By Jacqueline Kelly –
The traditional Christmas pudding is rich, thick and filling, the result of many strenuous hours in the kitchen. Over the years, it has become easier to make and with Christmas round the corner, there is still time to make your own.
Before, Christmas pudding made it’s delicious debut around 1670, it had been served up in a different guise known as “plum porridge”, a stew of meat broth and plums.
Also read:
The Significance of Christmas Feast!
In Britain, Plum or Christmas pudding with a sprig of holly and containing a silver coin, covered with a fine cognac and served with double cream or brandy butter, is an experience not to be missed.
The British have even been known to send this delicacy to their friends and relatives in sun-soaked California, Australia and South-Africa. Back in 1698, a visiting Frenchman, Monsieur Mission de Valbourg, said: “Ah! What an excellent thing is a pudding. To come in at pudding time is to arrive at the most lucky moment in the world.”
The great French encyclopaedia of food, Larousse Gastronomique, says: “In Britain, the variety of puddings is probably greater than any other country in the world.”
The British liking for heavy puddings probably owed something to Britain’s first three German Kings from the German house of Hanover. King George I was known as “Pudding George” not just for his size but for his love of puddings. He is reputed to be the original Georgie Porgie of the nursery rhyme.
Pudding tasters should begin making Christmas puddings in late November. In the past, the last Sunday before Advent was known as “Stir-Up Sunday” because everybody in the family took turns at stirring the heavy Christmas pudding mixture.
Wherever they settled, British Colonists took their favourite pudding with them and there are various historic tales surrounding Christmas puddings. Arctic explorers have managed to use Christmas puddings as survival rations, served cold, of course.
A real Christmas pudding, however, should be flaming, laced with either good rum or brandy and served warm. And, whether served on a sandy beach or behind a snow-decked window, this gastronomic delight will never lose it’s tradition or taste.
In Ukraine, the main Christmas meal, called Sviata Vecheria or [Holy Supper] is eaten on Christmas Eve. Traditionally, people fast all day; they start the day drinking some Holy water that has been blessed at Church.
Ukrainians do not begin their meal until the first star is seen in the sky. So people, especially the hungry ones, go outside as soon as it starts getting dark in the afternoon to spot the first star. The star represents the journey of the Wise Men to find Jesus and it announces the birth of Jesus; so Christmas can start! In farming communities, the head of the household now brings in a sheaf of wheat called the Didukh which represents the importance of the ancient and rich wheat crops of Ukraine, the staff of life throughout the centuries.
The meal normally has 12 dishes which represent Jesus’s 12 disciples. The main dish is often Kutia, a kind of sweet grain pudding made of cooked wheat and special syrup containing diluted honey, grated poppy seeds, raisins and sometimes walnuts. Other dishes can include mushrooms, sauerkraut, red ‘borsch’, dumplings known as Varenyky [Pierogi], whitefish, ‘Bigos’ [a meat and cabbage stew], cheesecake and bread.
Tomorrow: Christmas Turkey, The India Connection!
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