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n“In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit entered: flushed,nbut smiling proudly: with the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard andnfirm, blazing in half of half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and bedight withnChristmas holly stuck into the top.”n
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nCharles Dickens A Christmas Carol 1843
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n It’s how we imagine the Great British ChristmasnPudding must always have been – ‘a speckled cannon-ball’, a great, round,ndeep-brown duff, full of fruit and flamed with blue-burning brandy.
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| Bringing In the Pudding |
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nAnd yet, itnwasn’t always so. Before Christmas Pudding there was Plum Porridge, and beforenthat was Plum Pottage. This was made from boiled beef or mutton, thickened withngrated breadcrumbs, and when half-boiled, raisins currants, prunes, mace,ncloves, and ginger were added. Plum pottage was served at the beginning of thenmeal and was in a long tradition of cooking meat with fruit (it sounds odd, butnit’s worth trying – put dried apricots in lamb stew for a real treat, or addnraisins to suet dumplings served with beef stew. Delicious.).
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| Plum Pudding – from Mrs Beeton |
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nJoseph Addisonnwrites of plum-pudding and plum-porridge in The Tatler of November 25thn1710,
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n“No man of the most rigid virtue gives offence by any excesses innplum-pudding or plum-porridge, and that because they are the first parts of thendinner.”n
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nThe Chevalier d’Arvieux made a voyage of an English forty-gun ship inn1658 and was served a plum pudding made from biscuit crumb, suet, currants,nsalt and pepper, wrapped in a cloth and boiled in a pot of broth. He describednit as ‘detestable’. Plum broth is mentioned in Poor Robin’s Almanac of 1750,nand a recipe appears in Mrs Frazer’s Cookery Book of 1791.
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| Plum Pudding – Mr’s Frazer’s Cookery book 1791 (ed. 1820) |
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nLord Byron mentionsnplum-pudding in a letter dated 1821, and there is a story that he intended tonserve his dinner guests a plum pudding at his birthday feast in Italy. He gavenhis cook precise instructions but when the pudding was brought to the table, innspite of all the pains he had taken, a misunderstanding meant that it was thenconsistency of a thick soup and was served in a tureen. Plum pudding and mincenpies came under attack from the Puritans and, later, the Quakers, who viewednits consumption as gluttonous and a Popish excess, and eating pudding was seennnot only a religious but also a display of political loyalty.
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n“All plums thenprophet’s sons deny,n
nAnd spice-broths are too hot;n
nTreason’s in a December pie,n
nAnd death within the pot.”n
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nDuring the eighteenth century, plum broth becamenplum pudding, with the meat left out (although beef suet was an ingredient ofnthe pudding), and was thickened with eggs, slowly transforming from starter tonpudding, sweet and served with a sauce, maybe brandy butter or cream. It wasnusual to use proper plums in the pudding, fresh and whole or dried as prunes,nwhich is remembered in the nursery rhyme Little Jack Horner,
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n“Little Jack Horner,n
nSat in the corner,n
nEating his Christmas pie;n
nHe put in his thumb,n
nAnd pullednout a plum,n
nAnd said, “What a good boy am I.”n
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| Little Jack Horner |
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nThere is a little confusion asnlarge raisins were also called ‘plums’, and raisins have replaced actual plumsnin modern pudding – the same is true of Figgy Pudding, as ‘figs’ is also annalternative name for raisins, (I have no truck with the idea that the wordn‘plump’ has become ‘plum’, as plump fruits are used in the pudding). There arenlots of traditions surrounding making the pudding. One says that the puddingnshould be made using eggs laid on Good Friday, which, if kept carefully, willnmiraculously remain fresh. When the pudding is made varies from district tondistrict; some even make the pudding on Christmas Eve for the followingnChristmas meal, but it is more usual to make it about five or six weeks beforenChristmas. Stir Up Sunday was a popular choice and gets its name from thenCollect read at the service on the last Sunday before the start of Advent,nwhich commences, “Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord”, and was taken as sign thatnthe pudding should also be stirred up on that day.
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| Mrs Beeton – Book of Household Management |
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nEvery member of thenhousehold had to take a turn stirring the pudding mixture, and anyone wasnabsent, the mix was put aside until they returned. Mothers began the stirring,nfollowed by fathers, then the children in order of age, followed by anynservants who lived in the house. The pudding had to be stirred clockwise, fromneast to west, following the sun and echoing the coming of the Magi, and a silentnwish had to be made by each individual who stirred it.
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| Silver Threepenny B |
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nIt was usual to addnthings to the mixture, a silver three-penny bit or a silver sixpence were mostncommon, but some also added a ring, a button and a thimble; the person whonreceived the ring in their portion would be married before the year was outn(somewhat of a short period!), the button finder would die and old bachelor,nthe recipient of the thimble would die an old maid and the finder of thensixpence would have good luck for the nest year.
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| The Bean King Drinks |
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nThis practice follows thencustom of the Bean King, a much older tradition that was originally performednon Twelfth Night, the end of the Christmas celebrations, also called the Feastnof the Epiphany, January 6th. To mark the feast, a much oldernpractice than Christmas itself, a special cake was baked into which a driednbean or some other token was added. Whoever received the portion of cakencontaining the bean became the King of the Bean, and presided over that night’snrevels. They would give out humorous commands to their ‘subjects’ who wouldnfollow every cue of the King, so if he coughed, for example, the cry of ‘ThenKing coughs’ would go up and all present would then also cough.
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| Samuel Pepys |
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nIn his Diarynentry for January 6th 1669, Samuel Pepys records the new custom ofnputting the names of all present into a hat and lots were drawn for the variousnroles at the court of the King of the Bean (Pepys was made Queen at his party),nensuing that everyone could participate.
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| The King of the Bean |
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nAs Twelfth Night celebrations fellnfrom favour and were replaced by Christmas, the practice transferred over tonthe Christmas pudding, although the tradition of naming a King was lost innEngland (it continues in Germany). The French have a saying, “Il a trouvé lanfève au gateau,” meaning, “He has found a bean in the cake,” whichnmeans, “He has got some good luck”.
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