225g self raising flour
225g butter
225g fresh white breadcrumbs
225g currants
350g sultanas
350g raisins, seeded
225g soft dark brown sugar
1 level teaspoon salt
1-2 teaspoons ground mixed spice
125g mixed chopped mixed peel
125g glace cherries, chopped
1 small carrot, peeled and grated
1 small apple, peeled and grated
6 eggs, beaten
Grated rind and juice of 1 orange
Grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
300ml Stout or Guinness
A silver coin
A ring
A thimble
A button
Butter three 1.1litre pudding basins. Rub the butter into the flour in a large bowl. Stir in the breadcrumbs, currants, sultanas, raisins, sugar, salt, mixed spice, mixed peel, chopped cherries, carrot and apple. In another bowl mix together the eggs, orange and lemon juice and rind and the Stout or Guinness and add to the dry ingredients to give a soft dropping consistency. Add more Stout or Guinness if necessary. * Stir in the silver coin, ring, thimble and button one at a time.
Divide the mixture between the 3 basins, leaving 5 cm to the rim of the basins to allow for rising. Cover each basin for steaming with either foil or a pudding cloth tied with string under the rim of the basin so that no water or steam can get into the basin, and put each into a saucepan of boiling water. The water should come halfway up the basin. Cover with lids and steam for 7 hours. Add more boiling water if necessary to keep the level up.
Take the basins out of the pans and let them cool. Re-cover them with fresh foil or cloth and store in a cool, dry place for as long as possible. (Six weeks or more if you have time, if not, then as long as possible.)
Before serving, cover with fresh foil or cloth and steam for another 3 hours.
To serve, take off the covering, turn the pudding upside down onto a warm serving plate and decorate.
The Christmas pudding, a solid mass of compressed fruit, eggs, butter and breadcrumbs, flavoured with Stout, Guinness or brandy, began its career as plum broth or porridge. It was not until well into Queen Anne’s reign that the pudding began to change its consistency until it finally developed into the solid concoction we know today.
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•No pudding should be cooked without its silver coin, a ring, a thimble and a button, kept from year to year. To find the coin foretells future wealth; the ring means marriage; the thimble foretells spinsterhood and the button, bachelorhood.
A sprig of holly, with scarlet berries should decorate the top of the pudding and finally, the pudding, liberally soused with warmed brandy, is lit and brought to the table encompassed in blue flames.