Christmas Plum Pudding (1887) - The 1800's Housewife

There’s nothing like an old-fashioned Christmas plum pudding, and making one is easier than you might think!

an old-fashioned plum pudding surrounded by holly — Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Dear friends ~

Can you believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve? It always feels a little surreal how quickly that sneaks up.

Today’s recipe is an old-fashioned plum pudding, another recipe from The White House Cook Book. It’s been years since I’ve made a proper boiled pudding, and after how well this turned out, it has me wondering why I don’t make puddings more often. Maybe it’s that 4 hours of boil time!

If you can get your hands on the ingredients, it’s definitely not too late to whip up this Christmas classic. It’s not as fussy a recipe as it sounds, and once the pudding is boiling away in the mold, the whole process is pretty hands free.

Forgive me if today’s email feels a bit rushed–it is. My heater and water tank both decided to die at the same time, so it’s a bit like camping over here. Thank goodness for the wood stove!

~ Anna

a plum pudding — Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

CHRISTMAS PLUM-PUDDING. (By Measure.)

One cupful of finely chopped beef suet, two cupfuls of fine bread-crumbs, one heaping cupful of sugar, one cupful of seeded raisins, one cupful of well-washed currants, one cupful of chopped blanched almonds, half a cupful of citron, sliced thin, a teaspoonful of salt, one of cloves, two of cinnamon, half a grated nutmeg, and four well-beaten eggs. Dissolve a level teaspoonful of soda in a tablespoonful of warm water.
Flour the fruit thoroughly from a pint of flour; then mix the remainder as follows: In a large bowl put the well-beaten eggs, sugar, spices, and salt in one cupful of milk. Stir in the fruit, chopped nuts, breadcrumbs, and suet, one after the other, until all are used, putting in the dissolved soda last, and adding enough flour to make the fruit stick together, which will take all the pint. Boil or steam four hours. Serve with wine or brandy or any well-flavored sauce.
The White House Cook Book, 1887

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

an 1800's plum pudding recipe — From The White House Cook Book, 1887. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

A FEW COOKING NOTES:

Don’t let yourself be intimidated by those directions. This recipe is honestly very easy to make successfully. Here are a few cooking notes that come to mind having just made this. If you have additional questions, don’t hesitate to reply to this email and ask away!

Sourcing raw suet

If you’re lucky enough to have a good butcher shop nearby, that’s the first place I’d look. You may also find suet right at your grocery store’s meat counter. If you don’t see any on the shelves, try asking the butcher or department manager directly. They may be able to get some for you.

Local farms that raise beef cows, would be another place to try. If the farmers don’t have any available, chances are they may have an idea where you can get some. Anyone raising meat animals tends to be pretty integrated into the locally-grown food community, and is likely to know who’s got what available.

raw suet being chopped with a knife — Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Those bread crumbs

Regular, un-seasoned breadcrumbs are perfect here. I follow the 1800’s housekeeping tip of always grating the ends of dry bread as they go stale, so I’ve always got a 2-quart jar of good dried bread crumbs handy on my counter, but store-bought work just fine too!

If you don’t have whole nutmegs

If you can, I definitely encourage you to add whole nutmegs to your supply of spices, as well as a good grater–there’s nothing like fresh ground nutmeg! If you don’t have whole nutmeg on hand though, no worries. 1.5 teaspoons of ground nutmeg is about right for that half of a nutmeg this recipe.

How much flour to use

This recipe comes across a little wishy-washy about that amount of flour, but I found that simply using exactly the pint that’s initially called for worked perfectly. The pudding turned out well, and has a good texture. Any additional flour would have probably been excessive.

plum pudding batter in a pudding mold — *Do not fill your pudding mold this full! ¾ full is about as high as you want to go.* Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Using a pudding mold

I have an antique tin pudding mold with a well-fitted lid that I used. I loved how the pudding turned out in this, but I did realize that I overfilled it. In the future, I won’t fill the mold more than ¾ full. That pudding rose more than I expected. Also, really butter that mold well!

a plum pudding in a pudding mold — *This pudding rose SO much more than I expected! If I hadn’t wired the lid on just to be safe, it probably would have pushed the lid right up.* Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

If you don’t have a pudding mold, that’s ok! I have not personally boiled a pudding in a cloth, though that’s something I want to tackle this winter.

However, I’m going include the page of tips for pudding making from this cookbook below, and they’re quite well-written directions. If you try this, I hope you’ll let me know how it turns out!

a page from an old cook book — *From The White House Cook Book, 1887.* Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Boiling the pudding

I chose to boil this pudding, and it worked well. I used a small stock pot with enough boiling water to come just below the lid of the pudding mold, and kept the stock pot tightly covered. Halfway through the four hours of boil time, I lifted the lid just long enough to pour in some extra boiling water from a teapot, to bring the water level back up where it started.

Un-molding the pudding

I followed the instruction on the page above, to dip the mold immediately into cold water. Then I tipped it upside down and thumped the bottom of the mold good and hard. It did come out cleanly with just a bit of coaxing. If I hadn’t over-filled the mold, I think it would have slid right out more easily.

The sauce

Here’s the recipe for the sauce that’s meant to be paired with this pudding, according to the suggested Christmas Day menu from this cook book:

a recipe for plum pudding sauce — *From The White House Cook Book, 1887.* Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

There’s something so special and festive about a real, boiled plum pudding. I’ll tell you, I felt like Mrs. Cratchit as I was waiting nervously to see how it would turn out!

“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 bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top.”
~ Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

If you’d like to serve yours flaming, like the Cratchit family enjoyed, here’s a post I liked from another blog about how to do this.

a Christmas plum pudding — Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Well…I’ve just received the quote for getting running water back in the house, and it’s a doozy! For those of you who have asked how I keep this project going, here’s a rare moment of transparency. I’m actually a single mom–a domestic violence survivor, who supports my two kids by writing about gardening and homesteading. It’s tight, but the peaceful life I’ve made for us on this side of things is a joyful one, and I’m SO thankful that you’re part of it.

The 1800’s Housewife is my pet project, and one that doesn’t make an income yet, but at the gentle nudging of a couple readers, I’ve set up a “tip jar” where folks who want to (no pressure!) can be part of keeping us in ingredients, adding to the cook book collection, and you know…replacing that water tank.

send a tip

Please don’t feel pressured though, ok? That’s the last thing I want to do here!

Please know that YOU–your kind emails in my inbox, and comments on the website, are my favorite part of doing what I do. Thank you for being part of the 1800’s Housewife family, and…

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Wishing you love and peace… Anna