Plum Puddings for Tommy

Extract from Christmas Number of the Lady magazine, quoted in the Dundee Evening Telegraph, 8th December 1914.

PLUM-PUDDINGS FOR SOLDIERS.

I am firmly convinced these wholesome puddings would be what Tommy declares “filling,” and many a housewife could spare the materials to make at least one to send out with her usual parcel of shirts and knitted comforts.  Here is my recipe.  It is a very homely one, but if you boil the pudding for six or seven hours it looks rich and tastes delicious:—Two pounds of bread-crumbs (stale bread being best), one pound of flour, one pound of apples (weighed after peeling and slicing), one pound of chopped suet, half a pound of currants, half a pound of raisins, half a pound of sultanas, a quarter of a pound of candied peel, a level tablespoonful of ground ginger, the juice of a lemon and the minced rind of two, half a pound of Demerara sugar, two ounces of almonds cut into small cubes, and two eggs, sufficient milk to mix.  Mix breadcrumbs, suet, and flour, add the fruit, ginger, chopped peel, and almonds.  The latter ingredient is not strictly necessary, but improves the puddings.  Add the beaten eggs, the juice of the lemon, the sliced apples (remember to cut them thin), the lemon rind, then mix to the ordinary consistency with milk.  Put into small greased moulds, cover with a greased paper, then with a cloth, and boil tor six to eight hours.  Take out of the moulds and tie up in clean, dry, floured cloths.  When sending abroad I pack mine in a cardboard box with thin sides and fill up with shavings of paper.  As they are made in small sizes Tommy will need only to slip them into his pan of boiling water and heat them through.  I am sure our brave boys will bless you if you send a few of these to be added to their ordinary menu, as one recipient wrote, “They are uncommonly good cut in chunks and eaten cold; and you've no idea how hungry a man gets out here.”