PERFECT PLUM PUDDING: THE SIGNATURE BRITISH DISH IS ALSO A CLASSIC CHRISTMAS DESSERT

This is the time of year when security scanners at British airports are overworked. That's because they cannot differentiate between terrorist weapons and that staple of the English Christmas dinner, plum pudding.

Plum puddings have what officials refer to as "unusual density," just the thing security monitors are designed to detect. Consequently, during the holiday season hundreds of British travelers heading off with puddings packed in their suitcases are stopped to have their luggage searched.

The inconvenience, it seems to me, is a small price to pay for this concoction, which has become virtually synonymous with Christmas. In fact, the "Oxford Companion to Food" contains no entry for plum pudding, but an entire article on the subject under the heading "Christmas Pudding." The first recorded use of that term, by the way, was in an Anthony Trollope novel published in 1858, not in Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," written 15 years earlier. Clearly, however, Dickens was thinking of the same thing when he had Bob Cratchit observe that the plum pudding served at the family's holiday dinner was "the greatest success achieved by Mrs. Cratchit since their marriage."

Though Dickens is responsible for shaping our current perceptions of what Christmas celebrations should be, the Christmas or plum pudding goes back much further than his era.

Plum pudding is descended from an ancient dish called plum pottage, a combination of chopped beef or mutton, root vegetables and dried fruit, thickened with breadcrumbs and flavored with wine and spices, probably cooked in a sheep's stomach or some similar container. (The invention of the pudding cloth would come later.) One story suggests it was introduced to England by a conquering Danish king in the 10th century. Another claims it was served at the coronation of William the Conqueror.

Given its ingredients, plum pottage was usually served at the beginning of a meal, but over the years its composition changed. Meat and vegetables were left out in favor of more dried fruit and it came to be the dessert we know today. Traces of its origins can still be found in the beef suet called for in traditional recipes for plum pudding and the token carrot specified even in many contemporary recipes. As new forms of dried fruit were introduced to England they came to supplant the plums in plum pudding even though the term "plum" remained. Some authorities claim that true plum pudding never contained plums, but in any case, most modern recipes do not. Additionally, plum pudding is more akin to cake than pudding. (The British call most any dessert a pudding.) Indeed, fruitcake is a direct derivative.

The first recipe for modern plum pudding appeared in "Le Viander," among the earliest works printed by Gutenberg. It was written by Taillevent, personal cook to King Charles V, who, in response to the king's request for a "new and exciting sweet course," prepared plum pudding for the royal Christmas party in 1375. Thus were added two more ironies to a dessert already rich in culinary contradictions. Not really pudding and usually devoid of plums, the quintessential English Christmas dessert was perfected by a Frenchman born of Jewish parents.

But despite an attempt by Oliver Cromwell to ban it, the British have made plum pudding their signature holiday dish and devised a variety of related traditions to bolster its status as the ultimate Yuletide sweet. For example, one custom involves baking tiny good luck charms into the pudding. Another is the practice of having every member of the house participate in the stirring of the pudding while making a wish. Stirring must always be done counterclockwise, the direction of the Magi's journey. And, finally, the pudding is typically adorned with a sprig of holly and brought to the table flaming.

In 1748 a Swedish visitor to England remarked, "The art of cooking as practised by Englishmen does not extend much beyond roast beef and plum pudding." That's no longer true, but even so, this time of year who would want anything more?

Last Minute Christmas Pudding

It's never too early to make a plum pudding because it improves with age. I found one recipe that even encourages starting a year in advance. But this recipe, adapted from Britain's leading food magazine, Good Food, can be made on the same day you serve it.

Ingredients:

13 cup glace cherries, quartered

34 cup mixed dried fruits

34 cup chopped figs

23 cup dried apricots, chopped

23 cup pitted prunes, chopped

2 tablespoons brandy

3 tablespoons port wine

grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

grated zest and juice of 1 orange

1 stick butter

23 cup brown sugar

14 cup chopped almonds

2 eggs, beaten

1 apple, peeled and diced

10 tablespoons self-rising flour

12 teaspoon ginger

12 teaspoon nutmeg

12 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon allspice

112 cups fresh breadcrumbs

Directions:

Put fruits, liquors, zests, juices, butter and sugar in a saucepan, boil until butter melts, and simmer uncovered for five minutes. Cool slightly and stir in almonds, eggs and apple. Stir in flour and spices. Add breadcrumbs and mix well. Spoon into greased one-quart mold and cover with a double thickness of wax paper, pleated in the center. Tie down with string and overwrap with aluminum foil. Steam for three hours in a covered pan of simmering water. (A crockpot is ideal for this.) Serve warm with whipped cream or hard sauce.

Cranberry, Orange, and White Chocolate Christmas Pudding

This contemporary take on Christmas pudding is not as heavy as its plum counterpart, but it's every bit as festive. You can serve it with whipped cream or a coulis made of cranberry sauce thinned with orange juice and strained. The recipe is adapted from one by cookbook author Elinor Klivans.

Ingredients:

114 cups flour

112 teaspoons baking powder

12 teaspoon salt

1 stick butter

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon orange liqueur

1 cup white chocolate chips

13 cup orange marmalade

1 cup cranberries

Directions:

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well. Melt white chocolate and mix in along with vanilla and liqueur. Combine flour, baking powder and salt and add, mixing until just incorporated. Chop cranberries and stir in along with marmalade. Pour batter into two-quart mold greased and dusted with powdered sugar and cover tightly with foil. Steam for two hours in a covered pan of simmering water until tester comes out clean. (A crockpot is ideal for this.) Cool 10 minutes before unmolding. Serve warm.

Listen to A Harte Appetite every Saturday at 11:59 a.m. following "Whad'ya Know" on KRCU, 90.9 on your FM dial. Write A Harte Appetite, c/o The Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699 or by e-mail to tharte@semovm.semo.edu.

Tom Harte is a professor at Southeast Missouri State University and writes a food column every other week for the Southeast Missourian.