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Economical Plum Pudding
One pound of bread crumbs, 1 pound of flour, 1 pound of seeded raisins, 3/4 of a pound of chopped suet, 3/4 of a pound of currants, 1/4 of a pound of lemon peel, 1 ounce of blanched and chopped almonds, 2 teaspoonfuls of mixed spices, ¼ of a teaspoonful of salt, 3 eggs and 1 cupful of milk, ½ pound of sugar. Mix all the dry ingredients together. Beat up the eggs, add the milk to them and pour among the other ingredients. Mix and press the mixture into a well-greased mold, cover with a scalded and floured cloth, and boil steadily for five hours.
Keep in a cool, dry place. Plum puddings properly made and boiled will keep at least a year.
A classic English boiled pudding scaled for economy: bread crumbs stand in for half the usual flour and dried fruit, and there is no brandy. It is straightforward to make, but the storage advice at the end belongs to another era.
- Total weight and yieldThe weighed dry ingredients come to over 5 lb, nearer 6 lb once the eggs and milk are added, which needs a 3 quart pudding basin or mold, or two smaller ones. Expect upwards of 16 servings; a single mold this size feeds a full table.
- Bread crumbsDry, stale white crumbs, not the fine dried crumbs sold for coating. A pound is a large volume; weigh rather than measure by cup.
- SuetBeef suet, shredded or grated fine and tossed with a spoonful of the flour so it stays separate. Butchers will often supply it on request; frozen packaged shredded suet works, and cold grated butter is the usual substitute if suet is unavailable, though the texture is softer.
- Lemon peelThis means candied peel, sold in the baking aisle, not fresh zest. A quarter pound is a generous amount and should be chopped small.
- Mixed spicesNineteenth-century mixed spice is cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and clove, sometimes with mace and ginger. Pumpkin pie spice is a near enough stand-in.
- Covering the moldScald the cloth and flour the side that faces the pudding; the flour is said to set into a skin that keeps water out. Tie it tight under the rim and leave a pleat across the top for expansion. A sheet of pleated parchment under the cloth, or a foil lid, does the same job.
- BoilingStand the mold on a trivet or folded cloth in a deep pan of boiling water coming halfway up the sides, and keep it at a steady simmer for the full five hours. Top up with boiling water, never cold.
- KeepingThe claim that a properly boiled pudding keeps a year rests on heavy sugar, hard fat and, in most versions, a good deal of brandy. This one has milk and eggs and no spirit. Cool it completely and refrigerate, and use within a couple of weeks; freeze for longer. Steam for an hour to reheat.
Plum pudding took its name from the medieval use of "plum" for any dried fruit, raisins above all, and descends from the spiced meat-and-fruit pottages that thickened over the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries into a solid boiled pudding tied in a cloth. By the Victorian period it was fixed firmly to Christmas, and its cost was a matter of household anxiety: a full recipe called for generous quantities of raisins, currants, sultanas and candied peel, plus brandy. Economical versions of the kind collected here cut the fruit back and pad the body with bread crumbs, which absorb the fat and steam into something close to the same texture for a fraction of the price. The instruction to keep the pudding for months reflects the older practice of making it weeks ahead, on the traditional Stir-up Sunday before Advent, so the flavors could mellow before the holiday.