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Tales from the Experimental Kitchen: Nearly-Perfect Christmas Pudding
I have been making traditional Xmas pud on-and-off for the last, yeesh, twelve years? or so; but I'd kept dorking around with different recipes, never doing the same thing twice, and last year it culminated in a dismal failure of greasy slime that collapsed under fire (literally). This year I applied SCIENCE!~; took two versions of earlier recipes that I had used with success, converted them to consistent measurements, decided which elements of each I wanted, and then fared forth.
Ideally, make this in the 6-cup pudding basin that
lillilah got you like twenty years ago. In a pinch, you can use a good-sized bowl and cover it very very very tightly; look on the interwubs for instructions on this. Also ideally, start this a month before Xmas; I usually try and do it over Thanksgiving weekend; but honestly it will be fine even if you do it only a week early.
This should be made with suet. Find a local butcher if possible. Greenmarket meat vendors may be able to help; probably so can the meat counter at Whole Foods, Gourmet Garage, and mayyybe Fairway?
I say "nearly perfect" because my dashing consort opined that the fruit:cake ratio could be swung a little more in the fruit direction, and I'm in agreement; so next year I'll ratchet that up to 2-1/2c. fruit and see how it does.
I serve this with hard sauce (butter, fine sugar {which I pounded myself in a mortar} {I'M NOT WEIRD YOU'RE WEIRD SHUT UP}, and brandy or bourbon whipped together) but I understand some people do a runny article that's milk or cream based.
Ideally, make this in the 6-cup pudding basin that
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This should be made with suet. Find a local butcher if possible. Greenmarket meat vendors may be able to help; probably so can the meat counter at Whole Foods, Gourmet Garage, and mayyybe Fairway?
- Take 2-1/3 c. mixed dried fruit (I used currants, raisins, and Jumbo Raisins™; you could throw in chopped figs, dates, prunes, craisins even).
- Soak fruit in 1/2 cup of booze for a day or so. I used 1/4 c. each of Pedro Ximenez sherry and bourbon; you could do any brown spirit here, or just use brown spirits, or replace the PX with port or madeira; it is not critical. Stir it several times over the period.
- Grate 4 oz. of beef suet, which is VERY roughly a cup and a half. This is tedious and annoying. It will go easier if you freeze the suet; and you had better have a really sturdy grater. It's also helpful to wear dish gloves, because your hands won't soften up the suet as quickly.
- Make 1c of fresh bread crumbs. You can include the crust if it's soft.
- Grate 1/2 c. of a good tart apple (peel it first).
- Measure out 3/4 c. of flour, and stir in the zest of 1 lemon (you can do some orange zest if you want), a pinch of salt, and a bunch of your favorite warm spices. I like cinnamon, clove, ginger, and nutmeg at least; and may add cardamom and allspice if the mood takes me. Occasionally I get really wacky and put in long pepper.
- Mix together the suet, bread crumbs, grated apple, the flour/spice/zest, and 3 eggs.
- Once that is pretty well integrated, stir in the boozy fruit. All of the booze should have gotten taken up, but if any is left, stir that in too.
- Scrape into your greased pudding tin and cover tightly.
- Steam in a big pot (don't have the pudding tin touch the bottom of the pot! jar lids or, in our case, a glass British Civil Service paperweight help with this) for 3 to 4 hours. The water should stay about halfway up the side of your pudding tin.
- Extract tin, let cool a bit.
- Brush pudding with more bourbon (whiskey, rum, whatever), cover with a layer of wax paper, and put the tin's lid back on.
- Store in a cool place until Xmas. If you have a pantry, cellar, or garage, that's perfect; the back of the fridge will suffice. If you feel like it, brush with booze a couple more times in the interval.
- On Xmas, re-steam the pudding for another 3-4 hours. Un-mold it onto a plate when you're ready to serve.
- Heat maybe 1/3 c. of spirit (bourbon, brandy, whiskey) gently in a saucepan. VERY CAREFULLY apply a match, and while it is flaming, pour over the pudding and bear it into the dining room to great acclaim.
I say "nearly perfect" because my dashing consort opined that the fruit:cake ratio could be swung a little more in the fruit direction, and I'm in agreement; so next year I'll ratchet that up to 2-1/2c. fruit and see how it does.
I serve this with hard sauce (butter, fine sugar {which I pounded myself in a mortar} {I'M NOT WEIRD YOU'RE WEIRD SHUT UP}, and brandy or bourbon whipped together) but I understand some people do a runny article that's milk or cream based.
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