Christmas food for a subtropical weather

Boiled pudding sounds interesting!!

Yes for boiled pudding.
I am curious.

Just sat down, after finally getting around to making it.

My Grandmother's recipe is in pounds, and I have her scales to use, so I can't help with the metric conversion (also it's 3am Christmas morning and I'm tired as hell, since I've been making the damn thing for the last 12 hours)
This is a big bastard of a pudding, so for first timers, or those who don't have a huge number of people to eat it, I'd recommend halving the quantities.

Ingredients
1lb of butter
1lb of dark brown sugar
3/4lb of plain flour
1/2lb of self raising flour
9 eggs
cinnamon and mixed spices to taste
1lb of sultanas
1lb of mixed dried fruit
extra glace cherries
pack of ginger chunks
1 cup of cold black tea
1/2 teaspoon of BiCarb soda - diluted in the tea
1/2 loaf of stale white bread
1/4 teaspoon of salt

You will need a gigantic bowl, strong wooden spoon, an electric mixer/beater of some sort, large piece of calico cloth, a very large pot with a lid to boil it in, and string. Proper twine, not the nylon plastic crap.


Method:
Soak the fruit in brandy/rum/similar for a few days prior to making the pudding.
Put the bread out somewhere that it will be able to go stale

Fold the butter and brown sugar together well
Add the eggs one at a time, and beat until fully mixed

Put the flours, spices and salt in one bowl, and sift it thoroughly.
Then, add the flour mix, and the fruits to the wet mix alternately, a little at a time, mixing well, until completely combined. (It will become next to impossible to stir, but keep at it)
Tear the stale bread into small chunks and add to the mixture. (If you need to resort to using your bare hands to combine it all thoroughly, do it.)
Make a well, pour in the tea/bicarb mixture, and mix it in until it's fully absorbed.

Take the calico, and boil it in the pot.
Take it out and place it over a large bowl or strainer, then coat it liberally with plain flour.
Carefully start to place the mixture into the centre of the cloth, taking care not to disturb the flour too much, or else the pudding crust won't form, water will get in during the boiling process, and it will stick to the cloth.
One all the mix is in the cloth, pull together all the edges, so you have a nice bundle of pudding, and tie it as close to the pudding, and as tightly as possible - again, you need to keep the water out, or it will be ruined. (This is a two person job. One to hold the cloth together, and one to tie it up.) We also add a loop of string, to be able to put the wooden spoon through, or a broom handle or something, to pull it out of the boiling water once it's done.

Place the pudding in the large pot of boiling water, and add enough water to it, to cover the pudding completely.

Boil for 6 hours. (If you half the recipe, then you half the cooking time too)
Make sure the water level never drops below the pudding. We boil the kettle to be able to add hot water, so it never goes off the boil either. (We check it every 10 minutes or so).

Once time is up, remove the pudding from the boiling water (hopefully I don't have to tell you to be careful, steam/boiling water burns are no fun), and hang the pudding somewhere it won't be disturbed, to dry out overnight. (You can even make it weeks in advance and let it hang that long.) We once made it so far in advance that the cloth started to get mouldy - but the pudding was fine, the crust protects it.

On the day you intend to eat it, you will need to boil it again for another hour. This loosens the cloth from the crust, so you can finally unwrap it.

Turning it over on a plate is also, usually a two person job, to make sure you don't crack it.
Let it sit until the crust dries from a milky white colour to a golden/dark brown.

Slice and serve warm with brandy custard, cream or ice cream (or all of them!)
While the crust is edible, it's just flour, and not nice, so I recommend cutting it away or just using your spoon to scoop out the pudding.

If I remember, I'll take a couple of photos later when we unwrap it.
 
That sounds really interesting and laborious.
I applaud you for making this.
 
What is bicarb soda? Regular soda?
 
9d31fb1cd73290ea95f7a63e22a6e57a.jpg


Just pulled it out of the second boil. Still steaming, now letting it sit. It looks good, no water got in, but the mix was very moist - more so than usual because we didn't have enough stale bread, hopefully it will be ok when we cut into it later.
 
NdzfO5K.jpg

Turkey skin crips
RimAG4a.jpg

Turkey breast post sous vide.
Turned out really really good.
After that I seared it on the oven.
 
Last edited:
Which one?
 
the sous vide one.

strnagely enough, it worked for me earlier (on mobile), but is broken now (PC)o_O

went for a lovely piece of rib-eye last night at my parents place as well. 2 hours at 57?C, turned out lovely (did not take any pictures)!
 
the sous vide one.

strnagely enough, it worked for me earlier (on mobile), but is broken now (PC)o_O


went for a lovely piece of rib-eye last night at my parents place as well. 2 hours at 57?C, turned out lovely (did not take any pictures)!

Huh. Now it broken for me as well....

I cooked the breasts for 2 hours at 66?C. I'll try a few degrees lower next time, because it was just right after the water bath, but it got a little dry after browning in the oven.
 
Last edited:
Huh. Now it broken for me as well....

I cooked the breasts for 2 hours at 66?C. I'll try a few degrees lower next time, because it was just right after the water bath, but it got a little dry after browning in the oven.

I somewhat sceptically followed ChefSteps' advice to cook the breasts at 55c for 24 hours. They turned out really well. Super tender and it wasn't any more pink than when cooked at 59c. Thighs+legs at 65c for 12-18 hours also works really well.
 
I somewhat sceptically followed ChefSteps' advice to cook the breasts at 55c for 24 hours. They turned out really well. Super tender and it wasn't any more pink than when cooked at 59c. Thighs+legs at 65c for 12-18 hours also works really well.

Good to know!
I'll try that.
 
Top