Christmas Pudding, Circa 1904

English plum pudding has long been a staple of the American Christmas feast, though it has been losing popularity, like all steamed puddings. Blame this on its fruitcake-like composition (boring to some) or the half-pound of beef suet (a turn-off for the health-conscious).

Christmas pudding has a rich, luxurious flavor, however, and it makes the perfect ending for a warm holiday meal. In the Los Angeles Sunday Times for Dec. 4, 1904, “complete directions for a delicious and satisfying dish” were presented to readers. Ironically, a column by satirist Finely Peter Dunne titled “What He Thinks About Reducing One’s Weight” ran directly beneath the pudding recipe.

Plum pudding is descended from plum pottage, an ancient dish of meat stewed with plums or prunes. There’s a tale that William the Conqueror rewarded a cook named Robert Argyllon with a manor in Surrey for making “a kind of plum porridge or water gruel with plums in it” for his coronation. According to another story, plum pottage had been introduced to England a century and a half earlier by a conquering Danish king.

Plum porridge was already associated with Christmas in the 17th century. By then, it was being made with only the broth from boiled meat, not the meat itself. It evolved into a steamed pudding of suet, bread crumbs and dried fruit, which remained England’s favorite side dish for roast beef for a century and a half, until Yorkshire pudding replaced it in Queen Victoria’s time.

As the name suggests, plums or prunes were originally a main ingredient, but the English have always preferred pastries flavored with raisins or currants. In the 17th century, raisins had been replacing plums for so long that the word “plum” actually became another word for raisin.

Methods for steaming plum pudding vary. The 1904 Times recipe calls for filling a buttered tin or copper mold with pudding and dipping it in boiling water. After steaming for 3 1/2 to 4 hours, this produced a moist, sweet, chewy treat. Other turn-of-the-century recipes require wrapping the loose pudding in a strong cloth to steam it. And still others say to wrap the cloth around the mold containing the pudding--as if for extra protection while cooking.

The traditional accompaniment for the dish is hard sauce. The substitution of grape jelly for the usual brandy, rum or whiskey in the hard sauce recipe that follows probably reflects the temperance sentiment predominant in Los Angeles at the time. Likewise, the recipe neglects to mention another favorite plum pudding tradition: pouring brandy in the top of the pudding and setting it on fire for presentation at the table.

Perhaps The Times’ recipe was evolving, as plum pudding has been all along. Now, 94 years later, we thought you’d like to see for yourself.

Christmas Pudding

Active Work Time: 35 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 4 to 4 1/2 hours

1 1/4 cups currants

1/4 cup blanched almonds, cut into bits

1 1/4 cups seeded raisins, chopped fine

1/3 cup shredded candied citron

1/4 cup candied lemon peel, cut into thin strips

1/4 cup candied orange peel, cut into thin strips

2 cups sifted flour

1/2 pound solid beef fat trimmings

3 eggs, separated

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons cold water

1/2 cup butter plus extra for greasing pan

1/3 cup sugar

1 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

Juice of 1 orange

Juice of 1 lemon

Hard Sauce, optional

Combine currants, almonds, raisins, candied citron, and candied lemon and orange peels. Coat with 1/4 cup sifted flour. Add beef fat trimmings and mix again. Set aside.

Beat egg yolks until smooth in separate bowl. Beat egg whites until stiff in separate bowl.

Dissolve baking soda in cold water.

Cream butter and sugar by beating until light and fluffy in another bowl. Add beaten egg yolks. Stir in milk. Then stir in stiff egg whites alternately with remaining 1 3/4 cups sifted flour.

Add cinnamon, cloves, salt, nutmeg, orange juice, lemon juice and dissolved baking soda. Stir in flour-coated fruit mixture.

Grease 1 1/2-quart pudding mold with butter. Fill with pudding and cover tightly. Set in pot and add boiling water to 1/2 way up side of mold. Keep water at simmer, topping up as needed, 3 hours.

Let cool, turn out of mold, decorate with sprigs of holly and serve with Hard Sauce.

12 servings. Each serving without Hard Sauce: 415 calories; 176 mg sodium; 85 mg cholesterol; 25 grams fat; 43 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams protein; 0.85 gram fiber.

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Hard Sauce

Active Work and Total Preparation Time: 15 minutes

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg yolk, beaten

3/4 cup melted grape jelly

Pinch grated nutmeg

* Cream butter with brown sugar and egg yolk by beating until light and fluffy.

* Simmer 5 minutes over medium-low heat, stirring constantly. Add jelly, pour into sauce bowl and sprinkle with nutmeg.

2 cups. Each 2-tablespoon serving: 106 calories; 61 g sodium; 33 mg cholesterol; 6 grams fat; 13 grams carbohydrates; 0 protein; 0 fiber.