Well..... Rani asked about
Christmas pudding...
To begin with, I'm not crazy and I realize we still have a way to go till
Christmas, however, the best
Christmas puddings are made at least 4-5 weeks before
Christmas allowing them to almost mature. The best puddings have a while to get themselves right before
Christmas day.
We make ours according to
British traditions (man is
Aussie... at some stage that was the same thing). The style we have made, the round pudding is traditional style, for most of the twentieth century, particularly later on, the
Christmas puddings have been made in bowls so they did lose their round shape. To make them in a round you have to first make the mix, then cut a piece of cloth and make sure there is a layer of flour all around the pudding. , wrap it up tight and tie it with string (once more, Jute to the rescue) and then boil them, the time varies by weight but ours was mammoth, so it took 6 hours.
When they finish, you dry them, and hang them (all still in the cloth and the seal made by the flour) in your pantry till
Christmas.
Traditionally, everyone was allowed to help stir the pudding and you also threw a sixpence into the mix for luck.
Our
recipe was from mother-in-law.
250 g flour
250 g breadcrumbs
pinch salt
500 g of butter
500 g of brown sugar
500 g of currants
500 g of sultanas
250 g of citrus peel
250 g of raisins.
9 eggs
1 gill brandy
half nutmeg (grated)
125 g slivered almonds
1 level dessertspoon mixed spice
1 level teaspoon
carb soda.
As you can see, its
SOOOOOO rich, but was also
SOOOOO huge. You
only actually eat little servings at
Christmas. This will easily serve everyone at
Christmas dinner about twice. (on different days) We also modified somewhat.... no currents, we used dates and apricots instead and used fresh citrus zest instead of dried citrus peel.
Serving it on
Christmas day is great fun.
You put it on a big plate, you pour brandy over it and you set it on fire (obviously not for long) and trim it with a sprig of Holly on top. Then you either put some icing on it (we've never done this), or you have it with brandy butter (which is like really rich alcoholic icing, a favourite of Man's grandmother), you can have it with custard, or, my personal favourite, or you have it piping hot with cold whipped cream *drool*.
Hope this helped understand the strange hanging bundle in the previous post.
Another similarly strange
custom is that of the
Christmas cake, which is made months before
Christmas too (the longer the better).
One of the best
Christmas puddings I ever had was 3 years old. It was marvelous. I don't think I will ever have one like it again.
