We All Want Some Christmas Pudding

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you’ll know I make my Christmas pudding every year and I love it! I adore the moist, spicy sponge, the dried fruit and nuts, and the creamy brandy sauce. Yummy! Thank goodness, there are only two days to go. In my house, Christmas dinner is not complete until we’ve lit the Christmas pudding. However, I know it’s not everyone’s favourite, but I thought I’d do a festive post about how the Christmas pudding (also known as figgy or plum pudding) came to be.

“In half a minute, Mrs Cratchit entered—flushed, but smiling proudly—with the pudding, like a speckled cannon ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and bedlight with Christmas holly stuck into the top.”
A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

The Christmas pudding as we know it today is mainly down to the Victorians, but has been around in various forms since the Middle Ages.

A History of the Christmas Pudding

Christmas pudding started its life as a type of broth that was served at the beginning of the meal. Sometimes called frumenty or pottage, it comprised a meat stock, dried fruit, alcohol, and spices. Over the centuries, it was thickened up using breadcrumbs or ground almonds, and sometimes contained beef or mutton, before it was stuffed into animal intestines and boiled.

In the sixteenth century, it shifted from a savoury to a sweet dish. Animal guts were changed to muslin cloths, and the plum pudding was born. In those days, the word plum was used to describe any type of dried fruit.

In the eighteenth century, plum pudding became associated with Christmas after King George I demanded it be served at his first Christmas banquet in England. He then became known as The Pudding King.

Since then, the plum pudding epitomised Christmas, and rich and poor alike expected it to be part of their Christmas Day meal. The rich also started making their puddings in elaborate moulds.

In 1845, Eliza Acton published one of the first Christmas pudding recipes in her cookbook, Modern Cookery for Private Families.

The Victorians built a whole ritual around making the pudding and established some traditions and superstitions that are still practised by Christmas pudding makers and eaters to this day.

Christmas Pudding Customs

Some argue that the pudding should only be made with a total of thirteen ingredients to represent Jesus and the 12 apostles.
Every family should take a turn to stir the pudding, but make sure you stir it from east to west, in honour of the Magi (or wise men) who travelled from the East to visit baby Jesus.
Christmas puddings should be made on Stir it up Sunday (the last Sunday before Advent).
Before serving, brandy is poured over the pudding and set alight to represent the passion of Christ.
The sprig of holly on top represented the crown of thorns worn by Jesus at his crucifixion, but was also supposed to bring good luck.
Silver charms were also added to puddings, and the charms had different meanings.
If you found a silver sixpence, you would have good fortune. Coins are not added now because they are manufactured from alloys rather than silver, but The Royal Mint still makes Christmas silver sixpences to put in puddings. However, they cost more than sixpence.
If you were a single woman and found a thimble, then you would remain a spinster, and if a bachelor found a button, then he too, would remain single. However, if you were single and found a ring, good for you, for then you would marry the following year.

These days, puddings are steamed rather than boiled, so less likely to turn into hard, dry “cannon balls”, and served with brandy sauce, custard, rum sauce, cream, brandy butter, or whichever accompaniment one prefers.

So, while it is one of those love-it-or-hate-it dishes, Christmas pudding has been around a long time, and while mostly a traditional British dessert, it is now eaten on Christmas Day around the world.