December 1, 2013
A Christmas pudding needs no introduction in Australia. However, back in 1956 it did need explaining for us. We had never heard of a pudding dedicated to a religious event in Holland. Mind you, it was only a few years ago when I mentioned a spongy type of chocolate cake with shredded coconut that this was called a lamington. For most of my life I was ignorant of one the most hallowed and revered delicacies, as British as fish and chips or a Beefeater on his watch.
It is still the same with Christmas puddings. An event and tradition I have been excluded from till now. The exclusion was never deliberate. I never really experienced it, it was my own ignorance. The esoteric world of the dietary and culinary delights of Britain is lifting its veils and I am most honoured to have been accepted.
Little could I have foreseen that in my post middle age, but not yet in my final pre burial stage, I would be called upon to help and prepare and cook a Christmas pudding. Not only that, the lady who politely requested my help is English, very English. I have to be very careful not to mention my support for Australia’s push into a republic. It would not be a good ‘show’. She has taught me the whole lineage of English Royalty right back to the Prince of Orange of Nassau and a diversion even further back to William the Silent. I learnt to be just as polite ( and silent) not wishing to point out that the Dutch Royals are also Oranges of Nassau related.
The lady is our good and very lively neighbour. Too old to have bothered about the ways of her new stove, computers, skyping and all that electronic wizardry. I too have problems with this stove. As usual, too many options. I am surprised it doesn’t have photographic capability or Windows 8.1 Clouds with Sky-drive.
All the help she required from me was to simply switch this beast of an oven on with about 4 hours of cooking time on 140c heat. Please, could you be at my place at about 6 o’clock, she asked? On arrival she had a large ceramic container filled with all the fruity looking ingredients including bright red and viridian green glace bits. Most of it were what looked like raisins and lots of dark brown dried fruits, perhaps dried plums, apricots, persimmons, dates, currants and some nuts. The lot she kept turning and mixing in a churning type of electric powered machine.
I fulfilled her request by trying out all the buttons to find the 4 hours cooking time. On our own similar stove I usually put on many hours and just keep track on the required cooking time before switching it off. I rarely use the oven. In fact I cook mainly outside lately.
Before I go any further I must add that our neighbour cannot be hurried. Her cooking is more of a slow meticulously laboured organized way of life rather than cooking. I swear that the walk between the kitchen bench top and the oven takes her about two hours. She gets waylaid by lots of diversions. She will shake the salt or just look at the bowls contemplating something. She surveys her vast array of cake dishes, ladles, spices, and like a conjurer keeping rabbits well hidden or…a voodoo priest contemplating in deep concentration a beheaded chook, finally makes a decision…she calls a good friend on the phone!
I decided to give the oven a couple of extra hours, just in case! When I left, she was still on the phone. Next day I enquired. She said, “oh, I think I forgot the baking powder.” “It did not rise”. “It is solid though.” “It tastes alright.”
Very nice Christmas cake, thanks Gerard, she added.
Tags: British, Christmas pudding, Holland, lamington
Posted in Gerard Oosterman
Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
The question ought to be asked; Is ‘haggis’ a pudding a cake or a meal? I reckon it is a pudding. Here from Wiki.
“Haggis is a savoury pudding containing sheep’s pluck (heart, liver and lungs); minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock”.
The sheep suet is sure plucky. Who would have thought that haggis is a pudding?
LikeLike
Actually I think the reality is that haggis is just that, haggis. Similarity to a Christmas Pudding is that it is wrapped in sheep’s gut lining and boiled in water. See the yummy ingredients (waste not, want not !) enjoy …..
1 sheep’s stomach or ox secum, cleaned and thoroughly, scalded, turned inside out and soaked overnight in cold salted water
heart and lungs of one lamb
450g/1lb beef or lamb trimmings, fat and lean
2 onions, finely chopped
225g/8oz oatmeal
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp ground dried coriander
1 tsp mace
1 tsp nutmeg
water, enough to cook the haggis
stock from lungs and trimmings
LikeLike
England is divided and split in the middle by gravy. The Tories are in the thin watery gravy class. In fact, for them it is a bit common to talk about food at all. They look upon food a bit like toilet habits, necessary, but don’t mention it. Boiled cold cabbage eaten standing up in a draught will suffice.
The thick gravy aficionados on the other hand belong to the labour side. Sausages and mash with thick gravy. They relish food and will stand for hours in a queue for fish chips. They are earthy honest and without pretend. Bread pudding, black-pudding…any pudding. The salt of the earth. They relish all food especially if it takes tom sauce as well..
LikeLike
Well whatever it was Gerard your neighbour was not making a Christmas PUDDING. Some kind of fruit CAKE. If she offers you some in the near future just say thank you and that you’ll have it later for dessert. Then go inside and pour a good slug of sherry over it and eat the next day, on a plate, with a dollop of ice-cream and don’t forget to report back to the pub.
LikeLike
Yes, there is some argument about what is cake and what is pudding. Someone from English background reckons a pudding is something steamed. It can even be a ‘steak and kidney’ thing. You have the same word in Dutch ‘pudding’ which is always something sweet, preferably something that quivers such as jelly or custard pudding.
The mind boggles a ‘meat pudding’! I remember being taken for a ‘pudding’ back in the UK. It turned out a cup-o-tea and a muffin. Amazing!
Again in cricket they seem to ‘test’ all the time as well. I wonder when the testing stops and the real game begins?
What’s in a word|?
LikeLike
Gerard,, stay away from all cakes and puddings, that way you can maintain your svelte figure!
LikeLike
Suet as I know it was used for making the dough (like butter would be for other pastries) which surrounded the steak and kidney pudding. It can still be purchased in dried packet form. It is from the beef carcass. I’ve never heard of it being used for anything other than savoury stuff. Gone out of fashion but like a lot of things you can be assured it’ll turn up on Master Chef soon enough. Waste not, want not. Suet isn’t like the fat of the animal – it comes in one piece, a largish lump and feels quite different – sort of firm, sort of dry and it can be crumbled.
LikeLike
‘Pud’ has become shorthand for anything which is dessert or sort of a cake. Christmas Pudding is unique. The mixture is put in a cloth (lining a bowl) then tied up with real string (tight, no air) and then boiled in water and then hung out on the clothes line to dry. Drying takes some days so bring in at night and hang out again etc and then hang in the sleep-out. They should be made at least a month before Christmas. They must have brandy in them by the way and the dried fruit should be chopped by hand and come from Mildura.
LikeLike
So, is that anything in a cloth and boiled? What about a turkey or leg of ham? There is now a barney brewing about lamingtons. I always thought this was a British institution but it is now regarded as Australian as the Melbourne cup.
Anyway, anything with brandy is ok by me. What about a wedding cake, aren’t many participants boiled there as well. 😉
LikeLike
Not in this case Gerard. Specifically and unique to Christmas Pudding is the cloth. There are other puddings and other methods but a pudding is not something which is baked in the oven. There is steak and kidney pudding and then there is steak and kidney pie. That pudding is done in a special pudding container and boiled, the pie is in or covered with a pastry and baked in the oven. I’m not an expert on lamingtons but I am pretty sure they are an All-Australian innovation.
Best to check out the CWA on that.
LikeLike
PS – wedding cake – I’m not up on cakes all that much and less so wedding cakes. The ones I have had seem to be a moist fruit cake (designed to last) often spoilt with horrid icing covered with some other layer of gunk the name of which escapes me.
LikeLike
There is also something called suet which vegetarians avoid because it is supposed to be an animal product such as mutton or beef fat. How that fits in with a sweet pud, I don’t know. The mind boggles.
LikeLike
My reply is out of order – look up.
LikeLike