Eleven puddings, and the wet heat that makes them work
The full canon — recipes written to be cooked, with real quantities, real timings and nothing left out.
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A Christmas Pudding Is 570g of Fruit, 110g of Flour and Eight Hours You Have to Plan For
The quantities are fixed. The method is non-negotiable. Make it on Stir-up Sunday and you will have eight weeks to feed it before Christmas.
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Sticky Toffee Pudding
Individual moulds give a better crust-to-centre ratio than a single dish — and the dates go in as a purée, not whole.
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Treacle Sponge, Steamed the Long Way
Golden syrup sets the base; a butter sponge sits above it. Two hours of steam is what separates a proper treacle sponge from a warm cake.
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Sussex Pond Pudding and the Whole Lemon Inside It
A suet pastry crust, a whole unwaxed lemon buried in butter and sugar, and three and a half hours of steam — and at the table, the crust splits to release a golden, citrus-sharp sauce.
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Bread-and-Butter Pudding
Recipe using white bread, full-fat butter, a custard of eggs, cream and milk, and a marmalade glaze — quantities for a 1.5-litre dish. Method includes the soaking time and the oven temperature that sets the custard without curdling it.
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Queen of Puddings, in Three Layers
A baked custard base, a seam of raspberry jam, and a meringue top: three components that only work when the proportions are right.
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Spotted Dick
Suet pudding recipe with currants and lemon zest, steamed in a cloth or a basin — both methods given with timings. The name's documented origin noted without editorialising.
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Jam Roly-Poly, Cloth-Boiled or Baked
A suet pastry rolled with jam: the cloth-boiled original and the oven method that has largely replaced it, with quantities and timings for both.
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Baked Rice Pudding and the Skin on Top
The oven does the work. The cook's only job is not to interfere.
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Trifle, Assembled in the Right Order
A glass bowl, four layers, and the patience to let each one set before adding the next.
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Syllabub
Recipe for whipped syllabub using double cream, lemon juice and zest, and dry white wine — quantities for six glasses. Notes on the fat content of double cream and why single cream will not hold the whip.