Legends There is a popular myth that plum pudding's association with Christmas goes back to a custom in
medieval England that the "pudding should be made on the 25th Sunday after
Trinity, that it be prepared with 13 ingredients to represent Christ and the 12 apostles, and that every family member stir it in turn from east to west to honour the
Magi and their journey in that direction". However, recipes for plum puddings appear mainly, if not entirely, in the 17th century and later. One of the earliest plum pudding recipes is given by
Mary Kettilby in her 1714 book
A Collection of above Three Hundred Receipts in Cookery, Physick and Surgery. There is a popular and unsubstantiated myth that in 1714,
George I of Great Britain (sometimes known as the Pudding King) , creme boiled (a kind of stirred custard), and
sippets. Various ingredients and methods of these older recipes appear in early plum puddings. An early example of a
bag pudding (without fruit) is "fraunche mele" in the Liber Cure Cocorum Pudding "had the great merit" of not needing to be cooked in an oven, something "most lower class households did not have". Pudding predecessors often contained meat, as well as sweet ingredients, and prior to being steamed in a cloth the ingredients may have been stuffed into the gut or stomach of an animal, like
haggis or sausages. As techniques for meat preserving improved in the 18th century, the savoury element of both the mince pie and the plum pottage diminished as the sweet content increased. People began adding dried fruit and sugar. The mince pie kept its name, though the pottage was increasingly referred to as
plum pudding. As plum pudding, it became widespread as a feast dish, not necessarily associated with Christmas, and usually served with beef. It makes numerous appearances in 18th-century satire as a symbol of Britishness, including the
Gilray cartoon,
The Plumb-pudding in danger.
Victorian era It was not until the 1830s that a boiled cake of flour, fruits, suet, sugar and spices, all topped with holly, made a definite appearance, becoming more and more associated with Christmas. In her bestselling 1845 book
Modern Cookery for Private Families, the
East Sussex cook
Eliza Acton was the first to refer to it as "Christmas Pudding". The pudding became popular part of Christmas tradition in the United Kingdom partially due to Charles Dickens' 1843 novel
A Christmas Carol.
British Empire The custom of eating Christmas pudding was carried to many parts of the world by British colonists.
New Zealand,
Canada, and
South Africa. Throughout the colonial period, the pudding was a symbol of unity throughout the
British Empire, a message that was widely promoted through the media. In 1927, the
Empire Marketing Board (EMB) wrote a letter to the
Master of the Royal Household, requesting a copy of the recipe used to make the Christmas pudding for the
royal family. The King and Queen granted
Leo Amery, the head of the EMB, permission to use the recipe in a publication in the following November. The royal chef, Henry Cédard, provided it. In order to distribute the recipe, the EMB had to overcome two challenges: size and ingredients. First, the original recipe was measured to serve 40 people, including the entire royal family and their guests. The EMB was challenged to rework the recipe to serve only 8 people. Second, the ingredients used to make the pudding had to be changed to reflect the ideals of the Empire. The origins of each ingredient were carefully manipulated to represent some of the Empire's many colonies. Brandy from Cyprus and nutmeg from the West Indies, which had been inadvertently forgotten in previous recipes, made special appearances. However, there were a number of colonies that produced the same foodstuffs. The final recipe included Australian currants, South African stoned raisins, Canadian apples, Jamaican rum and English Beer, among other ingredients all sourced from somewhere in the Empire. After finalising the ingredients, the royal recipe was sent out to national newspapers and to popular women's magazines. Copies were also printed and handed out to the public for free. The recipe was a phenomenal success, as thousands of requests for the recipe flooded the EMB office. In 1931, an annual Christmas market for the
People's Dispensary for Sick Animals was held at the
Royal Albert Hall on 24 and 25 November. A 10-ton Christmas pudding, the largest ever created up until that time, was featured. The recipe became known as the "Prince of Wales' Empire Christmas Pudding".
The Times newspaper noted "The Lord Mayor of London has promised to give the pudding its first 'stir'. He will be followed by the High Commissioners of the Dominions, and afterwards the general public will have the chance of stirring it". The Prince of Wales (later
Edward VIII) was then a patron of the PDSA charity. It was then divided up into 11,208 smaller puddings, which were distributed amongst the poor throughout the country. Manchester and Salford, for example, received 512 each.
United States In America, the tradition of the Christmas pudding had already arrived in
pre-independence days. by
Helen Bullock was published in the U.S. as early as 1742. Among the ingredients she includes a pound of each of a variety of dried fruits and sugar, plus half a pound each of candied peel (citron, orange and lemon). She also adds one pint of brandy and 12 eggs.
Jane Cunningham Croly published a 19th-century recipe for plum pudding contributed to ''Jennie June's American Cookery Book'' by the American poet sisters
Alice Cary and
Phoebe Cary. It was made as
bread pudding, by soaking stale bread in milk then adding
suet, candied
citron, nutmeg, eggs, raisins and brandy. It was a moulded dessert, cooked in boiling water for several hours, and served with a sweet wine sauce. ==Wishing and other traditions==