Christmas Celebrations Won’t Be Complete without Pudding!
If there’s a time of the year that you should be saving your tummy for, it’s none other than the Holiday season. Starting from Thanksgiving celebrations to Christmas and lasting all the way to New Year’s Eve, there are plenty of food to be had, drinks to indulge in and parties to attend. Now, whether you are hosting or attending a Christmas dinner at home, the one food item that the table can’t do without is Christmas pudding. Read on to find out the story behind this Christmas tradition, and what other Christmas desserts should be served on the dinner table.
A Brief History of Traditional Christmas Pudding
Over the past years that the Holiday season has been celebrated, Christmas pudding has always been the ideal way to end a meal. This old fashioned Christmas dessert originated from England and it is also called plum pudding. Similar to how each family has their own version of fruit cake or chocolate brownies recipes, there would also be variations as to how Christmas pudding is prepared as long as the basic elements are there.
Now, how did the tradition of serving Christmas pudding start? It all started in England where plum pudding has become the star of the dessert whenever special dinners are held. Traditionally rich and sumptuous, this pudding is steamed and is made with ingredients like dried fruits, nuts and sweet spices.
During the 15th century, skinned meat was preserved in large pastry cases along with dried fruit and spices. But the real grandfather of the traditional Christmas pudding is a food item called pottage. It’s a Roman delicacy which is made from meat and vegetables. Cooked in a large pot, the dish takes hours to prepare while dried fruits, sugar and spices are added.
During the Elizabethan era, the savory dish began taking on a sweeter form. This is the time when better meat preservation techniques were already being introduced. By the late 16th century, eggs, bread crumbs and beer were incorporated in the pudding and the actual plum pudding that we know of today was born in kitchens during the 1650s. For the next centuries, plum pudding has become a constant presence in Christmas dinner tables and the dessert known as Christmas pudding became popularized around the world when Elizabeth Acton included its recipe in her cookbook.
Pudding & Other Christmas Desserts to Serve at the Dinner Table
Now that you already have an idea about how pudding started being a staple item for Christmas desserts, what other delicious goodies should be included when you are hosting dinner for friends and family? Christmas desserts like pudding are really ideal because they have a surprisingly long shelf-life. However, you can also populate the dessert table with goodies like the Yule log, thirteen desserts for Christmas Eve, chess pie, pavlovas, plum fairy cake, Christmas cookies, apple pie, pumpkin pie, etc.
No matter which among these desserts you end up serving, what’s important is to end every meal with a sweet note – so start choosing which scrumptious desserts to make for your holiday dinner!
You can find more information about Christmas desserts on this site (Julgodis in Swedish). In addition to that i recommend you to read more about chocolate cake (kladdkaka in Swedish).
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