December 10: Christmas Pudding

Christmas pudding, or plum pudding, has its origins in "frumenty", a medieval dish made from boiled, cracked wheat boiled in milk and flavoured with spices. Eggs, nuts, flower water, dried fruit and meat could also be added.

You can read more about the history of Christmas in an article from the History Today website, which includes a Victorian recipe - see http://www.historytoday.com/maggie-black/englishmans-plum-pudding - and if you want to make a modern, but classic version, then there is a lovely recipe from BBC Good Food at - http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1159/classic-christmas-pudding or you can try this one from Waitrose:

It was traditional for a silver sixpence to be mixed into the pudding mixture and the person who found it in their serving of the pudding could keep it and it was believed that they would have good luck in the coming year. My father-in-law still adds a coin, wrapped in foil, to the mixture. If you add a coin or token of some kind just remember to warn those eating the pudding!

Another tradition is to flambé the Christmas pudding: