The Hector as a dog name I referred to was as in the saying “since Hector was a pup” used to mean a span of years …as in"We haven’t seen you since Hector was a pup." This may just be a Southern colloquialism…I think the last time I heard that particular expression it was really more like “Ah ain’t seen y’all since Hector was a pup…you was just knee high to a grasshopper, girl!” I have no idea how widely used the expression is elsewhere, but it is still used in the South…along with other lovelies like “not for a coon’s age” and the like.
I am still not exactly clear on the custard/pudding question, in part because I read in the recipe Bromley linked (I think) that British custard was more liquid than the semisolid form Americans are used to. If you would only speak English! No, we don’t have Christmas puddings…well, some of us do, but only if we are pretending to be Brits!
Custard when warm is liquid (quite thick but liquid).
When it is cold it solidifies into a jelly like substance. That’s what’s in custard pies.
Not all “Puddings” are steamed (Not boiled, never boiled). Summer pudding is refrigerated as is queen of puddings. There is some confusion between pudding, meaning a suet based dish and “pudding” meaning any desert.
And hard luck on the Christmas pudding front. They’re lovely. They are steamed puddings.
What do you have after your christmas dinner then?
owlstretchingtime, US folk don’t have “Christmas pudding”. We don’t even know what it is (or at least most of us). In fact, I think you’re the first person to ever actually explain that a UK pudding is in fact a sponge cake. I knew it was cake-like, but not really the texture.
As for what we have for dessert, I often have pie. Pumpkin pie, or custard pie. Many people like pecan pie, which is really a sweet molasses pie with some pecans on top. Then of course there’s cookies, chocolate coated pretzels, candy canes, and tons of sweets galore. Plus ice cream. Um, no, I don’t eat all of that.
Pecan pie is NOT molasses pie…usually it is made with corn syrup and lots and lots of pecans. Maybe Northerners make their pecan pie with molasses, (after all, they also put sugar in cornbread!) but I have never heard of making pecan pie with molasses, only shoofly pie. My family normally has pumpkin and mince pie for dessert, but there are also loads and loads of decorated holiday cookies and lots of sugary sweets in general. I think the closest we can come to a Christmas pudding is a fruitcake. These are notoriously despised here, but some of us love them. The problem is finding a good one, not some rock hard brick of dried fruit. A good fruitcake is dense and moist and filled with fruit (NOT red and green dyed dried maraschino cherries, ever!) and nuts. I would liken it very much to your pudding, except it is baked and not steamed. Often homemade fruitcakes are baked in tins and moistened with spirits (rum,brandy,whiskey and bourbon are all common, as well as kirsch and other fruity liquers) and allowed to mellow for months before the holiday. Mmmmmmm…fruitcake! I know one family who has been mailing one of the awful fruit brick things back and forth to various family members since 1972…this will be the 30th anniversary this year, so all the branches are waiting with breathless anticipation to see who the lucky recipient will be.
Agreed. Having made both, a good homemade fruit cake (with glace rather than candied fruit) is very similar to Christmas pudding. Main differences: (i) the pudding is looser in texture, (ii) the “booziness” is different, for the pudding coming (at least in the Delia Smith recipe I use) mainly from stout and barleywine (a very heavy beer), and (iii) pudding is usually served with some sort of sauce (e.g., brandy butter), where fruitcake is not.
Owl…Queen of Puddings? Surely you are just making that up! Having a laugh at the expense of the “colonials” are we? And, while we are at it, what IS Owlstretchingtime? Also, the TV program you referred to (a local shop for local people, nothing for you here…) is called…? I don’t watch much television, but I have seen that program (or programme if you prefer). Can’t recall the name but it was very very funny…do you know the ditty about what towel to use on which body part?
Am I the only American here who thought that plum pudding (prepared in a tin, and flambed just before serving, was a well-established Christmas tradition? What do you mean, no Christmas puddings in America?
But we do also have the candy canes, and the decorated sugar cookies, and gobs, and divinity, and of course the pies, in at least a dozen different varieties (Apple and cherry and pecan and rhubarb and custard and chocolate and lemon merrangue and Key lime and pumpkin and…)
I, an American, never had, nor knew anyone who had plum pudding at Christmas. That was for the first 22 years of my life. Then I married an Episcopalian in Richmond, Va. They seem to be a breed which came from England and didn’t change much over time. So, then I learned. Not bad.
But, given the influences of my Southern Virginia “country” roots, I prefer pecan pie, pumpkin pie, etc.
Owl…thanks for the recipe, I have printed it and plan to prepare it soon. It sounds delicious! I have a question though (I know, you probably think I have nothing BUT questions…sometimes I think I hear the wind whistling right through!) but the recipe calls for something called caster sugar as well as vanilla sugar. Here in the States we have raw sugar, tubinado sugar, light and dark brown sugar, confectioners sugar and granulated sugar. I know how to make vanilla sugar but I am at a loss about caster sugar. The glossary was no help. Which of these would be caster sugar? Chronos…what is a gob? I also have had Christmas pudding a time or two, but not at home…I guess every family here just has their own traditions, be it Christmas pudding or pumpkin pie. My former in-laws wouldn’t consider it Christmas without the holiday lasagna, so to each his own. Samclem…fruitcake is not that horrid…you just haven’t had a decent one yet! (I have to admit that I find that surprising, considering your Southern Virginia roots…most Southerners make wonderful fruitcakes! Even though it is Southern companies that make those horrible dry fruit bricks, ugh!)
Two small, round chocolate cake-like things, with a layer of a sort of icing/cream/filling between them. I think that this is a recipe for them, but I’m not sure exactly how to make them.
And before anyone asks, divinity is a spongy, unflavored fudge that is the absolute sweetest, richest confection ever developed. Personally, I can only handle about one piece every two years.
As I said…it would help if we were all speaking English! I am an American, and I didn’t know what gobs were…thank heavens Chronos didn’t call divinity by it’s other, more popular but incorrect name “white chocolate”. There is NO chocolate in “white chocolate” it is just fat and sugar, and to my way of thinking is without any flavor at all, save for fat and sugar. It is not a good thing. (Unless of course you are fond of fat and sugar) Bromley, thanks for the caster sugar info…I searched all my cookbooks and could not find any reference to it at all. Queen of Puddings does sound tasty…perhaps I should introduce her to Budweiser, The King of Beers.
Candy canes: Hard candy in the shape of a stick, bent over into a hook shape. They’re generally peppermint flavored, and they have red and white stripes running around them in a helix. Traditionally, they’re used as tree decorations, and slowly disappear over the time the tree is up.
Sugar cookies: A relatively nondescript, simple cookie (sweet biscuit, for you Brits), often topped with coarse-grained sugar. Around Christmas time, they’re usually made in various holiday shapes, such as Santa Clause (Father Christmas), Christmas trees, stars, candy canes (see above), etc., and the sugar used on top is various colors, decorating them.
Gobs and divinity: See above.
And just in case: Pie: A pastry made in a round, shallow pan with a lower and (usually) upper crust, with some sort of sweet filling, usually fruity, in between. I think that this is the same both sides of the Pond, but one never knows with you crazy Brits…
Divinity is NOTHING like white chocolate. White chocolate is essentially sweetened cocoa butter; it has a subtle chocolate flavor that is often unappreciated by the less enlightened, and it is very rich and sweet.
Divinity is somewhat like fudge, but it has no cocoa, no cocoa butter, and very little fat. It’s made from sugar, milk, and egg whites, and may contain nuts.
What you call divinity is what we call nougat, although I understand from my chef friend that there is not much difference between the two. The only divinity I ever had was purchased from a sweet shop in New Orleans and was labelled “divinity” but the ingredients said “white chocolate with walnuts”…it was pretty gross, so I’ve only tried it once…yuck. I thought it smelled a little like chocolate…tasted like fat and sugar. I am not a nougat fan either though…not much flavor there, only sweetness.:eek:
