Christmas Pudding Recipe With Suet Ideas (2024)

FAQs

Should Christmas pudding have suet? ›

Our answer. Nigella's Ultimate Christmas Pudding uses suet as this is the traditional ingredient. Vegetarians could use vegetarian suet, which is available in many UK supermarkets. Outside the UK suet can be difficult to find and vegetable shortening is the best alternative.

Suet is the essential fat in many British puddings, both sweet and savoury, as well as stuffings and dumplings, mincemeat at Christmastime and – of – course suet pastry. It makes some of my most favourite British foods. It's role is to enrich and lubricate mixtures, producing a good crust in steamed suet puddings.

Fresh suet has a mild, bland taste, a slightly meaty smell, and a dry, crumbly texture. When it's incorporated into sweet dishes—what the British call "puddings"— it imparts a distinct richness yet somehow avoids making them taste like beef.

The pudding will not be particularly dark in colour after the first steaming but darkens on the second steaming. If you cooked the pudding in a slow cooker then sometimes the temperature isn't high enough to fully melt the suet and you should do the second steaming in the regular way.

Traditionally, suet is made of rendered beef fat, though other fats, including vegetable fat, can be used. Bird-friendly goodies, such as seeds, nuts, nut butter, cracked corn or corn meal, oats, dried fruit, and/or mealworms are mixed with the fat to add nutrition and appeal.

If you can't find suet then we have found that grated vegetable shortening (such as Trex, Crisco or Copha) is a good substitute. To grate the shortening firstly freeze a stick or block of it until firm but not solid (this usually takes about 30 minutes).

A suet pudding is a boiled, steamed or baked pudding made with wheat flour and suet (raw, hard fat of beef or mutton found around the kidneys), often with breadcrumb, dried fruits such as raisins, other preserved fruits, and spices.

To test if the pudding's cooked, pierce the foil and paper with a skewer and wiggle it to make the hole bigger, or it will be wiped clean of any mixture when you pull it out.

Suet is a type of saturated fat that home cooks use to add moisture to sweet and savory dishes. Suet has a crumbly texture and stays solid at room temperature, so it can result in a less-greasy pie crust than butter would yield.

Suet pudding is a traditional British dish made from a batter featuring beef or mutton fat instead of butter. It can be savory—as in the case of steak and kidney pudding—but is often sweet.

Is lard the same as suet? ›

Is lard and suet the same thing? - Quora. Lard is rendered pig fat and suet is cow or sheep produced fat. Suet is a hard fat surrounding the kidney and loins. Lard is from the semi soft white fat of a pig.

Raw suet turns rancid quickly in warm weather. It melts when the temperature rises above 70 degrees and might stick to birds' feathers. Gooey feathers are dangerous, so raw suet should be served only during the colder months. Cornmeal and peanut butter can also go rancid quicker, Ken says.

Superstitions say that Christmas pudding must be prepared with 13 ingredients, which are said to represent Jesus and his twelve disciples. It is also said that the mixture should be stirred in turn from east to west, by each family member, to honour the disciples' journey.

We would also mention that after the first steaming the pudding may look a little lighter in colour than you may expect. On the second steaming the pudding will darken in colour. As it re-heats it will also become slightly softer in texture and should be easy to cut once it has been turned out from its basin.

If it gets hotter than 89 °C, the sugars within the fruits in the pudding start to caramelise. So no matter how luxurious its ingredients are, your precious pud will taste bitter. The best tool for checking your Christmas pudding is perfectly cooked is an instant-read food thermometer like the Thermapen ONE.

Traditionally, these ingredients include: raisins, currants, suet, brown sugar, breadcrumbs, citron, lemon peel, orange peel, flour, mixed spices, eggs, milk and brandy. Brandy is also traditionally poured over the pudding and set alight. The flaming brandy is said to represent the passion of Christ.

Although mincemeat no longer actually contains meat (thank god), the word recalls its origins as a meat dish. Back in the days of yore, meat was a fundamental ingredient within Christmas pud. Pudding or 'pottage' would consist of meat broth, spices, dried fruit and breadcrumbs.

Though in older times the choice was more to do with economy, breadcrumbs give the pudding a much lighter texture. And again, use just enough flour to hold the mixture gently together. Not too many eggs, and more egg yolk that white if you can.