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Christmas pudding is a boiled, or rather steamed, pudding, massively heavy with dried fruit and nuts, and usually made with suet. It should be very dark in appearance - effectively black - and moist with brandy and other alcohol (some recipes call for dark beers such as mild, stout or porter). Traditionally, Christmas puddings were boiled in a pudding cloth, and they are often represented as round, but at least since the beginning of the twentieth century they have usually been prepared in basins.
The pudding needs to be made and cooked well in advance, to allow the flavours to mix (and to save the cook labour on Christmas day); it is merely reheated when it is to be eaten. Traditionally puddings were made on or immediately after the Sunday "next before Advent", i.e. five weeks before Christmas. The Collect for that Sunday in the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, as it was used from the sixteenth to the mid twentieth centuries, reads:
The association of stirring and fruit was irresistible and the day became known as " Stir-up Sunday". Everyone in the household, or at least every child, was required to give the mixture a stir (and to make a wish while doing so).
Every household has its own recipe for Christmas pudding, preferably handed down the family; it is probable that there were also regional variations. A Recipe from Sussex can be found at the Wikimedia Cookbook .
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 3d piece (see History of the threepenceThe threepence or thruppence was a denomination of currency, used by various jurisdictions in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, until decimalisation of the pound sterling and Irish pound. Early threepences The Three Pence (3d coin first appeared in th), or a sixpence . However this practice fell away once real silverThis page is about Silver the element. For the color, see Silver Silver is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Ag ( L. Argentum and atomic number 47. A soft white lustrous transition metal, silver has the highest electrical and th coins were not available, as it was believed that alloy coins would taint the pudding.
Once turned out of its basin, the Christmas pudding is traditionally decorated with a spray of holly, then dowsed in brandyFor the singer and actress, see Brandy Norwood. Brandy (short for brandywine from Dutch brandewijn distilled wine) is a general term for distilled wine, usually 40 60% ethyl alcohol by volume. It is also used to indicate spirits distilled from other fruit, flamed, and brought to the table ceremonially - where it should be greeted with a round of applause. In some houses the lights are turned out as the pudding is brought in in a halo of purple brandy flames. It is best eaten with brandy butter, cream (lemon cream is excellent) or custardCustard is a sweet dessert made from a combination of milk or cream, egg yolks, cornflour, sugar and flavourings such as vanilla. Depending on how much thickener is added, custard may vary in consistency from a thin pouring sauce or Creme Anglaise, to a t.
Christmas puddings have very good keeping properties and many families keep one back from Christmas to be eaten at another celebration later in the year. Some take the practice so far as to make each year's pudding the previous Christmas. Others claim that this impairs the flavour, but admit that a well-made pudding will keep at least adequately for a year.
Christmas puddings can be bought ready made and cooked, but unless they come from a luxury store these are likely to be a poor substitute for a home-cooked pudding. Nowadays, many people find the Christmas pudding too rich and heavy, but most families have at least one member who will demand that a "proper" Christmas pudding be cooked.
The above images are drawn with permission from the Paul's Traditional Christmas Pudding web site.