As the nursery rhyme goes, Little Jack Horner sat in a corner, eating his Christmas pie. He put in his thumb, and pulled out a plum, and said, “What a good boy am I!”
I’m thinking Jack delved into the mincemeat pie or plum pudding, both traditionally made with suet. In case you aren’t familiar with suet, it’s the hard white fat around the kidneys and loins of cows and sheep. Nowadays, mincemeat pie and plum pudding made with suet are pretty much out of favor, with dried or fresh fruit used instead. I thought it would be interesting on Vintage Friday to take a look back at a traditional recipe for plum pudding from the late 1800’s.
PLUM PUDDING
1 and a half cups suet, 3 cups flour, 1 tbsp cinnamon, 1 cup molasses, 1 cup sour milk, 1 tsp soda plus a pinch, 1 cup raisins, half cup currants.
Chop the suet finely and mix with the flour and cinnamon, coating the suet well. Mix together the molasses, sour milk, and soda. Mix together the coated suet with the molasses, sour milk, and soda mixture. Add the raisins and currants. Steam for two hours.
What do you say? Got time to prepare some plum pudding for next week’s Christmas dinner? Come back here for Cocktail Saturday for some Wassail to go with it!
The recipe is adapted from Mrs. P.O. Sharpless in 1894. http://womenshistory.about.com/od/1894puddings/r/suet_pudding_t.htm
I think I’d much rather have the Wassail, Flossie! 🙂 Although I can’t see myself eating Plum Pudding, old recipes are grand!