Plum Pudding
“Oh bring us a Figgy Pudding. Oh bring us a Figgy Pudding. Oh bring us a Figgy Pudding, and a cup of good cheer.”
Figgy pudding is like plum pudding. It’s very British and very child un-friendly. When I was young, my favorite parts of the dessert my Grandma Hall made each December were the flames from the burning brandy and the garnish of hard sauce made with sugar, butter, and more brandy. My feeling was that one tablespoon of pudding required at least two tablespoons of hard sauce to make it edible. But tastes change, and right now I would love a dish of that plum pudding.
My grandmother, Agnes Biggs Hall, made Christmas plum puddings to eat at the farm and to give away. She did this until the last year of her life. In December 1969, just eight months before she died, her sister Ethel Biggs wrote to her from Hartford.
“About your making plum pudding for us. You know we love it but will not be surprised if anyone else gets there first. I am sure it is too heavy for you to make. Don’t wear your arms out on other people. Problems of the raisins are due to the grape shortage, I am sure.”
I was in California that Christmas, and remember the grape boycott. I don’t know if she made the pudding that year or not, but I hope she did. A shortage of raisins wouldn’t deter my grandma – I’m pretty sure of that.
“Plum Pudding,” Carol Crump Bryner, gouache, 2015
Yes! Those were exactly my two favorite parts too!
For several years I made figgy pudding – and loved the whole process – from boiling the special pan in hot water to cook on Christmas day filling the house with fragrance to lighting the brandy aflame after dinner. We put little favors in the mix – symbols of luck for the new year. (Recipe came from that font of all knowledge – NPR – http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17356371)
It does seem such a dramatic and celebratory dessert. Thanks for link to recipe! In the house on Whirlwind Hill we still have the tin used for probably several centuries at the farm. I was hoping I had taken a photo of it at some point, but couldn’t find it. Oh well..