My wife's Great Gran was in service in the kitchens of a stately home, and some of here recipes and books were handed down. Knowing there has been much interest in Downton Abbey, and life downstairs, I have put this list of ingredients here for anyone who is interested in seeing the ingredients used to make a 20 pound Christmas pudding back in 1913. Have fun trying to scale that down for a family of today........
Thanks for sharing...I think I gained a few pounds just reading the ingredients list! Downton Abbey is a great show. My wife and I are big fans. Unfortunately we have to wait until January to see the next season here. Although completely different we also really like the Doc Martin series and of course the classic Keeping Up Appearances and Vicar of Dibley series.
Ok, I looked it up. In the states, sultanas are 'golden raisins'. If you won't want to use suet or lard, you can use vegetable shortening.
Sadly, my wife and I eat pretty much everything, but both hate dried fruit. Esp raisins. Double esp cooked raisins. Blech. If woodchip has any other (raisin-free) recipes to offer, that would be another story....
I'll have to show this to the Mrs.... she and I are both fans of the show. (She always jokes that its me and a million grey haired old ladies watching that..... hey I like the historical setting ya'know?)
Don't worry Jeremy, there are two of us guys against those million grey haired ladies....power in numbers!
You can still get suet if you really want to, may take some searching but here, I am surrounded by farmers and can easily get it. I make mincemeat pies with it, never knowing until I was an adult how gross the ingredients were! My granny was Welsh, she soaked the raisins in brandy before adding them so it was always very yummy to us, even ad little kids. I think I might try to scale this down and give it a shot. Do you have the cooking instructions too? Not sure of the measurement for the egg powder (pr?) but I love an adventure!
I don't have the cooking instructions, it's more of a list of ingredients, some with prices on, I suspect to cost it before going out to make purchases. I'm working on scaling all the ingredients down to the equivalent of a quarter pound of suet, which should make a pudding to fill a 2 pint pudding basin, and steam it for a good couple of hours. I reckon the original would have taken at least ten hours to steam. The brandy sauce must have taken a good couple of pints of brandy..........
Well when you figure it out, please share it as I'm willing to give it a shot too since I buy suet for my mincemeat anyway!
