Do you make your own Christmas Pudding?
Plum duff?
Pud?
Are you a steam-it-in-the-cloth or a pudding bowl type?
Brandy cream? Custard? Ice cream? Whipped cream? Plain? Lit with brandy? Hot? Cold slices for days afterwards?
What's your tradition?
My Nan came from quite a background. For years, Nan made the pudding based on a recipe from their cook/house-keeper (is that right Mum?)
It was always boiled in a pudding cloth, and hung with its pals (there were usually three or four), on a broom handle in the spare room. When Mum got our pudding from Nan it was hung on a nail in a rafter of the kitchen roof.
This "hanging" of the pudding has always been part of the mystery and tradition of the pudding for our family. The whiff of pudding, the allure of knowing what lies within the calico folds, all part of the process.
This will be the first year that I have made a pudding by myself, as we will remain in Canberra for Christmas. We have always been with the family, but this year, for many reasons, we are staying put.
Mr BB and I could not conceive of a Christmas without a pudding. He comes from the pudding bowl set, I hail from the cloth. I readied myself for the challenge.
I set myself up by purchasing and setting out all the ingredients, worrying that it was beyond my skill-set, and trying to remember the pudding-making sessions of my childhood.
Packet-suet versus the real thing ordered from the butcher? (they grate it for you to make it easier);
What size pudding cloth? Did Nan halve the recipe or double it?
What was the method again? She did it by feel so often...
After all my careful calculations, measurements, and planning, the Great Pudding cook-up took FOUR DAYS to complete.
Not only did I forget to add ingredients, my bowl was far too small to mix it, and my stock pot too small to cook it!
Once we got it all together, Mum was here for a visit, so the process became even more special. Mum, myself, and Miss 2 used Nan's recipe and created (hopefully) a magnificent pudding.
Mum and I were both quite emotional, remembering Nan, enjoying Miss 2 spooning the mix into the opened and floured cloth (licking the spoon, the bench, her fingers...)
The job was made much easier and more pleasurable by Mum being here. The smell of the cooking pudding was amazing, the whole process fantastic.
Finally it has been hung, and will be cooked again Christmas morning. Even if we are sweltering in the heat, it will boil for several hours. And if it fails to work out? We will slather it with ice-cream, cream and custard, and eat it anyway!
This week's baking task - Mince pies! Stay tuned.
j
