Stir Up Sunday! Time To Start The Christmas Pudding!

Happy Stir Up Sunday!

Traditionally the day when good housewives...or their cooks... stirred up the dish that would become Christmas Pudding on that festive day coming soon!

The tradition dates... as best as can be seen... from the 14th century. There are traditionally supposed to be 13 ingredients... 1 each for Jesus and the 12 disciples.

Stir Up Sunday refers to the traditional day to start it... the first Sunday before Advent, or the coming of Christ's birth begins.

The  collect for the Sunday before Advent in the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer begins with the words 

"Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works...". 

This led to the custom of preparing Christmas puddings on that day which became known as Stir Up Sunday.

 The tradition is that for good look in the coming year to fall on the family, every member had to take their turn stirring, and make a wish...

There also developed in the early Victorian era the mixing in of small silver fortune telling tokens in the wealthier families, or a sixpence or two in the more simple puddings. 

The sixpence or threepence for luck or wealth

a wishbone for a granted wish

a boot for travel

a thimble either for thrift or for spinsterhood if recipient was an unmarried lady

an anchor for a safe voyage or safe harbor

a bell for married in the year

horseshoe for luck

and several others that vary by region.

Whatever, you always have to be careful eating, so no teeth are broken.

Sets are handed down in the family. As my husband was a 4th child and a boy to boot, the oldest sister got them, and they are now with their oldest daughter.

My family also passed them to an oldest daughter,  but they were lost about 30 years ago. Sigh...

There is a bit of a debate between calling this steamed pudding or plum pudding...some say the same, just varied by ingredients, some staunch if favor of one or the other...

But all agreed it is dense, full of fruit and steamed.

Also debated, is whether it should be topped with brandy sauce, hard sauce or brandy butter... and whether to be flaming or no...

how nice to have choices! 

I was brought up brandy butter sauce...

Here are several great websites and recipes 

From Downton Abbey Cooks:

https://downtonabbeycooks.com/recipe/traditional-christmas-plum-pudding/

From The National Trust:

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/recipes/christmas-pudding

From BBC Food:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/christmas_pudding_41498

 

 Greeting card featuring a Christmas pudding with a face... from 1880. British Library

Final Days! Ends Wednesday night Nov. 27th! Time Was Antiques https://www.timewasantiques.net

Thursday Teacups, Stir Up Sunday, Plum Pudding

Welcome to Thursday Teacups and Tea Things with Antiques And Teacups, Vintage Thingie Thursday with Coloradolady and Teacup Thursday with Miss Spenser.

I am covering a few fun things today...all in one! The first, is my teacup selection which is a homey (if your a Yank) or homely (for the Brits) Johnson Brothers, England Friendly Village cup and saucer from the 1950s.

Friendly Village is one of the most popular of Johnson Brothers' patterns in the USA. It appeals to our collective memories of rural village scenes of the east coast or colonial days. I think it is perfect for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. I love that there are so many different scenes in the set including the schoolhouse, the old well, apple orchard, ice house and may others. The design is hand colored on brown transferware so it is perfect for many fall table options. I love it!

For more Friendly Village pieces including the cup and saucer at Time Was Antiques, click on the photos and go to the Johnson Brothers category.

In Victorian England, this weekend would be Stir Up Sunday...when the plum puddings and Christmas cakes would be made up to be drenched in spirits and then stored to age and marinate! In the lore of the puddings, varoius silver charms and a sixpence would be stirred in as well, to be used to tell fortunes on Christmas day when the cake was cut and eaten. 

 I even have a plum pudding teapot made by Price Kensington, England in the 1930-1940s.

Wishes were also made as each family member took their turn with the required stir of the pudding. The person stirring would close their eyes and wish, but don't tell!! Or the wish wouldn't come true! I loved these customs as a child, but especially loved licking the bowl!

 Here is a plum pudding recipe from the famous Victorian cook, Mrs. Beeton:

 

Mrs Beeton's Traditional Christmas Plum Pudding 1

Recipe 1 (Page 494) - 1923 Edition

Makes 2 Christmas puddings

Check recipe for shopping/store cupboard purposes and grease 2 basins.

8 oz moist sugar (use soft brown )

8 oz chopped suet or modern day equivalent

8 oz sultanas cleaned

8 oz raisins halved and stoned (see footnote*)

4 oz currants washed and dried

4 oz shredded mixed candied peel - Cut your own or use ready cut

4 oz of plain flour

4 oz breadcrumbs

2 oz almonds blanched and shredded

the grated rind of a 1 lemon

3 eggs

a salt spoonful of  nutmeg grated

half a teaspoon of salt

quarter pint of milk

1 small wineglassful of brandy (optional)

Mix all the dry ingredients together, stir in the well beaten eggs, milk and brandy (if used).
Turn the mixture into 2 well greased basins, and steam from 5 to 6 hours.
Time 5 to 6 hours.
Sufficient for 8 or 9 persons.
N.B. Please note that no raising agent is mentioned in this recipe, but the flour must be plain flour, as elsewhere self raising flour is mentioned by type when used.

I also found this Chocolate Plum Pudding recipe which is a bit different from AllRecipes.com.

 Chocolate Plum Pudding Cake

Prep Time:
25 Min

Cook Time:
1 Hr 20 Min

Ready In:
1 Hr 45 Min

 
Original Recipe Yield 1 - 9 inch tube cake

 

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup raisins
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups applesauce
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Place raisins in a small saucepan, and cover with boiling water. Soak for 5 minutes, then drain. Grease and flour a 9 inch tube pan.
2. Sift together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Blend in the eggs, then the applesauce. Beat in the flour mixture. Stir in raisins and walnuts. Spread batter evenly into prepared tube pan.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 80 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely; chill.

This is an 1805 caricature or political carton by J. S. Gillray showing William Pitt and Napoleon carving a plum pudding which represented the world. This was the era of the Napoleonic Wars and the Regency in England. Plum pudding was a well understood thing in every household!


Have a great Thursday visiting the other blog parties. And don't forget to make a wish! And don't tell!

 

Cold Snap in England...York Christmas Fayre...Plum Pudding Teapot

There have been record amounts of snow and cold temperatures in the UK...there was just a BBBc article about travelers being stranded for 8 days in North Yorkshire because of snow...but at least it was at a pub! Pub Stranding.

This little photo is my favorite so far...it's off a BBC web page & doesn't enlarge, but you get the idea.

We got up in April during a buying trip in the Cotswolds one April morning and found 8 inches of snow had fallen overnight. We were lived in snow country at that time, but the rental but the rental car had normal tires. We had a 3 hour drive to the West Midlands to family on our for our next round of antique fairs near Stoke-on-Trent and the trip took up 9 hours. We thought we were going to get stuck going through one of our favorite villages, Snowshill (on a hill amidst winding, narrow roads as it's name implies) but made it through...next obstacle was lots of cars off the road & traffic accidents through the bottleneck bridge of Stratford-on-Avon. Were we glad to get to family in Erdington!!!  Had great photos, but my laptop crashed a week late in Worcester & I lost all my photos!

 One of the favorite things to do in the York area in Northern England is attend the York Christmas Fayre. The family was going this weekend, haven't heard if they did. But I'd planned on posting links to the sites because they are so much fun to look at and see what's going on "across the pond". York is an historic cathedral town and LOVELY to visit and shop in if your are looking for antiques. Lots of fairs, small shops & markets.

Yuletide York 
Christmas In York

Last night we went to the Christmas concert of the Peninsula Men's Gospel Singers which was outstanding. Well done guys! The O Holy Night was truly outstanding and Michael Rivers did a spectacular job of prep and conducting. Thanks for that Christmas gift!

We are off this afternoon after church to another local theater production Meet Me In St Louis by the Port Angeles Community Players for their Christmas show. Should be a lot of fun. The movie version is famous for Judy Garland singing Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.

And lastly...another bit of holiday cheer we've just added at Time Was Antiques...a vintage Price Kensington plum pudding teapot. It even has the snocap of brandy sauce or hard sauce on top with the holly sprig! How cool is that!
Plum Pudding Teapot


Have a wonderful day, filled with the joys of the holiday season enjoying things you love to do! Cheers...oh, and cuppatea, anyone???