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Christmas Pudding with rum sauce

Christmas pudding on ornate silver dish decorated with red berries. Blue flames. Silver jug of rum sauce. Holly and ivy. Black surface.

Like the other traditional Christmas food, the mince pie, it is likely that the origins of the Christmas (or Plum) pudding go back to the Middle Ages when Middle Eastern inspired dishes combining meat and dried fruits were common. Like the Hackin’, the ingredients would have originally been stuffed into a sheep’s stomach and boiled. Eventually, like the mince pie, the meat was omitted keeping only the suet as a reminder of its origins and the sheep’s stomach was replaced with a cloth. Until the nineteenth century such puddings were not associated with Christmas but served throughout the year and often alongside roast beef. The first recipe to refer to such a pudding as a ‘Christmas pudding’ was by Eliza Acton in 1845. However, in 1843 in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol a pudding is the central focus of the Cratchit’s Christmas lunch: "Mrs Cratchit left the room alone – too nervous to bear witnesses – to take the pudding up and bring it in... Hallo! A great deal of steam! The pudding was out of the copper which smells like a washing-day. That was the cloth. A smell like an eating-house and a pastrycook's next door to each other, with a laundress's next door to that. That was the pudding. In half a minute Mrs Cratchit entered – flushed, but smiling proudly – with the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quarter of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top". So, already the pudding was being served with the customary lit brandy to add a bit of celebratory theatre to entertain family and guests. Certainly, by the time a poor family such as the Cratchits were able to indulge in such a rich pudding the previously expensive ingredients of sugar, dried fruit and spices were widely available due to trade within the British Empire. For puddings, cakes and mincemeat made for Christmas it was advisable to make them well before they were to be served so that the alcohol-soaked dried fruits had time to ‘mature’. During the early twentieth century a tradition for setting a definite date for their preparation was introduced – the last Sunday before advent - and ‘Stir Up Sunday’ became the official day when housewives and cooks would ‘stir up’ the ingredients for their Christmas fare. Each member of the family, particularly the children, would stir the pudding mixture and make a wish as they did so. As with the medieval Twelfth Night cake, small tokens would be stirred into the pudding to bring good fortune to those who found them, although in most households in the nineteenth century a simple sixpence of threepenny bit had to suffice. This is Eliza Acton’s recipe which I have been using for a number of years and is simply the best pudding recipe I’ve found. It is less crumbly than most bought puddings, so is much easier to slice and serve. Her recipe uses brandy, but a combination of Calvados (or apple brandy) and Grand Marnier enhances the apples and candied peel rather well. Although brandy butter is more usual, rum sauce provides a lighter, less sweet accompaniment. I usually serve both!

Equipment

  • Weighing scales
  • Measuring jug
  • 1.2 litre pudding basin
  • Large mixing bowl
  • Baking paper
  • Kitchen foil
  • String
  • Large lidded saucepan
  • Small saucepan

Preparation method

  • On stir-up Sunday, grease the pudding basin liberally with butter.
  • Place a small disc of baking paper at the bottom of the basin. This helps to ensure the pudding turns out without sticking.
  • Place the ingredients, in the order given in the ingredients list, in the large mixing bowl and stir thoroughly after each addition.
  • Give it all a final stir and don’t forget to make a wish!  If you want to place a coin or trinket in the pudding, make sure it’s wrapped tightly in baking paper.  
  • Pack the mixture firmly into the pudding bowl but don’t fill to the top – leave 5mm space.
  • Cover the pudding with a disc of baking paper.
  • Make a pleat in a piece of kitchen foil and cover the basin with it, ensuring that the pleat is placed at the centre of the basin.  Secure the foil with string tied under the rim of the basin, making sure you create a ‘handle’ with which you can remove the pudding from the hot water. 
  • Place the pudding in the large-lidded saucepan and fill with boiling water two thirds up the sides of the pudding basin. Cover the saucepan and steam for 3 hours making sure you check the level of the water and top up from the kettle if necessary.
  • Remove from the saucepan and untie the foil cover.
  • Allow to cool to room temperature. Do not remove from the basin.
  • Make a new baking paper disc to cover the pudding and wrap the pudding, basin and all, with a couple of layers of kitchen foil. Place in a cool, dark cupboard until Christmas Day.
  • On Christmas Day repeat step 7 and 8 but this time boil for 1 hour.
  • About 20 minutes before you want to serve the pudding make the rum sauce. Place the butter in the small saucepan and melt. Once foaming, add the flour and whisk in thoroughly. Cook through for a few minutes.
  • Slowly pour in the milk a little at a time, whisking thoroughly between each addition. The consistency should resemble double cream.
  • Add the sugar and rum and stir in.
  • Keep stirring until you’re ready to serve. Pour into a jug or sauce boat.
  • Remove the pudding from the saucepan and untie the foil cover. Turn the pudding out onto a serving dish immediately.
  • Place brandy in a ladle and heat gently over the hob for a minute. Pour over the pudding and set alight.
  • Carry the flaming pudding to your excited family and guests. (If your kitchen is not near where you are eating pour the brandy over the pudding at the dining table and set light to it there.)
  • Serve with a generous glug of rum sauce.

Tip: To make breadcrumbs, the best way is to place chunks of bread into a blender and whizz. You may need to turn the blender off occasionally and push the bread pieces down with a wooden spoon.
For tips and step-by-step instructions, see my guide on making puddings using a basin or mould.

Victorian

Serves:
8
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 3 hours
Total Time 3 hours 15 minutes

Ingredients

  • 75 g plain flour
  • 75 g fresh white breadcrumbs
  • 175 g vegetable suet
  • 150 g raisins
  • 150 g sultanas
  • 50 g dried figs, chopped
  • 110 g cox apples, peeled, cored and chopped small
  • 150 g soft dark brown sugar
  • 50 g candied mixed peel
  • ½ tsp nutmeg
  • ½ tsp mace
  • Pinch salt
  • 100 ml calvados
  • 100 ml Grand Marnier
  • 3 medium eggs, beaten

For the rum sauce

  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 2 tbsp plain flour
  • 500 ml whole milk
  • 100 g light muscovado sugar
  • 3 tbsp rum

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts
Christmas Pudding with rum sauce
Serving Size
 
253 g
Amount per Serving
Calories
692
Percent of Daily Value*
Fat
 
27
g
42
%
Saturated Fat
 
15
g
94
%
Cholesterol
 
91
mg
30
%
Sodium
 
178
mg
8
%
Potassium
 
375
mg
11
%
Carbohydrates
 
88
g
29
%
Fiber
 
3
g
13
%
Sugar
 
64
g
71
%
Protein
 
7.8
g
16
%
Calcium
 
143
mg
14
%
Iron
 
1.8
mg
10
%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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Keywords

Dried fruit

Christmas, Christmas Day

© Dr Caroline Gordon 
2025
Illustrations by Chichi Parish