Christmas pudding - Jewish… or not
I’m a terribly lucky person. I have a virus that just doesn’t want to go away.
The trouble is that I have a busy three days and managing the aches and grump on top of work means that today and tomorrow you’ll get two more easy posts from me. Easy posts mean good recipes, so there’s nothing bad in that. Tonight’s recipe is from my grandmother, tomorrow I’ll find you something less Australian and less modern.
It’s not long until Christmas, so the recipe tonight is a Christmas Pudding made by a Jewish family (I don’t want to get into arguments tonight about whether this makes it a Jewish Christmas pudding or not).
My grandmother stopped making it in the 1940s or 1950s, but her oldest daughter made it into the sixties. We thought the recipe was lost until my mother discovered the handwritten notebook and I found this recipe in it. A friend helped me try it and it tastes quintessentially like a Polack family dish – it has all the right basic flavours. It felt rather strange having such an unkosher pudding that belonged so very firmly in our family cuisine.
Closer to Christmas I’ll give you the right sauces to eat with it. The recipe needs to sit a bit (a week? A month?), which is why it comes first.
Christmas Pudding (Medium Rich)
1 lb suet
¾ lb fine breadcrumbs
¾ lb brown sugar
¼ lb flour
1 lb sultanas
1 lb currants
¼ lb mixed peel
½ teaspoon mixed spice
a good pinch salt
1 lemon
4 eggs
½ pt beer or milk
½ gill brandy
Prepare all the ingredients. Sieve flour & mix with crumbs & finely chopped suet. Add fruit & chopped peel & grated rind of lemon & sugar. Mix in the beaten eggs, beer or milk. Stir well. Cover a clean & put away until next day. Add the brandy, turn into greased basins & cover with the greased paper & pudding cloths. Boil for 8 to 10 hrs. Remove the paper & cloths, let puddings cool & recover with fresh paper & dry cloths.
Store in a cool, dry place.
Boil for a further 2 hrs before serving.
food history, Christmas pudding, Jewish food, recipes
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