This recipe differs from others I've seen in that it uses no spices!just dried fruit and brandy. Perhaps spices were too difficult to get!it tastes great anyway.
Each pudding will serve about 8-10 people. If you halve the recipe, use 3 eggs. You can also add cherries, figs, almonds, and so on when you're adding the fruit.
The suet can be replaced with some other form of shortening. The packaged suet we used to be able to get in Australia was only about 35% suet, the rest was cornflour (cornstarch). Avoid that at all costs. For a few years, we bought suet from the butcher and grated it ourselves (ok, we used a blender), but no one should have to do that (at least, not during an Australian summer).
If you decide to go for authenticity and use a pudding bag, here's how:
Get a large piece of calico (it must have a tight weave), and boil it for a few minutes. Rub flour into the inner surface. Place 1/2 the mixture on it, and bring the corners together, leaving room for the mixture to rise. Tie with string. Cook by immersing in boiling water!when you add extra water, it must be already boiling, or the pudding will get soggy. The pudding will be rounder, and have a better crust than one steamed in a pudding bowl. A good crust means that the brandy won't soak in when you light it, so it'll burn for longer. Age the pudding by hanging it in a cool, dry place. The problem with using a pudding bag is that it tends to grow mold if the climate is too humid.
To light the pudding, heat about 75 ml of brandy in a saucepan. Light it, then pour over the pudding and carry it to the table.
Kathy Morris Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif., USA sun!navajo!morris morris@navajo.stanford.eduRecipe last modified: 10 Feb 86
Path: decwrl!recipes From: morris@diablo (Kathy Morris) Newsgroups: mod.recipes Subject: RECIPE: Christmas pudding Message-ID: <7005@decwrl.DEC.COM> Date: 19 Dec 86 02:45:58 GMT Sender: recipes@decwrl.DEC.COM Organization: Stanford University, CS Dept, Palo Alto CA Lines: 116 Approved: reid@decwrl.ARPA Copyright (C) 1986 USENET Community Trust Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, the USENET copyright notice and the title of the newsgroup and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of the USENET Community Trust or the original contributor. This old recipe originally used pounds, ounces, cups, teaspoons and tablespoons . I translated it into metric, after a fashion, so I could make it in Australia. Then I had to translate it back when I got to the U.S., though it now uses pounds instead of just cups, so it's not in "American" either.