LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - DECEMBER 18, 2022 by Lynne Belluscio I follow a couple of Historic Foodways groups online and I recently posted the Jell-O Plum Pudding recipe. One person said that she only was interested in historic recipes. I wrote back that the Jell-O recipe was over 100 years old. The recipe is a favorite of mine. The history of plum pudding goes back to the 14th century and is considered an English tradition. It was called a “frumenty.” Usually, it was made five weeks before Christmas during advent and was often soaked in rum or brandy. At one time, it was made with 13 ingredients, representing the twelve disciples and Jesus. It was to be stirred east to west to honor their journey. Each family member was expected to stir the pudding and make a wish. One of the key ingredients to the plum pudding was beef suet or fat. It was ground up and added to the other ingredients of nuts and spices, raisins, citron, and sugar. Plums weren’t in plum pudding, but in Victorian times they were any type of dried raisins or fruit. (In the Jell-O recipe, stewed prunes are used.) Plum puddings could be steamed in a mold, or could be boiled in a bag. To boil the pudding in a bag, a piece of cloth was dipped in hot water, and then flour was poured on the side that would be on the inside. The cloth was placed in a bowl and the pudding was poured into the bowl. It was then tied with a string, and put into a large pot of boiling water. Cooking the pudding could take several hours. When it was taken out of the boiling water, the string was untied and the pudding put on a plate. At first, the pudding was white because of the flour, but is slowly turns brown. It can be covered with a white sweet sauce, and garnished with a piece of holly, or it can be soaked in brandy or rum and lit aflame. It was the tradition to mix a small coin into the pudding, and who ever found the coin would have good luck for the next year. There’s a funny little poem about the pudding string: The Cat and The Pudding String Sing sing, what shall I sing? The cat’s run away with the pudding string, Do, do, what shall I do? The cat’s run away with the pudding too. For many people, the mention of plum pudding brings to mind Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” which was published in 1844. “Mrs. Cratchit entered: flushed, but smiling proudly: with the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of a half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and bedlight with Christmas holly stuck into the top. ‘Oh, a wonderful pudding!’ Bob Cratchit said, and calmly too, that he regarded it as the greatest success achieved by Mrs. Cratchit since their marriage. Mrs. Cratchit said that now the weight was off her mind, she would confess she had her doubts about the quantity of flour. Everybody had something to say about it, but nobody said or thought it was at all a small pudding for a large family. It would have been flat heresy to do so. Any Cratchit would have blushed to hint at such a thing.” A figgy pudding is also mentioned in the English Christmas carol, We Wish You a Merry Christmas. The carol is believed to originate to the 16th or 17th century but the version that is recognized today is traced to Arthur Warrell’s version which was introduced in 1935 and was arranged for his group the Bristol University Madrigal Singers. His fourpart arrangement was published by the Oxford University Press. The legend goes that the carolers refused to leave the doorsteps of the rich until they were given some figgy pudding. Probably the most humorous version of We Wish You A Merry Christmas was sung by John Denver and the Muppets in 1979. We wish you a Merry Christmas, We wish you a Merry Christmas, We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Good tidings we bring to you and your kin, We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Oh, bring us some figgy pudding, Oh, bring us some figgy pudding, Oh, bring us some figgy pudding, And bring it right here . . . . We won’t go until we get some, We won’t go until we get some, We won’t go until we get some, So bring it right here . . . Jell-O Plum Pudding Recipe (Which isn’t made with suet and isn’t boiled) Dissolve a package of Lemon Jell-O in a pint of boiling water and while it is still hot stir in three fourths cup of Grape Nuts, three-fourths cup seeded raisins, three fourths cup English walnut meats, three-fourths cup cooked prunes and one-fourth cup citron – all cut fine; one-half teaspoon of cinnamon, one-fourth teaspoon cloves. Salt to taste. Mix and let harden (in the refrigerator). Serve with whipped cream or pudding sauce. If you don’t have a pudding mold, pour into a pan and refrigerate. Cut into squares, and serve with whipped cream. A Plum Pudding for Christmas
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