ON THE REGENCY SIDEBOARD

While roast beef and venison were the main course of the dinner, along with goose, capon, pheasant, bustard, swan and/or peacock, the real treat of the Regency Christmas meal was the pudding.

A pudding needed to be started before the first Sunday of Advent in order to be considered a true Christmas pudding. It was thought to improve with time.  The recipe called for a mixture of thirteen ingredients (to represent Christ and the twelve apostles) which was boiled in a pudding cloth. Usual ingredients included suet, brown sugar, raisins, currants, citron, lemon and orange peels, spices, crumbs, flour, eggs, milk and brandy.

Other Christmas deserts included gingerbread, butter shortbread, trifle and syllabub (a milk, brandy and wine concoction which might be drunk or later whipped, gelled and eaten.) Children delighted in sugar plums and ginger nuts.

Bon appetit!