The pudding has been steaming for a few hours now. My wife and I took turns stirring it East to West (the journey of the Three Wise Men) while making a wish. ("I think we probably wished for the same thing," she said after).
I am using a recipe from The Daring Gourmet blog, which carefully describes each step (with pictures), and also has nuts optional, which was a must for my wife. I found that most Christmas Pudding recipes called for nuts. The link is every ad-ridden, long-winded recipe site cliché, be forewarned, but serviceable.
With the slight chaos of my life I didn't purchase any candied peel in time for Stir-up Sunday. The store didn't have it, and I didn't have time to make it. Sorry I Americanized the pudding with a substitution of sweetened dried cranberries. We don't make candied peel here, we have cranberry bogs.
Another learning experience: it takes a lot less toasted fresh bread to make two cups of crumbs than I imagined. I made the crumbs by pulsing the toast in a food processor, as the recipe instructed, and it worked wonders. I chopped up toast with a knife for the 1915 Eggs in Tomatoes and while that sufficed, it wasn't really crumbs. So help me, I am scared of the food processor and don't use it enough.
I also made the "mixed spice" (linked in the Daring Gourmet recipe), which the writers swear is some kind of very traditional and authentic British spice mix.
I really have no idea if this is an authentic British thing or not. (It's not in Captain Marryat's novels, that's for sure). The earliest reference I could find is in a very interesting 1855 book called Food and its Adulterations, that feels ahead of its time. My real Day Job is in food safety, and this book is quite similar to current guides for adulterated foods! Including the scientific investigation of samples with a microscope.
The 1855 guide to authentic mixed spice states that it "rarely" contains nutmeg or mace—two ingredients in the modern recipe I followed, along with coriander.
My new pudding mould is 2 litres (which I thought was a standard size), but it seems huge?? It just barely fits in the massive pot I use for lobscouse.
We know it’s not even Thanksgiving yet, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t excited about this year’s Christmas Dunny from Kronk x Kidrobot! This Traditional Christmas Dunny is now available!
