christmas pudding

[Martina]

Hi,
I am making my first attempt at pudding this year. Can anyone tell me about the steaming? Do I put the pudding in the water and boil or do I keep the pudding out of the water and steam? My recipe says steam for 8 hours using a steam set (which I don't have so I was just going to put a bowl inside the larger pot and sit the pudding on it) but I remember my parents putting the pudding actually in the water. So now I am confused.

Any help would be great appreciate.

Martina

[red]

i use a steamer set these days as its easier, but i used to stick the pudding basin in the saucepan and bring the water level up to about half way. cover the pan and boil for hours on end

in our house its traditional to let it boil dry at least once... but its not recommended.

I make mine at the end of November on stir up sunday.

[Broad Bean]

If you have a cook pot then it's very easy as there is no worries re the pan boiling dry. Put a saucer or similar in the bottom of the inner dish, put the filled pudding bowl on top (with the pudding covered with grease proof paper directly against the top of the pudding and then a double sheet of grease proof paper and silver foil tied round the top with string) and then add water round the pudding until about 2/3 to 3/4 full. Put the lid on the cook pot and cook for about 10 hours. When cooked replace the double sheet with clean grease proof / silver foil and store until Christmas. I prefer to steam mine to warm up (really don't like microwaves) which takes about 3 to 4 hours on low.

If you don't have a cook pot then prepare the pudding as above and then stand on a trivet (or similar) within a pan of water. Put the lid on the pan and steam for about 4 hours (I think), checking that it doesn't boil dry and mopping condensation from your house a regular basis!

[Martina]

i use a steamer set these days as its easier, but i used to stick the pudding basin in the saucepan and bring the water level up to about half way. cover the pan and boil for hours on end

in our house its traditional to let it boil dry at least once... but its not recommended.

I make mine at the end of November on stir up sunday.

Red,

That is almost identical to what I ended up doing. Left to my own vices, I figured something out and it appears to have worked. I took the pudding out of the steam at 9:45 pm. I am letting it cool and will take the old sheets off and put on fresh waxpaper and foil before I go to work at 7 am . It's now 3 am --another night of insomnia for me. It looks O.K. at the moment, so lets hope it stays that way. I plan on taking a photo of it and putting up on my flickr page by next weekend--just to commemorate the accomplishment . Between this and the two successful loves of bread I have made and the double batch of lemon squares (all in the last month or two), I am really getting into the whole "from scratch" cooking. Hardly any boxes of stuff in my cupboards anymore. They are too full of actual ingredients--a transition that I thought would be so expensive, and yet I think I have actually begun to see the begins of money saved for my efforts!

Thanks to everyone for their input. It's nice to see so many different ways of doing the same thing. I was getting really hung up on the recipe vs how I remembered my mum and dad doing it. So your advise is very appreciated.

Have a great day,
Martina

p.s. Just want to add that Mum and Dad dropped by as I was taking it out of the steam--just to see how it went and they were really surprised at how well it turned out. "It actually looks o.k." my Mum said. I think she was a little worried because it kind of meant something to me. However, she says that I have inspired her to take up the pots and pans and do some actual cooking of her own this Christmas. Something she hadn't done in a while. So I will take that as confirmation of a job well done.

[red]

yay sounds great
store it somewhere cool and take a peek now and then to make sure its ok.

[Green Aura]

Excellent stuff, well done