Plum-pudding.

Plum-pudding. This national English dish is an example of the happy results of the law of evolution. The 'plumb-porridge' which delighted our ancestors has been drained and dried and squeezed into the moulds of civilisation, and few will doubt the 'survival of the fittest' among its ingredients. It is not known when the change from porridge to pudding actually took place. In Hudibras we find a mention of 'minced pies and plumb-porridge.' Addison in the Tatler speaks of both as the 'first parts of the dinner;' and in the Spectator, No. 269, plumb-porridge is mentioned as eaten on Christmas Day. Southey in his Omniana, vol. i. p. 7, quotes a recipe for plum-pudding as given in French by the Chevalier d'Arvieux, who in 1658 made a voyage in an English forty-gun ship. This pudding was directed to be boiled in meat broth, and when dished up to be covered with grated cheese. In the earlier collections of recipes we find nothing of the kind, unless a hint of plumb-porridge be discerned in the mixture called Rape, a posset of 'raissins of corans' with 'swet wyne,' and 'crustes of bred.' A recipe for this is given in A Noble Boke off Cookry (ed. Napier, p. 109), which must have been written out in the 15th century, but was then probably copied from one of a much earlier date. For a modern recipe the following may be taken: Plum-pudding—$\backslash frac\{1\}\{2\}$ lb. beef suet, $\backslash frac\{1\}\{2\}$ lb. raisins, $\backslash frac\{1\}\{2\}$ lb. currants, $\backslash frac\{1\}\{2\}$ lb. sultanas, $\backslash frac\{1\}\{4\}$ lb. mixed peel, $\backslash frac\{1\}\{4\}$ lb. bread-crumbs, $\backslash frac\{1\}\{4\}$ lb. flour, one lemon, $\backslash frac\{1\}\{2\}$ lb. moist sugar, four eggs, one gill of milk, one wineglass of brandy, two oz. almonds, half a nutmeg, a little salt. Chop the suet finely, stone the raisins, clean and pick the currants, blanch and chop the almonds, cut the candied peel in thin shreds. Mix all very well together. Turn into a well-greased basin, cover with a cloth, and boil for four hours, or, better, steam for twelve hours. Serve with brandy or sweet sauce.