November 2020

14 Buckden Roundabout November 2020 We need more images for our cover! We are looking for more paintings of any kind that we could use as a front cover. We can photograph them if you only have original artwork. We are also keen to get images (photos or paintings) of the village and surrounding areas in preparation for future issues. Please note that images should ideally be in portrait format and should be a minimum of 2400 x 1700 pixels. More is better! Send them to editor @buckdenroundabout.info Stir up Sunday for Christmas pudding making Following the marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, the Royal family celebrated Christmas with gusto and the rest of the nation followed their example. However, the Christmas pudding itself has much earlier origins. The pudding we know today began life as a pottage. This was a kind of broth, including raisins and other dried fruit, spices and wine. It was thickened with breadcrumbs or ground almonds. Not dissimilar to the mince pies of yesteryear, it often included meat or at least meat stock. Pottage would be served at the start of the meal rather than at the end of the meal as we do today. It was not until the end of the 17th century that the pottage took on a more solid appearance. It was served like a porridge or cooked inside a skin, like a sausage. Even then, it was more likely to have been sliced and cooked under a roasting joint and served alongside the main meal or as a starter – not a des- sert. During the 18th century, plum porridge would become associ- ated with Christmas. It would be the Victorians who raised its prominence at the festive table. The Victorians believed Christmas should be celebrated, alt- hough excessive drinking and frolicking were frowned upon. It was they who established the tradition of making the Christ- mas pudding on Stir Up Sunday, the fifth Sunday before Christ- mas. In 2020 it will be on Sunday November 22 nd . It was originally called Stir up Sunday, because the Collect in the Book of Common Prayer for that Sunday begins “ Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people …”. The congregation would have heard the Collect read out in church and then gone home to stir up their Christmas pudding. Stir Up Sunday was a family affair. Each family member was supposed to stir the mixture from east to west to honour the journey of the Magi. This ritual was also thought to bring the family luck in the coming year. Originally, the puddings would have been shaped into a sphere and boiled in a cloth. This practice eventually gave way to steaming the dessert in a pudding basin or elaborate mould, particularly in wealthier households. The traditional accompa- niment to the Christmas pudding was a sweet custard or a hard sauce (nowadays known as brandy butter). It was customary to hide a number of small trinkets in the mix- ture. These charms often included a silver coin which signified wealth, and a ring to represent a future marriage. Woe betide the guest who stumbled across a thimble in their serving … this meant certain spinsterhood for the recipient! Here are a couple of historic Christmas pudding recipes for you to try! Medieval figgy pudding recipe, Fygey from the Form of Cu- ry (1392) Take almaundes blanched, grynde hem and draw hem up with water and wyne: quarter fygur, hole raisouns. cast perto pow- dour gyngur and hony clarified, seeth it well & salt it, and serue forth. Queen Victoria ’ s Christmas Pudding This is Francatelli ’ s Plum Pudding from The Modern Cook (1846). Charles Elmé Francatelli was Queen Victoria ’ s chef from 1840 - 42. INGREDIENTS: ¾lb (335g) raisins ¾lb (335g) currants ½lb (225g) candied orange, lemon and citron 1¼lb (560g) chopped beef suet 1lb (450g) flour ¾lb (335g) moist sugar 4 medium eggs 3 gills (450ml) of milk Grated zest of 2 lemons 1 tsp each of ground nutmeg and cinnamon ½ tsp ground cloves Glass of brandy (about 50ml) A very little salt METHOD: Mix the ingredients thoroughly together in a large basin sever- al hours before the pudding is to be boiled; pour them into a mould spread with butter, which should be tied up in a cloth. The pudding must be boiled for four hours and a half; when done dish it up with a German custard sauce spread over it, made as follows: Put four yolks of eggs into a bain - marie or stew pan, together with two ounces of powdered sugar, a glass of sherry, some orange or lemon peel (rubbed on loaf sugar), and a very little salt. Whisk this sharply over a very low fire, until it assumes the appearance of a light frothy custard. http://blog.english - heritage.org.uk/a - history - of - the - christmas - pudding/