MovieChat Forums > Murder, She Baked: A Plum Pudding Mystery (2015) Discussion > Not How You Make a Plum Pudding

Not How You Make a Plum Pudding

posted 8 years ago by tehart
5 replies | jump to latest

The movie shows the plum pudding as a custardy type of thing. In reality a plum pudding is more of a cake like affair. It is made up of bread crumbs, fruit, including apples, raisins, currants, prunes (plums), suet, and other good stuff. It is made up about a month before Christmas, and stored in the fridge. It should be seasoned with a little brandy or rum. On Christmas day you add some eggs, a little Guiness, and steam it for six hours in a plum pudding mold. You can flame it with a little brandy and sugar. Serve with brandy butter.

It sounds terribly alcoholic, but the alcohol is boiled off, and if it's flamed, the alcohol is literally burned off.

I used the recipe in the original Larousse Gastronomique for many years, but ultimately I was the only one left to eat it, so now I just buy one in the store.

[–] Mystery-Moon 8 years ago

No, it's just not how YOU make your own version of plum pudding. I've seen dozens and dozens of recipes for plum pudding, not a single one has ever had Guinness involved in the making of it, nor apple included in it. Some have candied peel [which I find gross], craisins {dried cranberries, again not appealing], cognac for the boozy bit. Only a handful actually had prunes or prune pulp in it. There's traditional recipes handed down through families and newer ones tweaked for a more modern taste. There's really no one way to do a plum pudding.

Also found this in searching for various plum pudding recipes:

Plum pudding is a steamed or boiled pudding frequently served at holiday times. Plum pudding has never contained plums. The name Christmas pudding is first recorded in 1858 in a novel by Anthony Trollope.

Why is Plum Pudding called Plum Pudding when there are no plums in it? In the 17th century, plums referred to raisins or other fruits. Plumb is another spelling of plum. Prune is actually derived from the same word as plum - the Latin word was pruna, which changed in the Germanic languages into pluma. But the terms were quite confused in the 16th and 17th centuries and people talked about growing prunes in their garden.

[–] tehart 8 years ago

If you had read carefully you would have seen that the recipe I used was from Larousse Gastronomique, This is the original English language edition, not the current updates. The recipe states that prunes (dried plums) are optional. It also states that the prunes make for a richer recipe. Consequently I always used them.

The movie showed the puddings as custardy type things, much like Jello chocolate pudding. As both you and I noted a pudding, in English cookery, is steamed, which I don't think you can do with custardy concoctions.

Larousse suggests adding stout, and Guiness is a stout. During the '60s or '70s it was probably the most widely available stout.

This is the 2nd or 3rd recipe that comes up when you Google "plum pudding larousse gastronomique," which is what you should have done instead of writing an arrogant reply.

http://www.bigoven.com/recipe/traditional-plum-pudding-pt-1/24144

[–] acornbtd-488-468227 7 years ago

No, it's just not how YOU make your own version of plum pudding. I've seen dozens and dozens of recipes for plum pudding, not a single one has ever had Guinness involved in the making of it, nor apple included in

There are MANY recipes that include apples in this pudding as well as the stout. Agreed there are many variations, but the original poster is correct. Cooking and baking is a passion of mine and I am very familiar with this as I have made it dozens of times.

[–] karla-r-lehman 8 years ago

The movie does not do the book justice at all with an explanation as to the name plum pudding. It is all about Hannah wanting to make something different than the orginal. It goes into some detail and Hannnah agrees it should not be plum pudding, but instead calls it Minnesota Plum Pudding.

In the book it is still more of a cake than a pudding.

Also Hannah has curly red sometimes frizzy hair. Struggles with Her weight and is not at all fashionable,

[–] jozielee 8 years ago

Hannah wanting to make something different than the orginal.

In the voiceover Hannah (Alison Sweeney) explains that a good baker starts with a basic recipe then changes the ingredients to make a recipe her own.