This UK Christmas treat would make an American cry (me included)
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There's one Christmas dish here in the UK that I'll never understand... the beloved Christmas pudding. I wanted to learn more about this medieval English treat and do my best to explain why this UK dessert will never be accepted in America
0:00 what are we talking about
0:55 super old Christmas pudding
3:15 let's get sweet(er)
5:01 but first
6:34 circle back to the victorians
8:59 time to prepare
12:19 taste test (and crying)
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Hey! I'm Alanna - a thirty-something documenting my life as a Canadian living in England.
I share the ups and downs of an expat living abroad and what it's really like living in the UK. It's not always easy, but there's been so many wonderful experiences, too. I post a UA-cam video every Tuesday plus an additional video every Saturday on my Patreon account. I also livestream every Wednesday and Sunday at 5:30pm GMT/BST on Twitch.
Alanna x
Part of the explanation for the UKs high use of dried fruit from the medieval period recipes is the fact that dried fruit was a way of storing ‘sweet’ ingredients before refrigeration was available. Much of the ‘old’ world used dried fruits (raisins, sultanas, currants, plums [prunes], figs and dates). They are easy to store and ship to and around Europe alongside spices. Sugar was not a thing in medieval era so sweetness came from either fruits or honey.
Dried fruit and spices weren’t cheap and so the idea of saving them for the Christmas festivities became the norm, so people could enjoy a “rich” treat as part of their celebration.
Conversely, most American “sweets” where developed post the production of refined sugar. This meant that American pallets developed an obsession with dishes that are easy to eat and little more than high sugar content cakes, cookies and puddings with very limited flavours.
Old world recipes are often challenging to American pallets because they frequently use ingredients that might be defined as “course” compared to the “refined” (but empty) ingredients used in American recipes.
One of the main reasons why North Americans don't like christmas pudding is not because of the fruit cake idea but also the strong taste of brandy or in some cases port as well. We always get this sort of reply from US service people around my area in the East of England
Best way for me is after Christmas day the left over Christmas pudding gets fried in a frying pan with just butter and when hot served with brandy butter or double cream
Great response Andrewpinks4925.
@@jonathanpatrick8506 have you tried having the fried pudding with a fried breakfast? Christmas pudding isn’t massively different to the Scottish “clootie (cloth) dumpling” which is eaten with a fried breakfast.
Andrew - 'Coarse'!
@@stevebarlow3154oops!
Alanna, I had two helpings of Christmas Pud yesterday and it was bloody gorgeous! I can never understand how Canadians and US people don't like it. Merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Merry Christmas!! 🎄
@@AdventuresAndNaps Two slices yesterday, and one today...Made the pudding myself four months ago and basted it regularly with Drambuie. Steamed it for serving in a slow cooker for four hours. Sprig of holly on the top, brandy poured over it, then set on fire....hic! PS I use vegetable suet these days as my son loves Xmas pudding but is a vegetarian.....
North Americans are weird and their food is laced with toxins that are banned in most of the sensible world.
I've had 3 medium Xmas puds so far this year, only 1 on Xmas day.
I also stocked up with half price Xmas puds in boxing day reductions. Some of them will be good until my birthday in April 😁
@@AdventuresAndNaps , " if you have to add something to the basic then the basic is not very good " , so does that apply to the full English breakfast , curries , steak egg and chips , anything Italian , any sausages etc etc etc etc , basically 90% of all foods ??????
I just love Christmas Pudding! I'll have with custard, I'll have it with cream, I'll have it with vanilla ice cream, and I'll even eat it just on its own. I can't imagine Christmas without it to be honest with you.
How Poetic .
Same , i even make my own.
It's better with Creme Fresh.
I love it too. Only ever eat home made. Anything with dried fruits and spices is delicious and the epitome of Christmas season. I observe Stir Up Sunday every year too. And however full I am, there is always room for a second helping of pudding!
Try frying the leftovers. You can thank me later.
You know what we need after the heaviest meal of the year? The heaviest pudding ever made.
And then, three hours later turkey and pork sandwiches, followed by Christmas cake
@@admiralcraddock464 And a steady stream of booze and chocolate throughout the day
Always room for a little bit o' pud.
Canadian here, my Mom makes Christmas pudding, I love it but...I've been eating it every Christmas since I was a kid 50 some odd years ago. It's a recipe passed down several generations from England, where my ancestors came from 😊
Rule Number 1 - Never ever microwave a Christmas pudding, even if it says on the pack that you can; it has to be steamed for a couple of hours to get the full and proper effect.
Rule Number 2 - To be eaten in small amounts, accompanied by either double cream, custard or (preferably) brandy butter or brandy sauce.
Totally agree with rule number 1. Rule number 2 will not happen for me. I find it too moreish
no 3 - it has to be fresh, some just are not right by time they've spent any time on xmas shelves, commercial ones also contain too much of the wrong fat to preserve them & definitely rule 2
It's terrible bc it has dried fruit and nothing can salvage that, even if it didn't have dried fruit it's still by far inferior to other desserts (and I am a native Brit)
The covering it in warm brandy and setting light to it is part of the ritual...and it makes it taste better (not sure it would improve the flavour enough for you though 😜)
And hope you had a merry Christmas 🎅🏻
My father served in the army in WW1. While in the trenches, the company cook managed to produce a Christmas pudding, much to the delight of the men.The cook was complimented by the captain , who asked where he managed to find the cloth it was cooked in The cook took off his tunic and proudly showed that one sleeve of his shirt, which he had been wearing for a week, was missing.
Its a dessert made of fruits.... americans have a dessert made of pumpkin.....glass houses Alanna
Spot on!!
I was just thinking that
Pumpkin pie is awesome.
It's not a dessert made of fruits. It's a steamed pudding made of dried fruits, suet, flour, nuts, mixed peel, breadcrumbs and eggs, and a good amount of brandy or rum. Served with brandy butter and/or brandy custard and/or brandy cream. When served, one can pour brandy or rum over it, and set fire to it.
I know what it is regardless of what descriptors you choose most people understand the concept of starter, main , dessert @@lauraharmour
I usually enjoy your videos, BUT … I’ve never seen anybody make such fuss over a simple dish. Many English deserts have dried fruits as a base, Christmas cakes and puddings, Eccles cakes , Dundee cake etc. I’m biased, I was brought up on them,and having reached 70 without coming to any harm, I love them!
Hi Alanna, Brit born, Canadian raised, (in the Kawarthas ;) ) there are three things that make Christmas for this 76 year old, Dark Christmas cake, Mince pies/tarts and Christmas plum pudding. Merry Christmas dear and happiest of New Years, Peace, Love, and all Best Wishes.
Christmas pudding and mince pie are my favourite Christmas treats!
Mine too! And, I am Canadian!
Day after boxing day now so of to the shops to see if they is any Christmas pudding reduced in price for a new year's treat!
I love both too.
I’m Canadian and have had Christmas pudding all my life. Not all Canadians hate it. There are grated carrots and potatoes in my recipe as well as spices and dried fruits.
Potatoes? Potatoes?? Seriously, no. No one in the entire history of the United Kingdom has ever put potatoes in a Christmas pudding.
Would you like to bet on that?
@@lauraharmour
We are in the Uk and have mashed potatoes in our puddings. Goes back to wartime recipes when fruit was scarce, but it actually lightens the texture.
I ❤ Christmas pudding at Christmas. It's great with brandy sauce or double whip cream. Even ice cream. Lock someone else mentioned pumpkin pie help🤮
Happy Boxing Day, from the Pacific West Coast of Canada. It's okay, depends whose grandmother is making it.
Canadian here... I love plum pudding. My mother used to make it, using my English grandmother's recipe. She would steam the pudding while we were eating Christmas dinner, flame it tableside and serve it with my father's hard sauce. Absolutely delicious!
My grandmother (1883 - 1977) used to make the most fantastic Christmas puddings.
It was always a highlight of Christmas dinner when I was a lad.
How can one NOT like currants, raisins and sultanas? They're sweet and natural and just generally wonderful. Custard? Custard? Brandy butter and double cream is what one should have with Christmas pudding. I love your videos and now I have to feel sorry for you that you're missing out on some of the best tastes in the world 😄 Look after yourself and have a brilliant new year.
Australian here, it will be 34*c, we eat our Christmas lunch of Roast Turkey, lamb and Chicken with all the roast vegetables. We will also have huge tiger prawns and salads... then...... we will have Christmas pudding, MUST be home made and hung for at least a month but we do cater for preferences of clotted cream or custard..... there is NO WAY we couldn't have our pud !
As a kid growing up in the 60's and 70's my mum made both Christmas Pudding (including the silver sixpence as it was pre-decimalisation) and Christmas Cake. Both were usually made well in advance of Christmas, especially the cake which she would make around 3-6 months before Christmas and regularly 'feed' with either brandy, whiskey, sherry or rum every week until you were ready to add marzipan and icing
I have a Christmas pudding every year made by a good friend of mine,, and I love it!! Forget custard, have it with cream or brandy butter. Delicious!
And light the brandy
Custard makes the pudding 😊
I’m Canadian and I LOVE Christmas pudding. I’m extremely thankful that my local UK import store brings in gluten free puddings.
Because Christmas pudding is very rich, a little sugar sprinkled on top works very well. Also, my family and I never "drench" it in custard; we put the same amount you would with any pudding.
A lot of Brits don't eat it anymore because it is very filling, and after the biggest meal of the year, it's not what everybody craves straight afterwards, but on Boxing Day, a little Christmas pud fried in butter with a glass of sherry for brunch is one of the best treats you'll ever enjoy!
Canadian born and raised. Not true that Canadians hate Christmas pudding!
My late mum always made the best Christmas pudding (complete with rum sauce which was served flaming), always a treat and very much missed.
It's all in how it's made and served and like many traditions, needs to be consistent and passed through the generations.
Christmas pudding may not be everyone's favourite, but perhaps an acquired taste like liquorice all sorts or Marmite! 🤣
We very rarely ate Christmas pudding when I was a child because we were usually too full but one year we insisted and my poor dad was given the job of setting fire to it and it went up so violently that it melted the front of his polyester sweater 🔥
omg 💀
Amazing 😂 Mum did the same to a Christmas Pudding one year but it was just the napkins that got charred… Melted jumper is another level though haha
An excessive amount of brandy, methinks.
🤣
4:24 I lived my formative (i.e. early drinking) years in Oliver Cromwell country, and in the local Town of St Ives (then in Huntingdonshire) was a pub - the Golden Lion - which we frequented. Outside it is a statue of Oliver Cromwell pointing downwards accusatively. One Christmas, friends and I decided it would be amusing to tie a 'talks balloon' proclaiming "You've been eating christmas pudding!" to his mouth. We drew lots, and I lost. We couldn't find a round balloon, but scavenged a long sausage balloon upon which we scrawled the text. It was an icy night as I has heaved up the pedestal to the statue, only to discover that owing to a problem with perspective and scale, I could only reach OC's upper thigh. So as not to waste the balloon I tied it there, just as a police car came around the corner; but I managed to hide myself.
The balloon, located as it was, looked rather more like a male appendage than a talks balloon, and made it into the local newspaper. Over the days it developed an embarrassingly public brewer's droop.
"I didn't set it on fire." That's really going to help Americans to understand it better!
I love xmas pudding, but then again I love sprouts and marmite
I hate sprouts but like the others.
Happy Boxing Day, Alanna. Christmas Pudding is traditionally prepared soaked in Brandy and set alight. Then pour on rich gravy and serve with Chips and Curry Sauce. At least, that is how my Mother used to make it when we were kids. The daft bint.
😂 Merry Christmas!!
I read the first part of that and thought WTF! 😂
I've never heard of anyone having Christmas Pudding with gravy, chips and curry sauce, and never seen it offered like that on a restaurant menu either. Is that a common way of eating it where you are (if so, where is that?), or is it just your own personal (or your mother's) preference?
@@neilp1885 I thought his joke was amusing.
@@primalengland Yes! That's what I thought too, I thought maybe he was winding Alanna up, but then I saw the daft bint comment about his mother doing that at the end and thought maybe it was real, so I got curious and decided to ask.
Christmas isnt Christmas without Christmas pudding
When I arrived in the UK 24 years ago, I hated xmas pudding as well as minced pies. But they have both grown on me, it took me a few years, but now I am hunting for those mince pies from October and I would terribly miss the xmas pudding at the end of our xmas meal if we did not have one.
Just got home started watching this and thought I've got christmas pudding left over.
so stopped video to put some in the steamer. Merry Christmas to you and yours
It's just a matter of acclimatisation. You're doing very well Alanna. Imagine the pride you will feel when you can honestly say that you like Christmas pud. Keep it up chief, keep it up.
I love it. I'm from Devon so serve it with clotted cream. Never tried it with custard. On boxing day fry slices of leftovers in butter and reflame with brandy. Oh delicious. Still each to their own. Happy New Year!
@ 4:06 Alana it's Natural Muslin weave known as Cheesecloth, Can be found in all-sorts of fibres, depends on it's usage, Car cleaners use it to apply polish,
Hi Alana! watching you tasting the pudding of the GODS! cracked me up. I can eat Christmas Pudding all the time, cold, hot and doused in alcohol, also nice with a brandy cream in the style of Baileys or just brandy butter. oh and rich fruit cake (cannot abide sponges like Victoria sponge). Happy New Year to you and yours best wishes Mike.
I LOVE Christmas pudding! With cream or custard? Yum! It's served after the Christmas meal, by which time we've all had enough to drink that it makes sense to set it on fire and bring it into the darkened dining room. It's sort of a combination candle, sparkler and dessert. And yes, a sixpence (and sometimes other silver charms, too.)
It is muslin cloth. My grandmother used them for steak and kidney pudding
Oh Alana ur face when u had that Christmas pudding just cracked me up ur hilarious. I absolutely love Christmas pudding and Christmas cake and custard or brandy sauce.💖
the issue is the microwave, they are crap done in the microwave, all the microwave does is heat it up and remove the moisture from the pudding, the one you had serves 2 to 3 people, the better ones are darker and moist and smell of brandy, the best way to to do it is make your own pudding the way its meant to be... It has its origins in medieval England, with early recipes making use of dried fruit, suet, breadcrumbs, flour, eggs and spice, along with liquid such as milk or fortified wine. Later, recipes became more elaborate. In 1845, cookery writer Eliza Acton wrote the first recipe for a dish actually called "Christmas pudding".
i steam the puddings i make, which keeps the moisture in the pudding. 'mary berry' makes a good christmas pudding.
I worked in a butcher's shop as a teenager. I saw sausages being made in a sausage making machine which was a meat mincer to which you attached an animal intestine into which you forced minced sausage meat. I wonder it any sausages are made from animal intestine these days? It is the origin of sausages.
She has yet to be introduced to haggis! And she likes black pudding, which really is disgusting.
How can you not like it? I find that hard to believe.
Hi Alanna - I think your taste buds just need a bit of training, that's all! Unfortunately my Mum passed away a long time ago when I was about 17 yo (I'm 78 yo now) so this is all from memory. Mum used to start the process by soaking the fruit in the mixture of all the alcohol for a couple of weeks in October. We usually had some relatives staying over Christmas so it was a fairly large pudding, about the size of a soccer ball. After the fruit came the flour and dry spices which were all stirred in by the family members who got to make a silent wish and the silver sixpence was dropped in too. The the mix was covered in the cloth and shaped into a rough ball and kept in the cool pantry until a few days before Christmas when it was opened up and inspected and I expect secretly tasted. Back into its cloth with a drop more brandy until Christmas morning. Mum had a huge saucepan that was big enough for the pudding still in the cloth and so it was slowly simmered until about 2pm when it was ceremoniously turned out of its cloth onto a large serving plate and a large splodge of brandy butter was melted over the top and decorated with a holly twig. Still hot, it was carved up into half-segments with creamy custard poured all over. Delicious - and there were left-overs they were kept in the fridge and pieces cut off as required and re-heated in the oven - didn't last very long though!
Love your blogs and you too! Never mind the nay-sayers, they gets their kicks from being nasty!
Christmas pudding with brandy sauce is fantastic, merry Christmas to you
Thank you! You too!
My mum used to make Christmas pudding every year, and it was delicious. I think whatever you grow up eating, you consider normal. I grew up eating black pudding, haggis, Christmas pudding, and mince pies. I'm sure Americans and Canadians eat things i would consider weird.
❤ from Lancashire
Hear In the north east of England a pudding sweat or savory boiled in a cloth is called a clotty pudding
My wife and I (both Brits) absolutely love Christmas Pudding. In previous years, we have hit the supermarket immediately after Christmas to buy 1-person puddings like the one you had at reduced price, as they have a very long expiration date (typically over a year). We put them in the kitchen cupboard and can then have Christmas Pudding at any time of the year. With custard, of course.
Merry Christmas Alanna. I love the taste of Christmas pudding. Interestingly my Canadian son-in-law also loves it - and Christmas cake too. He was delighted not offended we'd make extra Christmas cake especially as he's in town this year. So maybe not all North Americans hate it?
That's not drowning it in custard!!! Fair play you keep giving it a go! Enjoy the rest of the Festive Hols! 🙏🙏
She obviously thinks paddling is swimming!
christmas pudding is gorgeous
I am very adventurous with trying new food and would absolutely love to try this
Had some yesterday. Tasted amazing with cream and custard. No brandy on mine though. Driving…
You burn the brandy so alcohol disapears....!!!
Alanna, I know that in the modern era that the microwave is a thing, but with Christmas pudding and other steamed desserts it should be steamed for a couple of hours ideally to heat it through and moisten it, setting it on fire burns off the alcohol within the pudding, be it Brandy, Whiskey, Rum, etc, leaving the flavour but not the alcohol per se, it can then be served with, a flavoured butter such as Brandy butter, or Custard, Cream, some even like Vanilla ice-cream for the contrast between the hot and the cold.
Thanks a bunch for sharing.
Have a good one. 👍
To make a proper homemade pudding, the fruit needs to be soaked in quite a lot of alcohol for several days to rehydrate it and make it juicier. For alcohol, we use a cocktail of old ale, sherry, brandy, Madeira and perhaps Calvados or Lambeg (both versions of French apple brandy). Factory made versions (ugh) make the pudding without rehydrating the fruit (like the Tesco version you have) so it looks wrinkled and unappetising instead of plump and juicy
In the original pudding with meat, fruit was used to cover the flavour of slightly 'off' meat, as it would be during the midwinter season with no refrigeration. It would probably be the last of the meat until spring.
Thanks Alanna, it's obviously just a cultural cullenary taste difference. I believe most English people would eat Christmas pudding over say Pumpkin pie, any day of the week. Thanks for your content, here's wishing you a happy healthy and peaceful New Year 🤗😘🤗🥂
A belated Merry Christmas Alanna. Yes I love it and even cold it's still delicious. I agree with the comment below. Never, ever, not no how, microwave a Christmas pudding it goes rubbery. Home made ones need to be made at least 3 months before and even if kept for 6 months will still be as good.
Warm Christmas pudding with warm custard is traditional in Australia too. The correct temperature for both make a difference to the flavour. Steaming the pudding changes the flavour too.
Love Christmas pudding. We always have it at Christmas. We also put money in the Christmas pudding still. Not sure what there is to not like about dried fruit and brandy haha
I grew up with it. English heritage. A very small slice and some Brandied hard sauce will fill you up, big time! Also, minced pie!
Everyone in my house adores you Alanna 😎 👍🏻
You're too kind! 🙏
my nan used to make them in January fill a bucket with all the fruit and mixture she then soaked it in different spirits and kept adding to it ,she then put it in a muslin bag steamed it and poured Scotch over it her fav, then we had it with cream bleeding lovely
My mum used to spend ages making Christmas pudding every year. I was never that keen on it and it was only the custard or cream that made it palatable.
The best part of Christmas IS Christmas pudding, I love it!!
My mother always used to make Christmas pudding in the days leading up to Christmas, but it would be for the following year!
We usually had it served with brandy butter.
I cannot understand why you wouldn't like it 😊
Love Christmas pudding but ideally needs brandy sauce
Brandy sauce is also an acquired taste - I love Christmas pudding but always with cream.
Christmas pubbing and fruit cakes are lovely.
When I was a child, I and my three sisters took turns to stir the (homemade) pudding and yes, there was always a sixpence in there somewhere! Incidentally, mince pies, which I gather Americans also dislike, were also originally full of minced meat.
I love Christmas pudding! Brandy butter or cream for me please.
I remember when I was at school we had sixpences wrapped in tin foil hidden inside our Christmas puddings (yes, I'm that old!).
Waiting to hear how your nephews reacted to the Christmas box you sent them, fruit cake and all! If fruit cakes are offensive to you, it's not surprising you don't like Christmas pudding
Please, please please, if you ever try it again heat up the custard first! It should be served hot!
No need to apologize, Alanna, I'm British born and bred and I find the stuff utterly revolting (I have similar feelings about Christmas Cake as well). Working my way through a couple of Chocolate Fudge Yule Logs over the Christmas period... now THAT'S a festive treat! Hope you and yours had a great Christmas and best wishes for the new year.
Setting fire to the pudding is the best part of Christmas (and adds to the flavour)! I've literally never heard of anyone putting custard on it - it's usually brandy butter or cream.
I personally love a Christmas pudding, but it is quite a strong flavour (especially a mature one like you had).
I loved the history of the pudding; I was familiar with parts of it, but not the specifics related to Christmas pudding (so the general history of puddings and Cromwell banning Christmas). All puddings used to be cooked in stomachs or intestines, then as you say pudding cloths and later pudding basins, before the word pudding expanded its meaning to be largely synonymous with dessert.
Have you tried sticky toffee pudding? I'd say it's similar to Christmas pudding, but much sweeter and without the raisins.
My late grandmother decided to put a tiny, metallic, silver, horseshoe in her Christmas pudding but failed to warn anyone. She had saved it after it had decorated one of her five daughters wedding cakes.
As we ate the pudding my mother started to choke to such an extent that I performed the Heimlich manoeuvre on her expelling the horses across the dining table. As she leaned on the table, red faced and trying to catch her breath my grandmother calmly looked up from her place at the table and said, 'You got the horseshoe, that means your going to be very lucky'.
The luck was surviving the Christmas pudding!
The beauty of the pudding bag/ cloth was that you could cook the whole meal in one large pot over your kitchen fire. So the basis would be a pottage (soupy stew) and other things would be tied up in cloths and cooked within the pottage - this might be a pudding, some vegetables, or some meat for eating separately. One pot cooking at it's finest!
People who make their Christmas Puddings from scratch do still tend to do it on 'Stir Up Sunday' and taking turns to stir the mixture is a very common practice - even f it's done on a random date.
Our family uniquely - as far as I have ascertained- serve our Christmas pudding with Almond Blancmange - it serves as a great clean cooling contrast to the very righ pudding. If I'm honest though.....the Blancmange (or 'White Mould' as we call it) is the Big Thing for me, and I only have the pudding so I can have the Blancmange.
Hi I need the Canada visa please help
Canadian here, my grandparents always had and made Christmas/plum pudding. My parents less so, me never… but I do miss it. Yeah, they would put quarters in there. I also love its cousin Christmas cake.
I always get cravings for Christmas pudding sometime around June. I can't just have it once a year.
In Scotland we have a pudding called a dumpling, or another name for it is a, Clootie dumpling , a cloot is an old Scottish word for a cloth, my Aunt and my mother used to use a floured cotton pillow case, they also used to put silver threepenny bits in as a surprise for us, this was in the 60's, old money.
Heck yes. Love Christmas pudding
In the states the nearest thing to my knowledge is fruit cake. This is normally only eaten once a year during the Christmas season and many people don't like it however the ingredient list seems about right for Christmas pudding. Since Christmas pudding seems to be cooked in cloth and about the size of a bowling ball and rather dense the connection is very strong.
If the Christmas pudding is “dense” there is something wrong or it has gone cold. Properly steamed or pressure cooked it is moist and crumbly. Delicious!
Chistmas pudding is the basis for most wedding cakes - those that aren't made of sponge. You can start gathering the ingredients for months prior and it lasts forever. It is stodgy and can feel like a bowling ball in the stomach if you eat too much, but it was developed in the middle of winter and at a time when work was harder.
I was born in 1983 and when I was a kid, despite decimalisation, a lot of old coinage (e.g. shillings, half-pennies and sixpences) was still around and I know some families kept one or several sixpences solely to put in the Christmas pudding or Christmas cake, then when they found the coin during the eating, they washed it and put it away in a safe place until next year.
I love it. After Christmas I buy them up cheaply to eat the rest of the year. I admit I do eat those microwaved, both with and without custard. But for the best, make it yourself, then:
steam for several hours, typically 4hrs for a 1 lb or 500 g pudding, longer if bigger.
store for at least 3 months.
when you come to eat it, steam again for at least an hour, usually two.
When you put the hot pud on the table, pour warm brandy over it and set it on fire to caramelise the surface. (I'd use 15 ml. Some use more, but it can be a fire hazard!)
serve in thick slabs, with or without, thick custard sauce made with full cream milk. Without custard is the most intense flavour, but the custard lets the flavour build more slowly in your mouth, and you can have an odd mouthful without custard for variety. Eat hot: do not let it cool too much. It can be eaten cold, like cake, but that's a shadow of its real character.
I can't understand how anyone can not like it! Do you drink port, cream sherry, muscatel, etc, or eat molasses, stewed blackcurrants, raspberries, plums? Christmas pud is one of these intense flavours, that I thought all humans crave. Don't you colonists drink your coffee very strong and black for the same reason?
Have a happy New Year.
I can take or leave shop-bought Xmas puddings, but proper home-made ones (to my wife's grandmother's recipe), fed appropriately at regular intervals (both with rum and brandy) are lush.
A single batch will provide for about 4 or 5 years, and a 6 monthly feeding will ensure that those older puddings are incredibly boozy and delicious.
And yes, reheat by steaming, not microwave. Then bring to the table flaming in brandy.
Mince pies and fruit cake (not Christmas cake, though!) I could eat every day.
I like Christmas pudding but never have space for it after the main course so have it in the evening or on boxing day with hot custard, hot mince pies and cold very thick cream. The contrast of the hot and cold works well.
Making mince pies, Christmas cake and sausage rolls with the children was my family's Christmas tradition. I gave up making Christmas cake as no-one except me would eat it so I just buy a tiny one for myself. I buy a small Christmas pudding so everyone can have a taste rather than a huge bowlful. I used to make savoury suet puddings, bacon rolypoly, steak and kidney pudding etc. I use a muslin cloth. Not sure if thats correct as the thing my mother used looked like an old bedsheet.
Thank you. Can’t bear the pudding myself, but loved the history lesson, so thank you and merry Christmas.
lol I absolutely love xmas pudding... and god bless ya for the sneeze x
Alanna - maybe start off with mince pies - get used to sweet spiced dried fruits in suet, then graduate to Christmas cake and pudding... I've loved all since childhood - but there's no other item the rest of the year that's really similar. Hope the spring goes well for you
I like nicking a bit when it’s cold and set in the fridge the next day. Homemade being different to bought. (Have experiments with if it is better light and fluffy end or solid end as can be too firm)
Fellow Canadian here (albeit much older than you) and I’ll be happy to consume your share of pudding, especially if it has a nice hard pudding sauce. I also make my own fruitcake and occasionally consume haggis.
Christmas pudding is awesome, my wife has been making ours since Christmas 1980, although since moving to the USA in 1995 we have had to go without the suet. Setting fire to it is the best. We also have double cream, brandy butter and rum butter to have with it.
I’m going to have to go out and get myself a Christmas pudding after this.
Home made and matured is far better, but you have to steam it (microwaving it is sacrilege). After turning it out on a plate, add a good amount of brandy and set fire to it. Best to have is white sauce (home made if possible) (not custard). PS as a child we did put a sixpenny coin in (pre-decimalisation) and that coin was similar in colour to five/ten/fifty pence today but much smaller (probably half the size of the five pence coin). Mother use to make homemade in a very large bown and cover it with a t-towel and held on with string to mature. Yes you only need a small amount as it is "heavy" but it is a wonderful treat at this time of year.
I was born here and have lived here my whole life....and I only started to like Christmas Pudding when I turned 18, Give it another 10 years and you might like it...
So brave of you to subject yourself to such a harrowing experience. :-)
Hi Alanna, thank you for making this video it was of great interest to me. It’s very impressive that you did your homework on the origins of our Christmas Pudding.
Even more impressive was how much you tried to eat it in spite of already having tried it on numerous occasions. I’d like to try and help you understand why North Americans including Canadians do not like it or fruit cake.
“STODGY”
Historically as you rightly pointed out we Brits adore thick heavy gloopy food. It stems back from our climate being wet, cold & miserable in the winter months.
Manual labour was so tough burning up huge amounts of calories working out doors when your wet and the wind cuts through you. Having a stew or pottage ready when the family got home was easy with ready available root veg , with oats or barley. ( see Haggis)
Not only did it warm you up it was high value carbs & protein. Simple to make it could also be left to warm on a fire or stove. Hence we developed a taste for stodgy food.
I ramble on so on to Christmas pudding. As you are so interested I suggest you look at the European spice wars. Spice was seen as a currency and as such decadent. Rightly you pointed out the pudding switched from meat to fruits. Traditionally Christmas was a day of rest where nobody worked. Something nice to eat & drink was saved back. Christmas pudding could be made in advance.
Also the tradition of a Yule log came about because if you could put one huge well seasoned log on the fire nobody would need to go outside to fetch more wood.
My family observe stir up Sunday however we do enough fruit to split it up later for. Christmas pudding, Christmas Cake & mince meat for mince pies.
When serving the pudding it important you have some sort of sauce as it is just to Stodgy to eat stand alone. We choose to make a white sauce adding Brandy and sugar. You should serve equal portions of both. We also add a dollop of clotted cream to the top of the hot pudding slice. This allows the pudding to become glossy and easier to digest.
You don’t need very much as post a Christmas dinner it’s just something sweet and acidic with the peel from oranges & lemons to help with digestion.
I’m sorry if this is a little long winded but you seemed very interested. I have American friends and this very subject has fascinated us also.
You just don’t like dried fruit, lots of spices with stodgy.
The spices I add are nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, allspice.
Regards Barry.
We have Christmas pudding at Easter as well as Christmas. Best served with a white sauce with enough rum in it that it turns a slightly brown colour. Never custard.
Alanna , you don't know what is good for you !! By the way, the family all stir the pudding and make a wish. I am 81 years old and have done this for as long as I can remember. You can't have Christmas without a lovely BIG Christmas Pudding
I love Christmas pudding, it is my favourite thing about Christmas. It’s the one thing at Christmas I couldn’t do without. I like it so much I buy several each year at Christmas, just to make sure I have at least one for midway through the year so I don’t have to wait till Christmas. I will have a whole family size one to myself every year at Christmas.
Who is putting custard on Christmas pudding? I put cream on mine or you can put brandy sauce on it!
It is traditional but it is also delicious. I would say it can require a more mature pallet as I’ve known people hate it as a child and then try it again as an adult and love it, although I have always loved it since childhood.
I am surprised by what you said about fruit cake. I know it’s less popular these days but I like fruit cake, and definitely would choose it over many over cakes.
Merry Xmas Alanna x
One thing that a lot of people do when having the Christmas pudding is to pour some brandy on to the christmas pudding and light the brandy on the pudding with match or lighter
Christmas is not Christmas without Christmas pudding, I absolutely love them, especially with cream 😁
Christmas pudding in Christmas in a bowl. It is a real favourite!
A microwaved pudding out of a plastic pot with commercially made custard in a plastic pot straight out of the fridge somehow loses the essence of what a Christmas pudding experience should be.
Love Christmas Pudding. I get my manservant to bring me one fresh on Christmas morning. I then give him the rest of the day off.
😂