Christmas pudding | Jamie Oliver Christmas recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is the quote about Christmas pudding? ›

“If I could work my will," said Scrooge indignantly, "every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' upon his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!”

Known initially as Pottage, it has also been called Plum Pudding, Figgy Pudding, and Frumenty. Traditionally, Christmas Pudding is served with a healthy drizzle of thick, delicious brandy sauce, which makes this dessert even more indulgent.

My family recipe for Christmas pudding has melted butter instead of suet and it is flourless. It replaces all the flour with fine breadcrumbs.

It was common practice to include small silver coins in the pudding mixture, which could be kept by the person whose serving included them. The usual choice was a silver threepence or a sixpence.

The proof is in the pudding is an expression that means the value, quality, or truth of something must be judged based on direct experience with it—or on its results. The expression is an alteration of an older saying that makes the meaning a bit clearer: the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

The saying "the proof of the pudding is in the eating" is first recorded in English in the early 17th century, but it is likely much older. Phrases for the notion that to taste something is to test it go back to, at least, the 14th century.

Christmas Pudding (also known as plum pudding or figgy pudding) is a dish as famous as it is misunderstood.

However, “Christmas pudding” is specifically a “plum pudding” or spiced cake filled with dried fruits and generally seeped with some sort of alcohol (traditionally brandy) and often treacle (molasses). Americans not only have no Christmas Pudding, we have no “puddings” at all. We call them desserts!.

Douse the pudding

Pour the lit brandy over the top of your Christmas pudding – the flames will transfer and – voilà! – a spectacularly festive flaming pud.

For the pudding, the most likely cause of mould is moisture.

Can you use Crisco instead of suet? ›

Vegetable shortening: Vegetable shortening has a mild flavor like suet and hardens in the refrigerator, making it simple to shred and add to foods that call for shredded suet.

Why is Christmas pudding also known as plum pudding? The interesting thing is, plum pudding does not contain any plum! This goes back to the Victorian practice of substituting dried plums with other dried fruits, such as raisins.

Each family member was supposed to stir the mixture from east to west to honour the journey of the Magi. This ritual was also thought to bring the family luck in the coming year. Originally the puddings would have been shaped into a sphere and boiled in a cloth.

It is key that every member of the family gives the pudding mixture a stir and makes a wish at the same time. Traditionally, a silver sixpence was stirred in to bring whoever found the coin on Christmas Day wealth and good luck in the year to come.

The flaming brandy is said to represent the passion of Christ. Christmas puddings were traditionally boiled in a “pudding cloth”, although today are usually steamed in a bowl. Presented on the table with a sprig of holly, they are then doused in brandy and set alight.

The original proverb is: The proof of the pudding is in the eating. And what it meant was that you had to try out food to know whether it was good.

It's said that Christmas pudding needs to be prepared with 13 ingredients to represent Jesus and his twelve disciples. Every family member stirs it in turn from east to west to honour their journey. Historically, Christmas pudding wasn't even considered to be a dessert.