Christmas Pudding, 10th Day of UK Christmas

We wanted to have Christmas pudding on Christmas Day, but by the time we made it through all the rounds of unwrapping presents and skyping with family back home and getting dinner ready, we didn't have the energy to do the pudding justice. And by "justice" I mean setting it on fire!

A traditional Christmas pudding is made of various dried fruits (like raisins), suet (though often vegetarian options are available), and a variety of alcoholic substances, including ale, brandy, etc. We have a Feast Day Cookbook which gives this recipe for ye olde pudding (they call it "plum pudding" but I believe it is the same thing):

Ingredients

• 1.5 lbs. raisins
• 1.75 lbs. currants
• 1 lb. sultanas
• 2 lbs. sugar
• 2 lbs. bread crumbs
• 1 oz. cinnamon
• 6 oz. finely cut citron
• grated rind of 2 lemons
• 1 oz. ground nutmeg
• 0.5 oz. ground bitter almonds
• 2 lbs. finely chopped suet
• 16 eggs [Editor's note: yes, sixteen eggs!!!!]
• 0.25 pt. brandy
• 1 cup brandy

Seed and cut up the raisins but do not grind them. Wash and dry the currants. To the fruits add all the dry ingredients and the suet together, and moisten with the well-beaten eggs and the brandy. Butter and flour a piece of unbleached muslin, put the pudding in the cloth, and tie it up tightly. Put in a large pot of boiling water and boil for seven hours, adding boiling water if necessary. Remove from the cloth, pour a cup of warmed brandy over the pudding, stick a spring of holly on top, and set aflame as the pudding is being carried in.

That all seemed like a bit much for us to do, so we bought a pudding from a bakery. Our local paper had a taste test and recommended Thomas the Baker's Christmas pudding as the best of all the ones they tried. We bought ours a few days before Christmas. They proudly displayed the newspaper article in the store. Only two or three puddings were left when we bought ours.

It is traditional to set the pudding on fire after dowsing it with some warmed brandy (thanks for the warning, Sean!). We warmed our brandy the new-fashioned way, in the microwave, and here are the results:



Our apologies that the flames were not so spectacular as we had hoped. If only iMovie had some special effects in it I would have added a mushroom cloud or something equally spectacular.