What are you doing on Sunday 21 November? Are you free for an hour or so in the afternoon or looking for something to do with all the family? Then how about gathering in the kitchen and showing some unparalleled planning by celebrating Stir-Up Sunday and making your own Christmas pudding. All you do is stir all the ingredients together and steam the mixture in a pudding basin. It is that easy.

It is ironic that the tradition of Stir-Up Sunday, which falls on the last Sunday before Advent, is now on the wane when there could not be a simpler source of fun. In the past, it was an integral feature of the festive build up and yet far greater work was involved.  Our ancestors would have had to endure days of tedious preparation, of washing, drying, pitting and chopping fruit and sieving bread crumbs before the fun could start and each family member could stand round the pudding bowl, giving it a stir and making a wish.  Now, we can buy the sultanas, currants, raisins and mixed peel ready to use.  The food processor can chop the carrots and apples.  The cloves need only be ground by pestle and mortar if one is feeling nostalgic.

There are many reasons why Stir-Up Sunday is often neglected, not least because one of the preconceptions of Christmas pudding is it is an utter nuisance to make.  It really isn't. And it is a far more family-orientated and non-materialistic introduction to Christmas than, say, over-zealous, nodding reindeer on supermarket shelves.  The other huge deterrent from soaking the suet is that there is such a vast array of ready-made puddings lining the supermarket shelves. Why give yourself the extra hassle of something else to make and do for Christmas?  Because it is cheaper to make your own and you can make it in advance, whilst humming jingle bells with a self-satisfied smugness as you do so.  It provides a family activity for a cold, dark Sunday afternoon and most importantly it can be made according to family tastes.  A Country Life survey found that 30% of the population don't like Christmas puddings.  There is, in fact, no set recipe for a Christmas pudding.  Every version, be it your grandmother's, a blogger's or from a recipe book is different.  They are the ultimate pick-and-mix puddings. Drop the orange peel if you wish or moderate the raisin ratio.

The original format of the pudding, once known as Christmas porridge, had ingredients such as mutton alongside prunes, spices and wines.  Oliver Cromwell banned it due to its apparent lewdness, but thankfully George I re-established it in 1714.  Charles Dickens went on to give the pudding its best product placement ever in A Christmas Carol.  It is likely that Mrs Cratchett's figgy pudding was just as unique in its composition as everyone elses.  In the Dictionary of Cookery, by Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co, published in 1875, Christmas pudding is described as "..a national dish, despised by foreign nations because they never can make it fit to eat. In almost every family there is a recipe for it, which has been handed down from mother to daughter through two or three generations, and which never has been and never will be equalled, much less surpassed, by any other…"  The Victorians also take the credit for initiating the Stir-up Sunday concept.  There is a prayer, read in Anglican churches on the last Sunday before Advent, that includes the line: Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works. The Victorians took this as a literal and spiritual reminder to make the pudding so it had enough time to mature to its absolute best.  The maturing period, in actual fact, is invaluable to the taste of the pudding as it allows the flavour of the spices to mellow and the fruits to plump up.

For a truly traditional recipe only thirteen ingredients should be used to represent Jesus and His disciples. The pudding should be then be stirred from East to West in honour of the Three Wise Men.  Pudding charms or silver coins can then be added, to be re-discovered via a broken molar on Christmas Day.  For full-on family entertainment, there's even a rhyme the children can sing when they stir it:

"Stir up, we beseech thee, the pudding in the pot; and when we get home, we'll eat the lot."

And if you are reading this, feeling inspired but aware you might not act on it, then Fortnum and Masons are selling a Christmas pudding kit that you can buy directly from the shop or online.  Each set comprises a Fortnum's ceramic bowl, dried fruit pre-soaked in alcohol and all of the dried ingredients and suet. They have even included a circle of baking parchment to fit over the bowl and a piece of string with which to secure it.  Each set makes a 900g pudding, which will easily serve 6-8 people and allow for leftovers.

This month The Sauce attempts a Christmas Pudding.

The Sauce

BBC recipe for Rich Christmas Pudding

• What ingredients did you use and how readily available were they?
  Caster sugar, vegetarian suet, sultanas, raisins, currants, plain flour, breadcrumbs, flaked almonds, lemon, eggs, cinnamon, mixed spice, nutmeg and brandy.  All ingredients were easily available from Sainsburys, which is my nearest supermarket.  No-one in my family is a fan of orange peel so I replaced it with chopped up cherries.  I bought some silver charms from Cox and Cox.  They were expensive at £40 for eight but I am planning on looking after them and using them for evermore.


• What was the sum total cost of the ingredients
  £18.97. I bought every single ingredient from the list including the flour.  So while the initial cost seems high I now have a full store cupboard with all the left overs, including some brandy.


• How many people did it actually feed?
  Ah, it is currently sitting in cold storage until Christmas Day, but I am hoping that it will serve eight people.


• How easy was it to make.
  I was truly astonished at how easy it was.  In fact the only tedious bit was going round the supermarket clutching, what initially looked like a long list of ingredients.  This is mainly because I don't normally stock or buy items such as vegetarian suet (I opted for this variety as was catering for a vegetarian) and copious dried fruit.  Stirring the pudding was great fun, although I obviously did it before Stir-up Sunday.  Upon reading the recipe I was quite daunted about all the instructions on covering the pudding with parchment and foil but it was incredibly straightforward. I steamed them in two large saucepans of boiling water with the lids on top. The recipe said that it would take 1-2 hours of preparation but I would say it was more like half an hour. 


• Did you have any assistance?
  I made it on a Saturday afternoon.  My friend, who was staying for the weekend, did not really assist but did have a turn at stirring the pudding.


• Would you cook it again?
  It slightly depends on how it tastes on Christmas Day. I am, however, inspired into incorporating Stir-up Sunday into my annual festive build up.  I found it fun and rewarding to make and there is a huge sense of achievement knowing that I have already done something so far in advance.  If this recipe is no good then I will try another one next year.  Otherwise, I will stick to this.  Won't my Granny be proud.

Let us know if you agree with The Sauce by This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it