Victorian Plum Pudding Recipe from 1885

Today we are making Christmas Plum Pudding from The Everyday Cookbook by Miss E Neil (circa 1885).

This Victorian recipe calls for all the normal things… and also bird food? HI friends! Now I have to make it clear thatI k now suet is still used as a regular ingredient in puddings in the UK, but here in the US it’s very uncommon to be used in cooking and is mostly seen in bird seed cakes! So what do you think: would you make this? Would you eat this? It feels very similar to a very, very large fruitcake. Find the recipe below.

Christmas Plum Pudding (The Everyday Cookbook by Miss E Neil circa 1885)

One pound butter, one pound suet, freed from strings and chopped fine, one pound sugar, two and a half pounds flour, two pounds raisins, seeded, chopped and dredged with flour, two pounds currants, picked over carefully after they are washed, one quarter pound citron shred fine, twelve eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately, one pint milk, one cup brandy, one half ounce cloves, one half ounce mace, two grated nutmegs.

Cream the butter and sugar (and suet). Beat in the yolks when you have whipped them smooth and light; next put in the milk, then the flour, alternately with the beaten whites, then the brandy and spice, lastly the fruit well dredged with flour. Mix all thoroughly, wring out your pudding-cloth in hot water, flour well inside, pour in the mixture, and boil five hours.

If you make this, I would LOVE to know! I have never made a pudding like this, and will definitely  be trying again perhaps in a smaller batch and shorter boil time to see how it tastes.

Or maybe I’ll use a decorative mould!

At any rate, I hope you enjoy the recipe and video!