When I was a girl, for Christmas dinner mom served what she called “Plum Pudding“. She purchased it from the grocer. It was such a memorable treat that a few years ago, I thought I’d try to make my own. “No grocery store stuff for this gal!” I said with a sniff.
The outcome was rich and sweet and yummy, but the work involved! That discovery was an epiphany of sorts. Sorry, Mom, I owe you an apology for being a pudding snob.
Mom did make the lemon sauce for the pudding, though. Since then, I’ve learned there are about as many variations of sauce for the Christmas pudding as there are cooks. Our Adelaide Hunter Hoodless offers several recipes in her “Little Red Book.”
PUDDING SAUCES.
Plain Sauce. 1 cup water. 1 tsp. butter. 1/2 ssp. grated nutmeg. 3 tbsps. sugar. 2 tsps. flour or cornstarch. Melt the butter and flour together, stir in the hot water, add the sugar and flavoring, cook until smooth and clear.
Molasses Sauce. 1/2 cup molasses. 1/2 cup water or 1/2 tbsp. vinegar. 2 (l.) tsps. flour. 1/2 cup sugar. 1 tbsp. lemon juice. 1 tbsp. butter. 1/2 ssp. salt. Mix the flour and sugar together. Pour the boiling water upon it. Add the molasses and place on the range. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add the other ingredients; boil up once and serve. (Omit lemon if vinegar is used.)
Cream Sauce. 1 egg. 1 tsp. butter. 1 tsp. cornstarch. 1/2 cup powdered sugar. 1 tsp. vanilla. 1 cup boiling milk. Beat the white of the egg to a stiff froth; then gradually beat into it the powdered sugar and cornstarch. Next add the yolk of the egg and beat well. Pour upon this the cupful of boiling milk and place on the fire. Stir until it boils, then add the butter and vanilla.
Lemon Sauce. 1 tbsp. cornstarch. 1/2 cup sugar. 1 pint boiling water. 1 tbsp. butter. 1 egg. 1 lemon. Beat the egg, add the cornstarch and sugar, stir them well together; add the boiling water gradually and stir over the fire until thick; add the butter, juice and grated rind of one lemon. Serve hot.
Vanilla Sauce. 1 cup milk. 2 (l.) tbsps. sugar. 2 eggs. 1/2 tsp. vanilla. Put the milk on to boil, beat the yolks and sugar till very light; add them to the boiling milk; stir over the fire until creamy. Have the whites beaten, pour over them the boiling mixture; beat thoroughly and serve at once.
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From
PUBLIC SCHOOL DOMESTIC SCIENCE BY MRS. J. HOODLESS, [Adelaide Hunter Hoodless] President School of Domestic Science, Hamilton.This Book may be used as a Text-Book in any High or Public School, if so ordered by a resolution of the Trustees. TORONTO:THE COPP, CLARK COMPANY, LIMITED,1898.
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The idea to form a national group was first considered in 1912. In 1914, however, when the war began the idea was abandoned. At the war’s end, Miss Mary MacIsaac, Superintendent of Alberta Women’s Institute, revived the idea. She realized the importance of organizing the rural women of Canada so they might speak as one voice for needed reforms, and the value of co-ordinating provincial groups for a more consistent organization. In February 1919, representatives of the provinces met in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to form the Federated Women’s Institutes of Canada.