Victorian-American Christmas Figgy (or Plum) Pudding Recipes by Kristin Holt

by Kristin Holt

USA Today Bestselling- and RONE Award Winning-Author

Christmas is around the corner, again, and I'm reminded of those family recipes whose aromas evoke myriad memories of holidays gone by. My living grandmother will be 100 on her next birthday. She still made her famous Christmas Pudding (essentially Plum Pudding) every year until she hit age 90. I still miss its one-of-a-kind flavor... a treat so rich it needed the whipping cream to cut the hard sauce and "pudding" (cake).

Today I want to share a handful of vintage recipes for English Plum Pudding, Fig Pudding, and other Christmas pudding delicacies. Sources are listed in publication order, and citations are noted in image footers or quotation block final lines. All were published in the United States, and all were originally presented in the late-nineteenth century.

1885:

 

English Plum Pudding, 1885, The Homemade Cook Book.

1889:

Fig Pudding Recipe, pp164-165: The Every-Day Cook-Book and Encyclopedia of Practical Receipts (1889).

1890:

Christmas Plum Pudding and two sauce recipes, published in 1890 by Improvement Society of the Second Reformed Church of New Brunswick, New Jersey.

 1892:

Two Plum Pudding Recipes from The Columbian Cook Book Containing Reliable Rules for Plain and Fancy Cooking. Published 1892.

 1895:

 

Fig Pudding, 1895, Three Hundred Tested Recipes.

 

Christmas Plum Pudding from The Boston Globe, Boston, Mass., December 15, 1895.

 1903:

Fig Pudding Recipe, published 1903 in Kentucky Receipt Book by Mary Harris Frazier.

Invitation:

After a peek at these vintage recipes, what do you think? Did ingredients or cooking methods surprise you? How about the length of boiling time to prepare the pudding?

Do you have a vintage family-heirloom recipe for Christmas pudding? Have you tasted Victorian-era or Edwardian-era "figgy pudding"? Please tell us about it. (Scroll down to the "conversation" fields.)

Related Articles:

Click on any blog article header image, to open the related article's page. You're invited to take a peek at more related history!

 

 

 

by Kristin Holt

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Copyright ⓒ 2019 Kristin Holt LC

Black-eyed Peas, Anyone?

In the South, black-eyed peas are eaten on New Year’s Day, and as far as I can remember, I’ve never missed the tradition. I have a pot cooking on the stove now. Black-eyed peas were introduced to the United States as early in the 17th century in Virginia. The black-eyed pea was probably first domesticated in West Africa although it was also grown in Asia.

Flavoring my black-eyed peas is a slice of hog jowl. Yes, I always eat a bit of it also, and the taste is actually quite good. Along with the peas cooked with hog jowl, we always have greens. These greens can vary, but my family usually enjoys turnip greens. Collards, mustard greens, or even cabbage—any green leafy vegetable can be eaten for good luck in the new year. This year, we’ll be eating mustard greens grown organically in our own garden.

Also accompanying our meal will be ham and cornbread. Greens without cornbread? No, that would not be wise.

These foods all have positive connotations for the new year. The greens represent money, the peas, we were always told represent coins, and the ham, progress, because of the rooting, forward action of pigs.

Wikipedia gives an alternate version of why black-eyed peas are considered good omens. After soaking and then cooking the dried peas, they increase in size. Increase is what we want for the new year—at least in regard to our money. This meme is popular on Facebook around Christmas time:

The fat bank account comes, according to the tradition, through the black-eyed peas.

Another food we eat is pork. I grew up with a saying “Root, hog or die poor.” This goes back to well before 1834. Pigs were turned loose to forage for themselves. The more they rooted, the greater chance they’d find food.

Before the Civil War, several songs were published with this saying, such as this one:

And that reminds me of another saying, “Even a blind hog finds an acorn once and a while.” This, in my family, is always said when someone comes up with a good idea or perhaps says the correct thing at the correct time. Some of us have a way of putting our foot in our mouth at every opportune occasion. Yet, perhaps, those of us with that tendency may be like the blind hog and “find an acorn,” find the right words to say, or perhaps, do the right thing.

Pigs root forward and are always searching, making them a symbol of prosperity. We, like the lowly pig, must continuously search, and we may just find that acorn.

And there you have it—my menu for today. I will be dining on black-eyed peas, cornbread, mustard greens, and ham—all the things needed to give me the desires of my heart for 2019.

Happy New Year!

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Coming this month:
Brokken Redeemed

Victorian America and Easter Eggs

by Kristin Holt

Victorians celebrated holidays in familiar, and not-so-familiar, ways as we do today. I wrote a lengthy and encompassing blog about Victorians Celebrating Easter last year.

Since then, I've come across more about the symbolism of Easter Eggs, how they were used as gifts, instructions to paint a delicate broken egg as a flower vase for an Easter gift....

An Easter gift of a broken egg shell? Really?

The Oshkosh Northwestern of Oshkosh, Wisconsin on March 28, 1896.

Interesting, isn't it? Here's another that caught me off guard. Did you know our Victorian American ancestors had Egg Roasts (some kind of supper party) for Easter?

The Columbus Weekly Advocate of Columbus, Kansas on April 18, 1901.

Were Easter Eggs judged? I don't know.

Black Hills Weekly Pioneer of Deadwood, South Dakota, April 3, 1880.

A newspaper article from 1890 shares more Victorian and pre-Victorian Era Easter Egg traditions. Articles such as this, explaining the history of holidays, events, occasions, and observances were common in Victorian newspapers.

Kansas Farmer of Topeka, Kansas, June 11, 1890. Part 1.

Kansas Farmer of Topeka, Kansas, June 11, 1890. Part 2.

Kansas Farmer of Topeka, Kansas, June 11, 1890. Part 3.

Kansas Farmer of Topeka, Kansas, June 11, 1890. Part 4.

And there you have it! Victorian Easter Eggs--as calling cards (actually, a gift for Easter), a party meal, and the history of the Easter Egg as presented to Victorian Americans.

What do you think about today's Easter Egg traditions?

Hi! I'm Kristin Holt, USA Today Bestselling Author.

I write frequent articles (or view recent posts easily on my Home Page, scroll down) about the nineteenth century American West–every subject of possible interest to readers, amateur historians, authors…as all of these tidbits surfaced while researching for my books. I also blog monthly at Sweet Romance Reads, Sweet Americana Sweethearts, and Romancing the Genres.

I love to hear from readers! Please drop me a note. Or find me on Facebook.

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