)
1 pound whole-wheat bread crumbs (crumbs should be homemade; bread doesn’t have to be)
8 ounces dried currants
8 ounces dried cherries
4 ounces (1 cup) all-purpose flour
4 ounces chopped almonds
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons allspice
2 teaspoons cloves
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cardamom
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
12 ounces Guinness Stout
1 ½ cups brandy
½ cup milk
8 jumbo eggs
Juice and grated rind from 2 large lemons

In a large bowl, mix the suet, brown sugar, raisins, peel, bread crumbs, currants, cherries, flour, almonds and spices thoroughly by hand. Add all the liquids – the eggs should be added one at a time – and continue to hand-mix until the mix becomes a true blend. (This all really does need to be done by hand as the pudding batter is very heavy and will probably overheat your mixer easily.)

There will be about 2 gallons of batter, which you can distribute among pudding bowls as you choose. I use greased Pyrex 12oz. bowls – about 10 of them – to steam our pudding.

Grease your bowls/molds and spoon the batter into them. Cover the tops of the bowls tightly with a double layer of old sheet or dampened parchment paper, or muslin (I use this). Fasten the cloth or paper with a rubber band, and then cover the puddings tightly with a layer of aluminum foil.

Take out a couple of large, lidded cooking vessels into which you can fit the pudding bowls as well as a rack to steam them on. A canning pot or a big steamer or even a roasting pan if it can go on the stove will work. Place the racks inside the vessels, pour in enough water to provide steam without slopping up through the rack and then arrange the puddings on the racks. (I even have to sort of stack them in a staggered way). Bring the water to a boil, and steam the puddings over low heat, checking the water levels frequently. The 12oz size will take about 5 hours to steam; smaller puddings will take a shorter time.

If you can’t steam all the puddings at once, it’s okay to do a second batch. In her Christmas book, Martha
Stewart also suggests steaming large quantities of plum puddings in the oven. She puts her pudding bowls into large roasting pans, pours boiling water into the pans, covers the bowls and roasting pans with foil, and cooks everything in preheated 300-degree-F oven for 5 hours, being sure to add boiling water as needed.

When the puddings are done remove them from the steamer and place them upside down on a wax-paper-covered surface. They will slide free of the bowls as they cool.

When the puddings are thoroughly cool, remove the foil and paper and place each inside a plastic bag along with 1 oz of brandy. (1 for the bag and 1 for mom! J ) Seal the bag tightly, turn it over a couple of times to make sure it’s not leaking, and store in the refrigerator until Christmas. Every 3 weeks moisten the pudding with more brandy. When it’s actually time to give the pudding away, place it in a new plastic bag, seal the bag tightly, and wrap it in foil.

The puddings should be brought to room temperature, unwrapped and steamed for another hour before serving. Serve them with hard sauce or much better:

Mozart’s Rum Sauce as follows:

MOZART’S RUM SAUCE

1 ½ cups heavy cream
1 large egg
1 shake of salt
1 cup superfine sugar
¼ cup (1/2 stick) butter unsalted
2 tablespoons good rum
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
few gratings of nutmeg

Whip the cream until it holds soft peaks.

In another bowl, beat the egg with the salt until thick and light in color. Gradually add the sugar, beating until the mixture is thick, light and grit-free.

Melt the butter over very low heat. Cool it slightly while you beat the egg mixture some more.

With a rubber spatula, thoroughly fold the melted butter, rum and vanilla into the beaten egg. Then fold in the whipped cream. Pour the sauce into a serving bowl, decorate it with a few gratings of nutmeg and chill it for at least 1 hour.

This recipe makes 1 scant quart. The traditional way to serve this is to heap a plate with a big scoop of sauce, then drop a few tiny crumbles of plum pudding on top. For second helpings, it is traditional to just have the sauce. Truly divine. This must be tried!

Comments

For a slightly lighter and less rich Christmas pudding, here is the family recipe I use:
http://bookwormscookbook.blogspot.com/2006/11/christmas-pudding.html

It is alcohol free, and grated carrot and apple help to keep it moist.

Posted by: Kathryn | November 01, 2008 at 01:17 AM

I faintly recall a discussion where Kathryn explained the origin of Plum Pudding. The old Collect Prayers had "Stir Up" for the first Sunday of Advent, so we always did this for that Sunday, calling it "Stir-Up Sunday". I was always inspired by Florence Berger's "Cooking for Christ" section on Stir Up Sunday http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=175

This looks delicious...I agree about the store-bought candied peel. Yuck!

Posted by: Jennifer G. Miller | November 01, 2008 at 12:11 PM