Stir Up Sunday – medieval Christmas pudding
It’s ‘Stir Up Sunday’ this weekend, the last Sunday before Advent and the day to make your Christmas pudding! This tradition dates back from the nineteenth century into the mid-twentieth and has enjoyed a recent revival. The ‘Stir Up’ actually refers to a phrase in the Book of Common Prayer, but it is also a great time to make the pudding to allow all the ingredients to mature.
The Christmas pudding as we know it might have undergone some changes but it has more than a passing similarity to the medieval dish ‘frumenty’. A porridge style meal, it was made of boiled wheat, meat, dried fruit, eggs and spices when available.
If you fancy making it, there is a recipe on this interesting site.
If that recipe is not tempting your tastebuds, there is a more traditional recipe, along with a history tracing the evolution of the pudding here.
(Image:”Mmm Pudding” by JamesPeek , via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution.)