On Christmas Day 179 years ago, housewives across Britain were leafing impatiently through well-thumbed, sticky pages of Eliza Acton’s book Modern Cookery for Private Families in search of the author’s famous figgy pudding — it wouldn’t be Christmas without the heady steam of spices, brandy and candied fruit floating merrily through the hearth.
Rather something you prepare ahead of time, not on the day…..
Housewives, in 1845? More likely one of Cook’s underlings. I doubt there was much figgy pudding being made in Gin Lane either.
Greetings to all in Tim’s public gaff. Best wishes for all, and keep coming in. I’m off to have a slice of Christmas trifle aka Japanese Christmas Cake.
Merry Christmas to all!
A Merry and Peaceful Christmas to all.
God Bless us, every one.
Merry Christmas to one and all.
I’ll join in with the Season’s Greetings. Jgh, what are you up to in Nippon? It’s been 8 years since I was last there. Love the place.
Merry Christmas from a cold and windy Cyprus!
Merry Christmas to one and all (especially to our genial host) and thanks for the wisdom, insights and laughs.
BUT, if Richard Murphy should stop by, fvck off you repellent cvnt.
Merry Xmas all
And BF +1
I’ve just put the pigs in blankets in the Ninja. That’s my chores done for the day.
Merry Christmas to everyone.
Festive greetings to all.
A question for TIm & other foreign exiles. Does he do the Xmas of the country he’s in or the Brit one? Up to now I’ve been doing both. But for the first time, I can’t be arsed with the middle of the day 25th blow out. No enthusiasm for it here. We did the Xmas Eve meal at 10pm, then the pressies & then on out for the partying. Got back around 4AM. So currently we’re a casualties aid station.
As for Eliza Acton’s book Modern Cookery for Private Families. Never heard of it. And I’m interested in historic cooking. Although more the medieval scoff.
We do the home version. Just, well, because.
When we were living in Platres and then Troodos we did traditional Christmas Day but it didn’t really work, even in Troodos when there was snow on the ground. As my wife always complains, we couldn’t even get decent sprouts.
Since half of us seem to have been to Japan in recent weeks we should co-ordinate the next visit.
Tim, as all good journalists no, you get figgy pudding in a plastic bowl from Lidl and just have to warm it up. In 1845 they didn’t have microwaves though so the warming up procedure was slightly more complicated, needing detailed instructions in a recipe book.
Io Saturnalia, and Merry Christmas to all.
We aimed for a British Christmas when we lived in Queensland. To escape the worst of the heat and humidity we went to a hotel atop a mountain. After time by the pool we repaired to the dining room and had a good Xmas lunch.
After more time by the pool we went in to have dinner only to be told it was just a repeat of the Xmas lunch. What then were we to eat?
We ended up in a Chinese restaurant down the hill.
Just dropping in to follow the herd in wishing a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year & Good Health to all on here, including of course our genial host!
We’ll be having leg o’lamb and spuds (not him!) dauphinoise, so we’re not having either a Brit Trad nor Local. More of a Franco-Brit melange. Alas, in my handicapped state I never made it to Central Market to get a proper pud 🙁
Seasons greetings to all, especially to Tim as our host. We had our family Christmas do a couple of weeks ago and they are now scattered to the four winds So our Christmas lunch was a bacon butty followed by mince pie and Christmas cake. Very civilised. I’ll be sampling my malt Scotch collection later.
My great-grandmother’s recipe says “boil for six hours, leave for six weeks and then boil for one-and-a-half-hours”. The end result is far superior to any “bought” Christmas Pudding I have ever tasted (I have been complimented on something I did not invent). Her contemporaries doubtless had their own (slightly inferior) recipes with a similar maturing period.
The young lady writing for “The Times” is clearly better at obituaries than at cooking if she knows less about the latter than a male amateur cook
When we were living in Platres and then Troodos we did traditional Christmas Day but it didn’t really work, even in Troodos when there was snow on the ground. As my wife always complains, we couldn’t even get decent sprouts.
We can get all the traditional stuff in the local supermarkets now, Sprouts, Parsnips, the lot…
Went to friends for a traditional ‘English’ Christmas yesterday. Problem is we don’t have the traditional leftovers for Boxing Day…