Christmas Pudding

[valyssia]

You won’t see much of this from me. I tend to cook by pinch and dash. This recipe is one of my favorites, though at first glance it doesn’t look very appealing.

(For those of you who are vegetarian—yeah, this should curdle your tummy. Sorry. At least you'll know that Christmas pudding is evil. You truly can’t tell that the suet’s there. The oils leech out of the solid meat fat as it cooks and blend with the cake.)

I’m not sure it even looks appealing when it’s done. It’s just one of those foods. It smells wonderful, like a nice spice cake, and it’s damned tasty. It’s rich on a level that few other things are. I make an exception to my no red meat products policy once a year…and I feel it, but this stuff’s worth a little pain.

If you’re the one weirdo in one-thousand who actually enjoys fruitcake, this stuff will curl your toes. If you’ve tried fruitcake and thought ‘this might be okay if only it wasn’t so…,’ you should enjoy this. If you’re on a diet, hit the back arrow now.

Traditional Christmas Pudding

1 cup brown sugar	1 cup minced beef suet
1 cup molasses	2 eggs
1 cup raisins	1/2 cup walnuts (chopped)
1/2 tsp salt	1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder	1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg	1/4 tsp clove
1/2 cup sour milk (to sour - add 1 TBS vinegar per 1 cup of milk)	3 cups flour to stiffen mix

Mix all ingredients together and fill metal cooking container slightly over half full. Cover tightly. Set in a pan of hot water and cover. Boil for 3 hours (You can buy a christmas pudding cooking container of you can use a large metal coffee can covered with aluminum foil. We use a 1 quart stainless steel mixing bowl tightly covered with foil.)

Notes:

As with all meat, there is a sheath (membrane) around the suet. This needs to be removed during prep. When cooking the cake, a spacer needs to be placed between the pot bottom and the pan you poured the batter into. A canning ring, cookie cutter, or metal tin lid will work. The pan you have the cake batter in needs to just barely float in the water. You can use a baster to remove the excess water should you get too much. We always have to make adjustments. Be careful! The cake will roughly double in volume, so allow adequate headspace.

Velvet Sauce (to serve on the pudding)

1/3 cup butter	1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup Pet evaporated milk	2 egg yolks
2 1/4 tsp vanilla (to be added at end)

Mix all ingredients (except vanilla) together, cook over hot water in a double boiler. Stir constantly until thick.  Remove from heat and add vanilla.

Comments

[rahirah]

Ooh, I'll have to try that.

[valyssia]

It's rather good. The recipe comes from my roommate Doug's great grandmother. It's a holiday treat he's been enjoying since he was a young lad.

The two things that aren't clear to me when I read it are:

1. The suet should be chopped to a consistency similar to small curd cottage cheese. Though I suppose that might be common sense.

2. Grab your iPod when you make the sauce 'cause you'll want something to entertain you. I recommend loading up a good short story to listen to. You'll be bored. It's one of those low heat, long stir sort of games...and if you stop, it'll get lumpy.

Have fun.