Plum pudding tastes best when it’s made days, weeks, or even months ahead of time, according to American culinary legend James Beard. “It was customary to make it in early Advent—the religious season before Christmas Day—and use it the following year,” Beard wrote when he published this recipe in 1963. “Everyone in the family was supposed to stir the pudding once for good luck.”
Also known as Christmas pudding or figgy pudding, the dish originated in medieval England and is a flexible canvas for modern cooks. Substitute ground ginger for the mace, nutmeg, or allspice. If currants are hard to come by, swap in dried cranberries, apricots, prunes, or other dried fruit. Instead of candied citron, use sugared orange zest. Suet, the hardened fat of beef, lamb, or mutton, is traditional, but you can enrich your pudding mixture with frozen vegetable shortening. Flambéing tableside is exciting but not for everyone, so feel free to skip that step and sprinkle the finished dish with white or brown sugar if you like. While Beard served his plum pudding with crème anglaise, you could swap it for hard sauce, a centuries-old British specialty sometimes called brandy butter. Or, pop open a pint of store-bought vanilla ice cream and call it a day.
Recipe information
Total Time
8–10 hours plus aging up to 1 year
Yield
Each pudding serves 12
Ingredients
Fruit mixture (to be made 4 days ahead):
Pudding and assembly:
Special equipment:
Preparation
Fruit mixture:
Step 1
Combine 1 lb. raisins, 1 lb. golden raisins, ½ lb. dried currants, 1 cup thinly sliced candied citron, 1 cup chopped candied orange peel, 1 tsp. ground cinnamon, ½ tsp. mace, ½ tsp. freshly grated nutmeg, ¼ tsp. ground cloves, ¼ tsp. allspice, ¼ tsp. freshly ground black pepper. If using shortening, grate 1 lb. vegetable shortening, frozen, on the large holes of a box grater. Add shortening or 1 lb. shredded suet, finely chopped, to fruit mixture and toss to combine. Add 1¼ cups cognac or brandy, cover tightly, and refrigerate for 4 days, tossing mixture once or twice per day.
Do Ahead: Mixture can be made 3 months ahead; keep chilled.
Pudding and assembly:
Step 2
Butter four 1½-qt. steamed pudding molds or heatproof bowls. Ready a steamer basket or large pot with water to come ½ way up the sides of molds and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to maintain steady steam.
Step 3
Bring 1 cup whole milk just to the point of boiling over medium heat (watch closely). Transfer to a medium bowl and add 1 cup sherry or port and 1¼ lb. fresh breadcrumbs.
Step 4
Whisk 12 large eggs, room temperature, with 1 cup (200 g) sugar in a large bowl until no streaks of egg remain. Add the fruit mixture, breadcrumb mixture, and 1 tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt and mix thoroughly. Transfer the pudding to prepared pans, filling each about ⅔ full. Cover each pan with a large square of aluminum foil and secure foil with kitchen twine. Steam for 6–7 hours, checking periodically to make sure the water hasn’t boiled out and adding more as necessary.
Step 5
Place rack in the center of oven; preheat oven to 250°. When cool enough to handle, uncover puddings and transfer to oven; bake for 30 minutes. Add ¼ tsp. cognac or brandy to each pudding, cover with foil and keep in a cool, dark place for at least 3 weeks and up to 1 year.
Step 6
To serve, steam puddings a second time for 2–3 hours. Place a platter over mold and invert; remove mold. If flambéing: Warm a few tablespoons cognac or brandy over low heat and sprinkle puddings with a little sugar. Drizzle warm cognac over puddings, ignite with a long match and bring to the table. Serve with crème anglaise.
Editor’s note: This recipe was first printed in the December 1963 issue of ‘Gourmet’ as ‘Old-English Plum Pudding’ and has been updated for style. Head this way for more of our best Christmas desserts →
