the rich culmination of a long process of development of ‘plum puddings’ which can be traced back to the early 15th century. The first types were not specifically associated with Christmas. Like early mince pies, they contained meat, of which a token remains in the use of suet. The original form, plum pottage, was made from chopped beef or mutton, onions and perhaps other root vegetables, and dried fruit, thickened with breadcrumbs, and flavoured with wine, herbs, and spices. As the name suggests, it was a fairly liquid preparation: this was before the invention of the pudding cloth made large puddings feasible. As was usual with such dishes, it was served at the beginning of a meal. When new kinds of dried fruit became available in Britain, first raisins, then prunes in the 16th century, they were added. The name ‘plum’ refers to a prune; but it soon came to mean any dried fruit.
In the 16th century variants were made with white meat such as chicken or veal; and gradually the meat came to be omitted, to be replaced by suet. The root vegetables also disappeared, although even now Christmas pudding often still includes a token carrot. The rich dish was served on feast days such as All Saints' Day, Christmas, and New Year's Day. By the 1670s, it was particularly associated with Christmas and called ‘Christmas pottage’. The old plum pottage continued to be made into the 18th century, and both versions were still served as a filling first course rather than as a dessert.
Not all plum puddings were rich, festive, or ceremonial. Plum duff, essentially a suet pudding with less fruit and other enrichment, remained popular for centuries.
Even before Christmas pudding had attained its modern form, its consumption on Christmas Day had been banned by Oliver Cromwell. This was not simply a sign of his Puritan attitudes. The Christian Church everywhere was conscious that Christmas was merely a veneer of the old Celtic winter solstice fire festival celebrating the ‘rebirth’ of the sun after the shortest day, 21 or 22 December. This is still frankly celebrated in the Orkneys with the rite of Up Helly A, when a ship is burnt. Signs of paganism keep emerging: for example the Yule log, a huge log which is kept burning for all twelve days of the festival, and is still commemorated in the traditional French log-shaped Christmas cake. Other relics are the candles on the Christmas tree (imported from Germany in the time of Prince Albert), and the flaming pudding itself. There had been a similar official attitude in Scotland towards the consumption of the black bun on Twelfth Night.
What currently counts as the traditional Christmas pudding recipe has been more or less established since the 19th century. Usual ingredients are: suet; brown sugar (not always); raisins; sultanas; currants; candied peel; breadcrumbs; eggs; spices such as cinammon, nutmeg, and cloves, or allspice or mixed spice; and alcohol (e.g. stout, rum, brandy). Optional ingredients include flour, fresh orange or lemon peel, grated carrot or apple, almonds. The result is a remarkably solid pudding which has to be boiled for many hours then preferably left to mature for up to a year and reboiled on the day. A large pudding resists this treatment better than small ones—though few are as large as the one made in Devon in 1819, which weighed over 400 kg (900 lb).
The pudding is traditionally served with rum or brandy butter (US hard sauce) made from butter, sugar, and spirit. It is topped with a sprig of holly and set alight with rum or another spirit. This part of the tradition is still widely observed, but recipes for the pudding itself have been evolving in the direction of something lighter and more digestible.
The shape of the pudding is traditionally spherical, from being tied up in a floured pudding cloth. Most modern puddings are made in a basin covered with layers of foil and greaseproof paper.
Ralph Hancock is an encyclopedist with a special interest in food history and food science.
