Americans vs. British Christmas Pudding (British Christmas Traditions)
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 12. 06. 2024
- Join us as we try to make and flame British Christmas pudding for the first time!
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You know that you're meant to make a Christmas pudding a year in advance,, peace, have a merry Christmas...
Where's the custard!?!?!?!?
@@YourBeingParanoid wheres the brandy butter....??
@@havoc6_1_6 oh no, had to be custard to disapate all that richness
RUM? what nutter wrote that recipy? Brandy and only Brandy with Brandy custard on top!
"Should we let it rest?" - yes for about two months - during which time you 'feed' it every week with more alcohol and then steam it again for a couple of hours before eating it This will give a firmer, but still moist (depending on how much alcohol you have fed it with) texture. Nevertheless, looks fairly good given your limitations on ingredients and time
Thank you for the tips! We'll do it better next time!!
Do it now and have it in three months when you've sobered up from new year celebrations
Perfectly said
"I think being wet is a good thing."
"Usually, in most cases."
Starting to sound very British now, guys.
Brilliant đ
Hi
Part of the reason it was wet is because you used butter instead of suet,suet binds it all togeather as it steams
The small one is a spatula, the big one is a fish slice. Love the vids btw. Also nice hair Grace
Thank you! And thank you!!! :D
I know you're probably right but I call both a spatula.
I call the big one a spatula, the small one a scraper (hence what Eric does with it).
I rewatched a vid from about a year ago earlier. I can't believe how much they've changed. Still making me chuckle though. We need light-hearted at the moment.
Definitely a spatula and fish slice over here in the UK.
Boxing day is simply an excuse to continue drinking without feeling guilty.
and eating all the leftovers with other stuff and bubble & squeek
No. Boxing day was the day that presents used to be opened. They were normally in boxes, hence Boxing day.
@@SgtSteel1 but now its the day for, eating leftovers with other stuff like ham and cream cheese and prawns etc.
Boxing day was a day to put money in charity boxes, a giving to the poor as part of the whole Christ's birthday thing. This seems to have been forgotten over the last hundred years though. As a child I was confused at the lack of punching people in the face.
- yours, the Ghost of Christmas Past
@@SgtSteel1 That's not the origins of Boxing Day. Boxing day was when the charitable 'poor boxes' were opened and distributed to the needy.
The best type of Christmas pudding is moist and stodgy, I'd highly recommend having it with custard or brandy butter!
Brandy butter is heavy going - too fatty for me. Mum always made a rich creamola ( custard ) and added plenty of sherry. Counteracts the heaviness of the pudding.
Serve with clotted cream or hot custard.
Brandy Sauce rather than brandy butter. It's basically like instant custard (cornflour and milk, heated ), but with brandy to flavour it rather than the vanilla flavouring that's in custard powder. Brandy butter's too rich to go with christmas pudding. Other alcohol such as Sherry (like gavin's mum) or rum can be used instead of Brandy if you want.
It's got to be white sauce with plenty of brandy in there!
If you have custard it really should be Bird's custard.
Brandy sauce/brandy butter can also be used. Some may have double cream or whipped cream and some people (especially with young children) might have ice cream
"is it supposed to be light?" Things no one has said about Christmas Pudding. Ever. I can generally manage about 3 spoonfuls before I need to give up on the stuff. Enjoy! That pudding would probably feed 8-10.
It's soooo dense!!
Use a mixer and fold the fruit in at the end by hand. You only need 2 types of fruit. That's why it's to heavy and wet.
@@WanderingRavens the next densest thing up from a Christmas Pudding should be a neutron star!
@@neilgayleard3842 Thanks for the tip from an American who might (or might not) try to make this one day. I did make a bread pudding recently that my friends in Surrey raved about... *:-)*
Bread pudding or bread and butter pudding. There 2 different things people often get them mixed up. So was it made with water or buttered sliced bread and custard.
Eric is right. The metal thing was a fish slice.
Thank you!
You totally needed a creamy sauce for that, like custard or more traditionally, brandy butter.
We use brandy cream :)
Brandy sauce, a standard bernaise with brand added, butter optional. If itâs flammable, itâs a bonus đ
From my experience boxing day is when you relax as Christmas is generally stressful. The meals is leftovers. It's also the day you actually get to play with your new gifts.
Yes its board game day (usually starts a row in our family).
Pie for breakfast!
Cold turkey and stuffing butties. Yum.
@@lazyoldmanathome7699 Is it Monopoly causing those rows by any chance?
You were never going to get away with that deception - no kettle in the background.
lol
The giveaway for us was the Power socket type NOT the 3 pin UK type LOL
For me it was the stick of butter.
..and no washing machine in the kitchen!
Normally we'd use Brandy instead of Rum and we'd use Brandy Sauce as the topping.
Or I use Brandy in the pud and rum in the sauce. But I'm just contrary.
Considering the changes to the ingredients you had to make it looks like you made a really great pudding, well done! (It should be dense and damp, it's not a light desert.)
Thank you!!
Grace: "how does one hold this thing?".. lol i think our britishness is rubbing off on you.
đđ
Snigger. He said rubbing off.
@@gman7346 And here I thought that was brandy custard!
Everyones pudding will be slightly different I suspect! My mums pudding recipe is mostly raisins, currants, sultanas and glace cherries. No nuts or figs, and we use brandy for our booze. Cream or custard is a perfectly acceptable accompaniment to a nice bowl of Christmas Pud! and dried fruit is very bad for dogs, don't let the wee doggo get any no matter how much he begs!
Generally speaking, I tend to replace rum with brandy, and serve with brandy custard - but that is just a personal preference.
Whipped cream in a pinch.
Traditionally, a silver sixpence was placed into the pudding mix and every member of the household gave the mix a stir. Whoever found the sixpence in their own piece of the pudding on Christmas Day would see it as a sign that they would enjoy wealth and good luck in the year to come
Can't say I've ever seen someone grating butter before.
Often a technique when making some pastries, like flaky pastry.
Well done guys. Many people would probably just buy one.
I feel sad to hear you're back in the states. We want you to stay. Be British. You're so good at it. Please come back soon. X
I always have mine topped with brandy butter .
I've been eating and making Christmas Pudding all my life, and yours looked very good. Well done .
Thank you so much, Ben!!
That looks like a perfectly good Christmas pudding. Of course, it should be served with cream (clotted and double) on Xmas day. On later days, you can grill slices of it and serve with custard.
Fry it off in butter for the true artery clogging experience!
Could also be served with brandy butter
Looked like a pretty damn good Chrimbo Pud.
Thanks, Jason!!
When I was young Christmas dinner was the traditional Turkey etc made by mum's & aunt's then on boxing Day we had cold meats with bubble and squeak made by the dads and uncles while the mum's went down the pub for a lunch time beverage. All the adults then promptly fell asleep while us kids ran amock with our new toys and games.
I think the rum got to him when he started singing đ
"Our breadcrumbs have become breadcrumbly" A very Grace way of putting it, somehow đ.
On a totally separate note, may I say a heartfelt thank you to you both for the vital work you've done to keep us all something like sane through the ongoing nightmare that 2020 turned out to be. Knowing that Eric and Grace were there on CZcams to lift low spirits and carry us that little bit closer to happier times has genuinely made all the difference. I'm planning to stay up all night on New Year's Eve, just to make certain 2020 really does bugger off! đ.
But genuinely, thank you both. BTW, awesome new hairstyle, Grace.
Have a wonderful Christmas you two. Lots of love from the far side of the wet stuff xxxx
Aww! Thank you for the kind words, Michael! We appreciate you and are so glad you've been enjoying our videos! Happy New Year! :D xxx
Muscovado sugar was what you needed. Also, that was a spatula and a fish slice.
that was perfect!! you guys did a great job. you work together well! Merry Christmas!!!
As child in 1950s Scotland , I use to dread changing for sports in January. Why ? Because my mother used to boil the Christmas pud in my simmet - or singlet for Sassenachs. The resulting stain lasted for weeks before it finally washed out. It was the stigmata of poverty and showed all my schoolmates that we couldnât afford a pudding cloth. We were poor but happy.
Happy Christmas , you lovely couple. Hope you have a brilliant new year. You can watch the Hogmannay celebrations live from Edinburgh on the interwebs.
Thanks Billy - you know who you are .
I'm English. Hogmanay in Edinburgh is one of the greatest experiences you can have.... I'll be watching it.
The best cooking video result yet , well done guys have a fantastic festive period
Brits used to put a few silver sixpences in the pudding. I can remember as a child be pleased as punch whenever I got one.
Congratulations and well done. Merry Christmas and all the best for 2021. Looking forward to seeing next year's videos.
Put cream on top or custard
Eric, you would not believe what i called you when i saw you about to pour the rum in the pan, you got me there for a second đ€Łđ€Ł
A sharp intake of breath here as well. đđ
Thank you. That has cheered me up no end. Loved it.
Nailed it again well done. And merry christmas have a good one
Chief Brody - "You're gonna need a bigger bowl"
The traditional British Christmas Pudding recipe is:
1) Go to the supermarket and buy a Christmas Pudding
2) Set it on fire
3) You're done
Boxing Day is definitely intended to drag out Christmas for as long as possible
Great effort, guys - that looked wonderful! Shame you couldn't find any suet, though. I think would have made a difference, as it's denser than butter and would "bind" the pud a little better.
Topping on a Christmas pudding is usually Brandy sauce, but personally I have Cornish Clotted Cream or custard, merry Christmas to you both and a happy and healthy new year đŹđ§đŹđ§
Or Brandy Butter, and whisky can be used too.
Wishing you both a great Christmas, and a much better new year than the last one
That is very impressive, well done. Remember that another name for Christmas Pudding is Figgy Pudding, as mentioned in the traditional song âWe Wish You A Merry Christmasâ. A better substile for suet would be vegetable shorting, which has the advantage of being dairy free. My grandmother used to fry slices of left over Christmas pudding in butter for breakfast on Boxing Day. If you canât eat it all, the birds will love it so long as you put is some place the dog canât get to it.
Merry Christmas Ravens!
Moist, dense, flavourful and rich sounds exactly what youâd expect from a Christmas pudding, youâve nailed it!
In a couple of days when it dries a bit, slice it and fry it for breakfast.
Well done guys, it looked great. Merry Christmas
Firstly, guys you are awesome đ. Secondly, I serve my Christmas Pudding with Creme Fraiche because I'm fancy.... but you can do Cream (heavy/double, clotted, whipped etc), Custard, Brandy Butter or just Au Naturelle
Spatula is a pretty broad term that covers several types of flat tools for mixing/lifting/scraping.
That big metal thing is a fish slice, which is a type of spatula, but not the one you need for that job.
The small plastic thingy is also a spatula, and more appropriate, but you probably want one of the larger, rubber ones.
There is a third type of spatula (also called a pallet knife), which is like a big, floppy butter-knife.
Bravo! That's a fantastic effort. You've now made and eaten truly historic British food - we've been eating some version of this (figgy pudding, plum pudding, 'plum duff') since at least medieval times, 14th Century.
Well done with the improvisations too.
Have a wonderful Christmas, and please come back soon, we miss you already!
I've been making Christmas puddings for years and I was massively impressed by what you achieved on your first attempt. It was *Standing Ovation* worthy.
I'm not keen on the recipe you used - treacle/molasses just serve to make it too rich. A mixture of Muscavado and brown sugar would do better.
Also, you're better off taking any and all dried fruit and putting them in a container with rum or brandy for at least a week before you use them*. Then you use the left-over rum and/or brandy to add to the pudding mix. And if you've still got some left over, you can use it to flame the pudding.
You'd always have a sauce of some sort with the pudding.
For beginners, there's custard. Open a tin. It's easy and not bad.
For beginners who want to impress: whip cream till it's stiff-ish, add icing sugar to taste and whip some more till it's incorporated, then add Cointreau or Grand Marnier or any other orange liqueur in dribbles between whipping until you end up with a slightly sloppy stiff cream. If you have a smallish orange handy, slice it and add at least one to the decoration of the cream serving dish. It makes you look fancy.
For intermediate: Beat butter until it's light fluffy and almost white. Add caster sugar (to taste) to make it sweet and keep on beating until the sugar is melted into the butter and it's not gritty. Then add brandy (or sherry) in small measures until it's as boozy as you want. Make slightly more of this than you think you'll need.
For show-offs: Make a roux using margarine (if possible) and flour, spend at least five minutes beating those two together until all the lumps are out and it's cooked, add dribbles of milk to loosen it to the consistency of sloppy whipped cream, then add icing sugar to taste (beating all the time) and dribble in rum until you have something that resembles a pouring cream,
Cointreau cream and brandy butter are always served cold from the fridge, rum sauce is always served warm.
A proper Boxing Day breakfast is always leftover Christmas pudding cut into slices and then fried in left over brandy butter. But make sure the butter is foaming in the pan before you add the slices of pudding.
Treat it like a confectioner's version of black pudding.
Slight bit of history:
Although this is thought of as a 'Christmas' pudding, it's actually something that became popular because it was so full of alcohol that it could be shipped to the furthest ends of the British empire without spoiling. Mothers could make it with any strong alcohol to hand (including gin or strong cider or stout beer) and send it off to a husband or son and know that it was a nutritious treat that could be eaten hot or cold.
You know that in the 20th century the joke was/is that the only two things to survive a nuclear apocalypse would be Twinkies and cockroaches? In the late 18th and 19th century Britain, the same thing would be said about plum pudding and anchovies!
Left over Xmas pudding makes a great ice cream.
Cider or sherry are good alternatives to rum. Personally I never have it with custard, usually clotted cream instead. Yours looked very nice, moist and quite heavy.
Tim, it has to be rum, brandy or whisky. No question regarding clotted cream, as a Devon boy I was raised on it. "get on, serve a great big dollop"
I love how excited you guys are by British culture! Our Boxing day is usually another Christmas day without the cooking to be honest. But I'm sure others may differ. Merry Christmas!
Looks like you guys really aced the Christmas pudding
Most amusing part of the video was when Eric went to light the rum and the video cut to an advert for Cilit bang. Perfect timing as the match approached the alcohol the video cut to the BANG logo
Merry Christmas and a happy new year.Great job with the pudding. Hope you show us round where your staying in Chicago
Since I've started watching your videos I've found learning about your culture really interesting. And I like your hair grace it suits u!
Thank you so much, Matt!
Nice work with the flame throwing đ„
Thank you!!
Mum used to make a dark boiled fruitcake every birthday when I was a kid. She covered it with almond icing and then decorated it with sugar icing. She also used to make a superb Christmas pudding. Mixed fruit, dried peel, almond icing - all delicious to me. Mum and I were almost the only ones in the family who adored marzipan, too. She passed away about 14 years ago.
My late wife's aunt used to make a fruitcake almost as good and she covered the top with almonds. That was a lot of nuts to get through.
Merry Christmas. Great First attempt guys . Riley is the cutest â„ïž
That actually looks like a very good Christmas pudding. And I liked the handle you added to the bowl. Exactly how my grandma did it. Well done.
Only thing missing is sweet white sauce.
6:09 - Who, by this point, was thinking "er.....shouldn't you have put the ingredients in separate bowls and then mix them in gradually?" (or....and here's a radical thought... have used a bloody food mixer) đ
Very impressive pudding. Itâs a dense rich pud and your description after the taste test seemed to tick all the boxes. Now you need brandy butter or custard (cream is very acceptable). Great effort.
The small one is a spreader the big one is a fish slice, a spatula is similar to the fish slice but more flexible, not metal as a rule, useful for fried eggs etc.
If it's that wet, I wouldn't add cream.
Ours is usually served fairly dry, so we add the cream to moisten it up.
But if you want to add some cream when it's already wet for a messy session, then that's ok too. đ
I was looking forward to this!
Christmas pudding recipes are traditionally passed down families. We still use my Great Grandmothers recipe which soaks the fruit in brandy over night the night before and is made with English Stout. No cherries in our one. Always topped with Brandy Sauce which is a bit like a Brandy Pouring custard. I was impressed with how well yours stuck together without suet. But you did a pretty amazing job there.
You did a great job making that Christmas pudding and you proved using alternative ingredients works too! I would suggest eating your pudding with brandy sauce or brandy butter! Merry Christmas to you both.
We have always made a batch of various sizes and then put them away in air-tight boxes for at least a year before getting one out for Christmas and steaming (pressure cooker is quicker) on Christmas day. The batch will usually last 3 to 4 years depending on how many we give away. Then is back to the interminable steaming again to make the next batch.
Grace: "It's very moist, it's very dense, but it's also very flavourful & rich..."
You guys nailed it! Eric's right, it goes great with cream and you can celebrate Christmas until 06th Jan, that's when the decorations need to come down.
Now that is one Christmas pudding! Brandy butter or Rum Sauce is usually served with it, but custard, cream or other things can be too. So sorry to hear you had to leave us Eric and Grace and hope you will come back soon to the UK and experience a proper Christmas followed by Springtime over here. Wishing you a lovely and safe festive season Ravens!
Thank you! Merry Christmas!!
Good effort, looked rather good. We make our Christmas puddings 6 months in advance.
You keep feeding the pudding with rum until Christmas.
The longer the fruit is sat in the alcohol the better
You did really well, that looks like a perfect Christmas pudding to me đ
we usually have vanilla custard with ours
Usually Christmas pudding is eaten with double thick cream or brandy cream, but its served separately
My paternal grandma used to make 'brandy butter' as an accompaniment to Christmas pudding.
I thought you done really well considering the lack of items! But you had to have single cream on top of it!! Otherwise Christmas pudding can be quite dry and filling
Well done looked amazing!
Great job guys, it looks divine.
You can microwave Christmas pudding instead of steaming it. Normally youâd have brandy sauce or custard with it. Double cream also works
We traditionally have brandy butter with Christmas pudding. This is a mix of butter, icing sugar and brandy.
No wonder you didn't try lots of different Christmas puddings, you would be lucky to find any there I guess? At least you will be able to have pecan pie easily enough! Have a great Christmas đđđ
It looks so good! I always have mine with cream but a lot of people have custard, brandy butter or brandy sauce.
9 minutes in and can I just say well done guys! I think that you did an amazing job considering it's your 1st time making it. I am British and have never made a Chirstmas Pudding, I think you Ravens have done a better job than I would have.
Fantastic!! Fanny and Johnnie Cradock would be so proud!
Eeeek !!! Haircuts !!
Like the new looks :)
I grew up with the Christmas pudding being started around Easter, and slowly having more and more alcohol added as the year went on, so that by it came time to eat it, 2 portions put you over the drink-drive limit . . .
We use my Nan's wartime Christmas pudding recipe - its really simple (one cup of everything), can be eaten on the same day and is the best Christmas pudding I've ever tasted. Its made with either apples or carrots, presumably because during wartime they were readily available.
Glacee cherries in Christmas Pudding; noooooo! Brandy not rum. No brandy butter? Topped with granulated sugar and a sprig of holly.
Christmas music is socially acceptable right up until new year lol, enjoy it
Crisco can be used as a substitute for suet. I've used Crisco to make mincemeat from scratch once and it worked really well
An excellent effort, I wasn't sure how substituting butter for suet would work out. And the pud is traditionally aged before eating We always used to have white sauce or fresh cream with our Christmas pud. I love the way you guys will give things a go & so enthusiastically.
It doesn't really work if you substitute suet for butter I think. The texture may be different. But it did look yummy though! Kudos to you for making it from scratch! â€ïž Merry Christmas and a happy new year!
Your Christmas pudding looked great! Well done. I usually make mine about 6 months beforehand. This year, thanks to lockdown, I made several in April as Christmas presents for friends. They need a few months in a cool cupboard to mature, and the texture won't be as crumbly. You absolutely need some kind of sauce with it - either custard, rum cream or brandy butter. My mum usually has the leftover brandy butter on toast for Boxing Day breakfast! I'm also coeliac, so if you want a recipe to try, mine is well tried and trusted.
Well done on the tacticle retreat .The xmas pud was great you can use Cream or Custard on it.
Hey guys,
Well done, that looks like a really good first attempt.
The pudding should be moist and a bit crumbly,, definitely not crunchy đ.
It is traditionally served with Brandy butter, but I prefer pouring (single) cream (not whipped cream or squirty cream).
Have a great Christmas & Happy New Year.
Well done!
Brandy sauce and a sprig of holly with its berries on.
Aww Riley is just adorable
I admire your efforts guys - I'm like a lot of brits and can't be arsed to make my own Christmas pudding
I'd buy one ready made and microwave it
GOOD JOB! Being left for a long time would let the dried fruit absorb some of the moisture.
Grace - Loving the new haircut. NIIICCCEEEE! ha ha looks lovely and suits you well. Boxing day is full on Christmas still, with plenty of drinking and then the left overs