This year we are doing Christmas for the extended family. It could be very big. It is agreed that I will not be cooking a thing on the day and our adult children have undertaken to attend to the coordination of food and booze, so long as I relax. I recognize that there are a number of things that I can well do in advance of the occasion though.

One of those things is to make the pudding and some handy jars of mincemeat. Mincemeat, now there is a strange word, full of very old fashioned, connotations. What is it anyway? Is it sweet or is it savory, does it contain meat at all and what exactly is suet, so often an ingredient of this delectable product?

Mincemeat as it happens, is a finely chopped mix of apples, orange and lemons, dried fruits such as raisins and currants, candied peel, spices like nutmeg and mace, sugar, suet and brandy or rum. It is made in large quantities and can be stored for years in sterilized airtight containers, requiring little more than some hydration with more alcohol. It is used for the quick and easy production of mince pies, served in a northern hemisphere winter and throughout the Christmas season.

I think I remember my mother and grandmother starting to prepare this with the Christmas pudding sometime in October, possibly before the heat became too much of an issue for Antipodean Christmas arrangements.

I have cooked with suet only once before. Suet is the fat surrounding beef kidney and is purchased from butchers. I did ring around some speciality food stores a day or so ago, hoping for a clever prepared mix, free of any blood, connective tissue and finely grated on my behalf. Such a foul job to do yourself. As it happens, Jonathon’s of Collingwood currently have 20kg of prepared suet, cleaned and finely minced and ready for use and for sale in 1 kg bags.

The butcher I spoke to assured me that you can cut from it what you need and refreeze the suet quiet safely.

Cooked puddings and jars of mincemeat do not require refrigeration and can be stored with perfect safety in a cupboard for months on end. I think I may be storing the mincemeat though in the fridge.

The purpose of turning to such old fashioned receipts is that items such as the Christmas pudding, mincemeat and mince pies are now readily available in many commercial forms or are produced by the more industrious from more modern recipes. These interpretations shy away from the use of that fundamental ingredient though, suet. Suet is used as a shortening and keeps puddings and pastries and mincemeat concoctions light and airy. Many recipes today recommend butter instead, and in catering for the more faint hearted succeed in creating what we have begun to accept as the heavy, sodden Christmas pudding. Such notions have transformed and to a degree spoilt these festive dishes. I advocate that it is worth rediscovering how this fare was traditionally made in its heyday in an attempt to recapture the true essence of these dishes.

Of late I have been doing some reading of English cookery of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. I unearthed the recipe given below in Elizabeth David’s book, Spices, Salts and Aromatics in the English Kitchen. She describes its origins as coming from one of those Edwardian collections ‘made by the lady of the household in collaboration with her cook and friends.’ The lavishness of this recipe is indicative of the energy devoted to the creation of festive puddings at this time. The recipe makes two large puddings, contains no sugar and be warned, takes 14 hours to cook!

The recipe for Brandy Butter follows.

Christmas Pudding

‘Two pounds and a quarter of stoned raisins, two pounds and a quarter of currants, six ounces of finely chopped candied peel, thirteen eggs, one pint and a half of breadcrumbs, one pound and a half of flour, one pound and a half of finely chopped suet, three wineglasses of brandy, two wine glasses of rum.

‘Mix these ingredients well together, put into buttered basins, and boil for fourteen hours. This quantity makes two large puddings.’

(The Ocklye Cookery Book, Eleanor L. Jenkinson, 1909)

That said and curious as it may be, I think I will be sticking to Eliza Acton’s version published in 1845 in her book Modern Cooking for Private Families. It is as follows:

The Author’s Christmas Pudding

‘To 3 ounces (90g) of flour, and the same weight (90g) of fine, lightly grated bread – crumbs, add six (185g) of beef kidney-suet, chopped small, 6oz (185g) of raisins, weighed after they are stoned, six (185g) of well-cleaned currants, four ounces (110g) of minced apples, five (120g) of sugar, two (50g) of candied orange rind, half a teaspoonful of nutmeg, mixed with pounded mace, a very little salt, a small glass of brandy, and three whole eggs. Mix and beat these ingredients well together, tie them tightly in a thick floured cloth, and boil them for three hours and a half. We can recommend this as a remarkably light, small rich pudding: it may be served with German wine, or Punch sauce.’ (Modern Cookery for Private Families, Eliza Acton, 1845).

Brandy Butter

Brandy butter is excellent served with the Christmas Plum Pudding; alternative names are ‘hard sauce’ and ‘Senior Wrangler sauce’.

‘For about a dozen helpings the ingredients are 1 lb (450g) of unsalted butter, 8 oz (220g) icing sugar, 2 or 3 tablespoons brandy, a teaspoonful of lemon juice, a sprinkling of nutmeg.

‘If you have an electric blender, simply cut up the butter and put it with all the other ingredients into the goblet and let them whizz away for 2 or 3 minutes.’ You need to create a smooth cream. Store in a covered dish.

(Elizabeth David, Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen, 1970).

Eliza Acton’s solution to any leftover pudding can be found below:

The Elegant Economist’s Pudding

‘Butter thickly a plain mould or basin, and line it entirely with slices of cold plum or raisin pudding, cut so as to join closely and neatly together; fill it quite with a good custard; lay, first a buttered paper and then a floured cloth over it, tie them securely, and boil the pudding gently for an hour; let it stand for ten minutes after it is taken up before it is turned out of the mould. This is a more tasteful mode of serving the remains of a plum pudding than the usual one of broiling them in slices, or converting them into fritters. The German sauce, well milled or frothed, is generally much relished with sweet boiled puddings, and adds greatly to their good appearance but common wine or punch sauce may be sent to table with the above quite as appropriately.’

(Modern Cooking for Private Families, Eliza Acton, 1845).

Recipes for German and Punch Sauce are found in the same book in which are also housed delightful receipts for such enterprising and curious dishes as The Publisher’s Pudding, The Welcome Guest’s Own Pudding, Fashionable Apple Dumplings and The Young Wife’s Pudding.

Stephanie Alexander is the only one that I have found that has the good sense to instruct one on how to exactly ‘boil the pudding.’ Her instructions are as follows: ‘Stand each pudding on a wire rack inside a stockpot and add boiling water to come two-thirds up the sides of the basins.’ Top up with boiling water as needed. (The Cook’s Companion, Stephanie Alexander, 1996). I actually nearly burnt the flat down one year for failing to do this. Quite triumphantly I had abandoned the kitchen to attend to other matters only to return to smoke detectors screaming and the bamboo steam baskets perched above the now dry pots charring and smoking. I kid you not.

Mincemeat

This recipe was one used by Elizabeth David, passed onto her by a friend of hers.

‘The ingredients are: 1 ½ lb (700g) sharp apples,; ¾ lb (325g) stoneless raisins; ¾ lb (325g) currants; ¼ lb (110g) mixed peel; ¾ lb (325g) suet; ¾ lb (325g) sultanas; 2 oz (60g) skinned and coarsely chopped almonds; ½ teaspoon each grated nutmeg, cinnamon, mace; ¾ lb (325g) sugar; rind and juice of 1 lemon and 1 orange; 2 ½ oz (80ml) brandy or rum.

‘Wash and dry all fruit. Chop the peeled and carefully cored apples. Mix all ingredients well together, adding brandy last.

‘Fill stoneware jars and tie them down with thick grease-proof paper, or alternatively pack the mincemeat into glass preserving jars with screw or clip on tops.

‘This amount makes approximately 6 lb of mincemeat.’

(Elizabeth David: Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen, 1970)

Beef kidney-suet can be purchased in 1kg lots from Jonathon’s of Collingwood (122 Smith St, Collingwood, Phone: 9419 4339). It has been cleaned and minced ready for use. It is kept frozen.

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