Non-Alcoholic Christmas Pudding, An Almost Authentic Regency Dessert

I am at the absolute most amazing place in the world. It's just a lakehouse, at the northern corner of Utah, but the people I am with are some of my favorite people in the world. I am at writing retreat with my critique group, four other amazing women (and a baby) who write Regency romance.

One of these women is an expert Regency researcher, and incredibly talented to boot, and last night (when I should've posted this) she recreated several Regency dishes for us.

For dessert, she made one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten - a recreation of a Regency Christmas Pudding.

First, for those newest to the concept, it is not a pudding in the way Americans now think of pudding. There is no J-ELLO involved.

First, I must give full credit to the person who took this recipe and made it her own, Arlem Hawks. If you want to follow her on Instagram, she does so many amazing things - sews Regency dresses, celebrates British holidays with her family, paints, and bakes French and English cuisine.

Isn't it the most lovely thing you've ever seen? Those are sugared cranberries on top. She SOAKED them in sugar syrup for almost 24 hours and they were delicious. 

On to the recipe - which you can make in an Instapot, believe it or not!

Ingredients:

2/3 cups breadcrumbs

1/4 cup + 3 tsp self-rising flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

2/3 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp of nutmeg

1/2 tsp of cinnamon 

2/3 cup dark brown sugar

2/3 cup raisins

2/3 cup golden raisins

2 Tbl apricots, dried

2 Tbl almonds

1 Small apple

zest of 1 lemon

zest of 1 orange

2 eggs

1/4 cup ginger ale

1 Tble orange juice

Butter to grease the pan

Orange Sauce Ingredients:

1/3 cup butter

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup orange juice

Mix dry ingredients, dried fruit, nuts, apple, zest.

In another bowl, combine eggs, ginger ale, orange juice, and whisk everything together. 

Fold together. Cover and chill overnight. 

Next day, butter your pan! Press pudding in, cover with parchment and foil, tie with a baking string. 

Steam in your instapot for 15 minutes - NOT pressure cook! Then steam on low pressure for 1 hour. 

Steam 30 minutes before serving. :-) 

Combine orange sauce ingredients in sauce pan, melt everything together on low heat. Then drizzle over individual servings of pudding. 

This recipe served five hungry authors, with a nice big piece left over. 

Again, this recipe was created by Arlem Hawks, who everyone should keep an eye on. 

I'm Sally Britton, and my Regency novels are so much fun. Please check them out - they're all stand-alone romances and you can find them here!

Supper at a Regency Ball by Jenna Jaxon

In writing the next Regency in my Handful of Hearts series, I ended up having to research the suppers that were held at a ball. I made mention that Lady Hamilton’s suppers were “legendary,” so I had to do lots of research to find out what the norm was and then to top that.

Suppers at a ball were much more elaborate than a supper at a private party would be. At a ball everything must be breathtaking and perfect as it could possibly be, so hostesses would do everything possible to make their suppers elegant and unforgettable. The tables would be laid to exact specifications with the best china, silverware, and crystal being polished to blinding brightness.

Regency party goers made sure to eat dinner before leaving the house for the ball because supper at a ball could begin anywhere from 10:00 pm

until 2:00am. The guests would have spent several hours either dancing or playing cards non-stop, so that some form of sustenance was certainly necessary. There are newspaper accounts that report one supper not beginning until 3:30 in the morning: “At half-past three o’clock the company sat down to a sumptuous banquet, the viands and wines being of the first description, with a desert of ices, strawberries, cherries, and grapes by Mr Gunter.”

The bill of fare could be long and varied, depending on the wealth of the hostess. There were many dishes including white soup, cold meats, vegetables, fish, salads, fresh fruit, with deserts ranging from dry cake (unfrosted, like a pound cake), cheeses, cookies, pies, ices, and trifle. Champagne, white wine, sweet red wine, such as Madeira, coffee, tea, and lemonade might be served.

One of the most important things about supper for a young person on the marriage mart was that whichever gentleman was granted the last dance before supper automatically escorted his partner in to supper and sat with her, waiting on her, gathering dainty bits to tempt her appetite. This also meant the young lady sat with the gentleman and therefore got to talk to her throughout the entire supper. In a society where young ladies had little opportunity to speak to a man alone, this was a huge boon if one was trying to get to know the young lady or gentleman better.

After supper the couples returned to the ball and danced until the wee hours of the morning. Of course, if the young lady had already danced twice with her supper partner, they could not dance together again and so the supper was their final bit of “alone time” for this particular ball.

Eating at midnight or beyond may seem strange to our modern sensibilities, until you think of heading home from a late movie or dancing at a club and grabbing pizza or a burger or ice cream on the way home.

Perhaps Regency suppers weren’t all that far off the mark after all.

Regency Food & Seasons

I recently taught a workshop for the RWA's Beau Monde chapter on Regency Food & Seasons. I was delighted to be awarded for Excellence in Teaching for the workshop. And so here is a bit of information from that workshop.

When talking about the Regency seasons, which includes holidays and seasonal food, we need to keep in mind a couple of things.

The first is that calendars have changed over the ages. We had the Julian Calendar in use from 45 BC on through the 1500's. By the 1500's this calendar was showing problems in not tracking days accurately. From the mid 1500's through 1752, multiple calendars were in place, and different New Years days were around—this is still a headache for historians.

In 1750, an Act of Parliament established the Georgian Calendar which went into effect in 1752. Days were lost and changed around and it took some time for some folks to adopt the new dates.

All of this matters because it affected what celebrations were held—meaning the very important feast days.

A good article on all this can be found here: http://www.cslib.org/CalendarChange.htm

Now, by the Regency, the Georgian Calendar was well into effect. However, do keep in mind that this calendar change happened within living memory of those Georgians—it was only two generations in the past.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the world of the early 1800’s was a highly localized world: this is the era before mass production and well before mass information. This means that local traditions were deeply entrenched—folks in Devon would have a different set of traditions than folks in Yorkshire. Meaning different foods, recipes, and seasonal events.

The unifying force in all tradition, however, was the Church.

This started as “The” Church—the Catholic Church. The Church, in turn, adopted many of the holidays that were part of local pagan celebrations. This was a great conversion tool—it’s often hard to get someone to give up their feast days, so it was often easier to add in a Saint’s Day or set up a feast that could be a sanctioned Church holy day instead of trying to get the locals to give up their fun by disapproval. (Decking the halls with holy is an ancient Celtic tradition that made its way into the Church sanctioned Christmas tradition.)

Celtic and Nordic traditions also influenced Saxon ways and foods (as in pickled fish), which in turn influenced Norman ways. In general, you’ll find more Nordic/Viking influence along coasts of England and along major river ways—places where Viking raids were a regular occurrence. The Welsh, Scottish, and Irish held onto their Celtic influences, so their lands would be places where old Celtic traditions and foods were stronger.

After Henry VIII, the Church of England split from “Popeish” ways. The C of E did not toss out the holy days, but the idea of High Mass was dropped along with other trappings, and religious reform brought in yet a new influence. It also brought in new foods since a number of these Protestants held with plain fare. But traditions—the old ways—are still celebrated: as in the Celtic Holiday of Samhain (pronounced sa-win) became All Saints (or All Hallows, and All Hallows Eve became Halloween)—and with that came the feasts that went with those seasons.

A couple of good calendar of C of E saint’s days and movable feast days are: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_of_saints_%28Church_of_England%29

http://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/worship/texts/the-calendar/holydays.aspx

(For some, it might be easier to look at the C of E calendar as the seasons set up for church celebrations: http://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/worship/texts/the-calendar/seasons.aspx.)

Another good source of information is any Book of Days. For example, the Norwich Book of Days gives holidays and important dates and traditions for Norwich: http://www.amazon.com/Norwich-Book-Days-Carol-Twinch/dp/0752465899/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1352136591&sr=1-12&keywords=%22book+of+days%22

As we go through the workshop, we’ll talk more about other resources, but it’s good to remember that you’ll want to decide on your fictional character’s history; what are their local roots (if they have any), do they have a predisposition for adopting new foods coming into England? Or do they hold with traditional fare?

Always remember this is about research to build characters, and every person is more than an individual—a character has the influence of family, society, upbringing, and all the trappings of their world.