Is It Too Late To Make The Ultimate Christmas Pudding? | Ask Nigella.com (2024)

FAQs

Is it too late to make Christmas pudding? ›

You can start making your Christmas pudding anywhere from two to three months in advance to give the flavours plenty of time to mature, but it's never too late to start.

I've normally got some left over and eat them through the year. I'd cook them, then give them a sniff, see if they smell ok. I would and have eaten Christmas puddings at least that far out of date, it'll be fine.

Some Christmas puddings, made with dried fruit in the traditional way, are fine to be eaten as much as two years after they were made. "Bear in mind if the pudding is alcohol-free, of course, it will last a good while with the sugar content, but it will not last as long without alcohol to preserve it," stresses Juliet.

The pudding improves with age, so store in a cool place away from draughts until Christmas. (The top of a cupboard works well.) At least two hours before your Christmas dinner, repeat the steaming process.

To avoid mould, we recommend you wrap the cooled pudding in plastic wrap and seal it in a freezer bag or airtight container.

The basin is wrapped in a layer of foil to help prevent the lid from popping off during steaming. This should keep the pudding watertight, but if the water in the pan boils too hard then it can still seep into the pudding basin.

We suggest opening up the pudding and inspecting it. If there are any signs of white mould or decomposition then the pudding should be discarded. If the pudding smells fermented, sour or "off" then it should also be discarded. if you do decide to eat the pudding then it still needs its 3 hours second steaming.

I have used puddings where the expiration date expired 3 years ago and they were still perfectly good. The reason for this is that I don't use the pudding very often, but my experience has been that the Oetker products, like many other products can sagely be eaten long after the expiration date.

However, they're often just whacked in on 'high' for a few minutes until they look cooked. “Quite frankly, overcooking Christmas puddings kills the flavour, and that's a shame after all the effort and wonderful ingredients I've put into it!

How do I flame the Christmas pudding? Turn out the steamed pudding onto a serving plate with a good-sized rim around the edge to catch any spirit. The important thing is to get the spirit really hot. Pour 2-3 tablespoons of brandy, rum or whisky into a long-handled metal ladle and heat it over a gas flame until hot.

Does the alcohol cook out of Christmas pudding? ›

Conclusion: Christmas puddings contain ethanol that does not all evaporate during the cooking process. However, the rise in BAC after ingestion of a typical slice of Christmas pudding was negligible and unlikely to affect work performance or safety or impair a health care worker's ability to make complex decisions.

We would also mention that after the first steaming the pudding may look a little lighter in colour than you may expect. On the second steaming the pudding will darken in colour. As it re-heats it will also become slightly softer in texture and should be easy to cut once it has been turned out from its basin.

If wrapped properly, you can refrigerate the pudding for up to a year or more! If you want to give the pudding the second streaming, defrost the pudding at room temperature (20˚C) for 24 hours beforehand. While unrefrigerated, however, we would not suggest keeping the pudding out for more than 3 hours.

The mixed spices, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, pimentos (or all spice) in a Christmas pudding are also an incredible source of aromatic antioxidants. Spices aid digestion and have anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties.

A traditional Christmas pudding contains a high amount of fat, usually in the form of suet, and a lot of added sugar.

Oliver Cromwell made the celebration of Christmas illegal including the consumption of certain foods. Although the Act has never been repealed, it has been superceded so you can now eat as many as you like. Where does the 12 days of Christmas come from?

It was in the late Victorian era that 'Stir up Sunday' (the fifth Sunday before Christmas) began to be associated with the making of Christmas pudding.

Why does a pudding need to be made a good five weeks before it is due to be consumed? This potent mixture of sugar, flour, suet, dried fruit and alcohol (lots of alcohol) is notorious for its durability, and, like its cousin the Christmas cake, needs time for the flavours to blend and mature.

Our answer

If unrefrigerated then we would suggest no longer than 3 hours. If the battter is refrigerated then up to one day is fine, though let it stand at room temperature for about 45 minutes before steaming so that the pudding batter can come up to room temperature.