poliphilo | Puddings And Pies

Puddings And Pies

You can laugh all you like at traditional English cooking, but no-one does desserts like we do. No-one else even really tries. The continental Europeans make finicky little pastry things- and very good they are too- and the Indians have all those brightly coloured sweets, but there's nothing in any other national cuisine to match our puddings and pies.

British deserts are heavy. They're comfort food- stodge- a defence against the British weather. The miracle ingredient is suet.

I was talking to Judy about Christmas puddings and mince pies. Judy is a New Yorker and she wasn't sure she'd ever had either. I was incredulous. I can't imagine Christmas without puddings and pies. Oh, and cake. These are the things that make the winter months bearable. I'm being entirely serious when I say that Christmas pudding- served with brandy butter for preference, but custard or cream will do- is the most delicious dish known to Man.

I've already started making mince pies. I make a batch, we eat them, I make some more. It's what's keeping us going. Ailz tells me I have a particularly light touch with pastry.

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I come from a non-baking household (my mother once made a cake in 1997), but the Bloke's mother makes her own Christmas puddings and mince pies at this time of year. Having seen what goes into one of her puds I finally understand why they taste so good and fill you up after about two mouthfuls.

I'm afraid I've never made my own christmas pudding. My grandmother used to- and she'd fill it with sixpences too.

It's surprisingly easy to make Christmas pudding. I used to do one each year as my contribution to a vegetarian Christmas dinner. (Breadcrumbs rather than suet).

Best advice I can give is to make two tomorrow, then keep one for Christmas 2009. :-)

Good advice. I'm thinking about it. But haven't I left it a bit late for this year?

Give it a go - the pudding will still have a month to season.

I rememeber buying lumps of suet from the butcher and grating it.
It was even better than the packet stuff. I don't know if you can still get it.
I'm good at pastry too. I'm making steak pie today

These days I get my meat from the supermarket. I don't suppose it would occur to them to sell suet at the butchery counter.

I feel guilty when I eat pig. They're quite clever.

Me too. But I'm afraid it doesn't stop me.

Funny you should post this today. I stopped at the grocery store this morning on the way in to work, and what do I see but premade Christmas puddings for sale. They were packaged in bowls the size of a large orange. I've been tempted to make one for quite some time now - maybe I'll buy one of them, and if I like it make one from scratch for Christmas. I'm glad you say they are both easy to make and delicious.

I'm going to have Tiny Tim's voice in my head for the remainder of the day, now.

oops - I guess it was

jfs who said they were easy to make. :P

He's right. It's basically just a case of mixing a lot of ingredients together in a large bowl.

Yes, do buy one. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Do you put real meat in your mincemeat? My octagenarian mother speaks of mincemeat pies in her childhood with venison in it.

Where do you get your suet? It's been so long since I've seen an actual butcher in the meat department of a supermarket, I wouldn't know whom to ask. And an actual butcher shop? LOL

No, my mincemeat doesn't contain meat (unless you count the suet). The main ingredient is vine fruits.

Our supermarkets (well, some of them) have butchery counters with real live butchers behind them, but I wouldn't buy my suet from them. Instead I'd expect to find it on the shelves- in the same section as the flour and other baking ingredients.

It's sold in packets. The leading brand is Atora.

Your version of suet must be different than the American version?
We buy suet in the winter for the birds but I think it's a combination of fat and different types of birdseed. I can't imagine that you eat that.

I love Christmas anything treats! I'm not a huge fan of mince pie but my husband loves it.

Have you ever made cake that has coconut and fresh citron in it? My great aunt used to make it and I loved it. I have no clue how to bake one.

Suet is rendered (or not rendered) from cows or sheep and lard is rendered (or not) from pigs. In the US it is easier to get lard, as it is available in most grocery stores, especially in the South and Southwest. It would behave reasonably well in the recipes being discussed here.

That cake you're reminiscing about sounds heavenly. Coconut and citron would be perfect together.

Ohhhh LARD! Now I understand! That really takes me back to my childhood.

I need to search through my mother's things that are still packed up and see if I can find that recipe. I think she had it somewhere. I dearly loved it, and I am not all that fond of cake. My husband loves fruitcake... yes, fruitcake. It's nice in very small quantities and a bit sweet for me.

I'm sure you've heard that joke about how that one fruitcake in the tin has been mailed back and forth among people for years.

I have a fruitcake recipe that is very involved, that requires curing for a number of weeks before being eaten. If I remember correctly it takes a lot of brandy.

And you sample the brandy many times while you make it... right? *L*

Nothing like the happy cook sampling the sauce. It makes everything taste better!

Rum Balls.... I used to make them. Just the smell makes you feel better!

If you get real fruitcake and not the bricks that we tend to see here in America, fruitcake is very, very good. The Brits make damn fine fruitcake.

Oh I know, but my husband even likes the bricks! *L*

Real suet is harder and thicker than lard, and as was posted above, is grateable. It's the fat from round the beef kidney. Maybe if you picked all the birdseed out you would be left with proper English suet... but lard might be almost as good. I am sure suet is the very best stuff for fossilizing your arteries.

Oh I am quite sure that you are right on the fossilizing the arteries thing!

Edited 2007-11-18 19:19 (UTC)

I see Veronica_Milvus has already answered your question about suet, but I'd like to add- for the sake of completeness- that it's possible to buy a vegetarian version- God knows what it's made of.

The coconut and citron cake sounds like the sort of thing you might be offered in a traditional English tea shop. I've had coconut cake and I've had lemon cake (made with grated rind) but i don't believe I've ever had the two flavours mixed together.

Coconut and citron mixed together in a cake is absolutely YUMMY.

My grandmother roasted goose for Christmas dinner and, on the day after, she made sugar cookies with the fat drippings that were just heavenly. She started making Mince Meat in November with pork that would ferment in a crock. The pies were amazing. These recipes were in her head and unfortunately passed with her over thirty years ago. I haven't had them since I was a small child in the 60s. But I can still taste these wonderful things in my imagination. My parents disliked the goose, the cookies, the pies, all of it.

Mince Meat is available in jars in the grocery store, but it contains no 'meat'. It tastes sort of like a chutney with raisins.

In recent years I usually have Christmas dinner with a friend at a beloved Chinese restaurant in my neighborhood where we eat a delightful roast duck. The prospect is already making me salivate.

My brother and sister in law have goose every once in a while- and coat potatoes in the fat and roast them. Their roast potatoes are generally held to be the best roast potatoes going.

I love goose, and particularly foie gras.

The Chinese restaurant I frequent will curry a goose on special order, which is served with roasted potatoes in the sauce. It hits all the right places in the mouth, from hot to sweet to salty. The sauce is very rich from the drippings.

I worked in a restaurant where they served monk fish crusted with herbs and sesame seeds with a sauce that was made with reduced fennel juice thickened with a foie gras paste that was unbelievable.

Used to treat myself to a foie gras sandwich every so often when I lived in Cambridge, MA about ten years ago. At the time, foie gras was running $18 per pound (₤ 8.76) so it really felt like a luxury.

I don't believe I've ever eaten foie gras.

That curried goose sounds remarkably good.

And the monk fish.....

Stop it, you're making me hungry......

ooh you are not wrong! Real Xmas pud is a ton better than the xmas cake. I soak the dried fruit in brandy overnight before cooking, it plumps up all the raisins beautifully! And in general, English puddings are to die for - rhubarb crumble, jam roly poly, treacle sponge, bread and butter puidding (fabulous with nutmeg and sultana or with marmalade!)sticky toffee pudding, sussex pond pudding, apple pie, all with lashings of CUSTARD of course...

American puddings are generally of the gateau variety and even in quite good restaurants they are a bit cheap and plasticky like an Asda budget version. And their birthday cakes are quite nasty too.

Someone should do an English puddings calendar and sell it to expats...

My favourite recipe for Xmas Pud soaks the dried fruit in Guinness and whiskey over night; once it's been drained and the fruit put into the mixing bowl, the remaining liquor mixes especially well with cream, for putting over apple crumble.

I'm not going to knock Christmas cake- it's pretty fabulous- but Christmas pud is the best.

I don't know why we don't push our puddings more. Maybe it's because we don't eat them ourselves any more. I saw a newspaper article the other day which asked whether the traditional English suet pud was finished. It made me sad.

Ailz tells me I have a particularly light touch with pastry.

Good for you; my own attempts at pastry, whilst edible, could never be described as 'light'. I probably don't do it often enough to stand a chance of getting better at it.

I don't make pastry all that often either. The way Ailz tells it, lightness of touch is this mystical thing- you either have it or you don't.

(It could just be that she wants to get out of making the pastry herself)

I couldn't agree more. Do you have a recipe for pastry? I tend to get shop bought pastry having never had a decent recipe.

My recipe for pastry is absurdly simple. Twice as much flour as butter, a pinch of salt and enough water to make the mixture cohere without becoming sticky.

Thanks, I'll give it a whirl next time the pie baking mood descends.

I've had very few Christmas puddings, but mince pie is a regular in our household. We make our own mincemeat, usually vegetarian but sometimes --- as this year --- with meat, usually beef. We're probably going to make ours tomorrow.

Then there are my favorite Christmas delicacies: Welsh cakes and bara brith. Took me ages to come up with gluten-free casein-free versions, but I have them now and they're almost as good as the originals. I usually only make Welsh cakes once or twice a year because they're finicky and a lot of work. Now's the time, though. Must dig up the recipe.

I have to confess I don't know what a Welsh cake is. Or bara brith.

I am curious....

Welsh cakes are known in Wales as cage bach, if that tells you anything. They're a basic descendant of the medieval griddle-baked sweet cake. They involve flour, sugar, butter, suet, sultanas, spices, and an egg. You roll the dough about 1/3 inch thick, cut it in rounds, and bake them on a griddle until brown on both sides. Most of the work is in the rolling, as the wrong thickness results in a flop (too raw or too hard). They're rich enough to kill you if you eat too many, but it would be a happy death. ;)

Bara brith is a light-colored tea bread, made with sultanas and either marmalade or candied peel, and often using cold tea for the liquid. It comes out a golden color and isn't overly sweet. Much lighter than fruitcake. Very nice sliced thin and buttered.

Neither of these are technically Christmas foods, it's just that my Welsh ex-pat maternal family used to serve them at Christmas with manic predictability, and only irregularly at other times of year. They also always including mashed-carrot-and-turnip among the Christmas veg. That's another seasonal favorite of mine.

If you'd like recipes, say the word and I'll send them along.

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Puddings And Pies

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