Just as the appearance in the newspaper of the first “Perfect gifts for her” ad heralds the approach of Christmas, so does the perennial question: “Why is it called plum pudding when there are no plums?”

            And just as there is no such thing as the “perfect gift for her,” there is also a probably-never-to-be-resolved solution to the plum question.

            As near as anyone can figure, in medieval times the British made their favourite pies and puddings with plums, which were likely not “plums,” but prunes, which they called plums. They also were known to call plums “prunes.” Prune, of course, is the French word for plum, and both words are derived from the Latin word, prunum. Follow me so far?

            By the 17^th century, as other dried fruits became more readily available, plums/prunes were replaced in recipes by currants and raisins. But the British continued to call the pudding “plum” and in fact, they began to call raisins “plums.” The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives as one definition of plum: “a raisin when used in desserts.”

            By the 19^th century, it would be the exception to find a recipe for plum pudding that did include prunes.

            This is the standard explanation. There is another less promoted theory. One writer suggests that because the dried fruit were “plumped up” in brandy before being added to the mixture, this is where the “plum” in plum pudding stems from.

            And then there is my theory. The original method of making plum pudding was in a cloth bag producing a heavy, dense pudding described as a cannonball. Furthermore, another spelling of plum is “plumb,” from the Latin for lead, as in plumb line. Do you see where I am going with this? Perhaps the “plum” in the pudding referred to its lead-like weight?

Whether or not the pudding ever had plums is often debated. (By the sort of people who really worry about things like that.) Some food historians are certain that there never were any prunes/plums used, but the plum was a very popular fruit in Britain and it seems logical that it would be a common ingredient in their cooking.

            I searched high and low, through all of my cookbooks and the Internet, and could not find a single recipe that used prunes. Until, that is, I looked in what is considered by many to be the food reference bible, Larousse Gastronomique. Here the plum pudding is defined as:

            “A traditional English pudding made with suet, raisins, currants, sultanas, prunes, almonds, spices, and rum.”

            And if that doesn’t cinch the argument, I spoke with Maureen Challonel, who with her husband Anthony, run the bakery at Twin Beaches. She has been working long hours, lovingly preparing her festively wrapped plum puddings.

            Maureen told me that when she was a young girl in Britain, it was traditional to find a “six-penny piece” in the pudding. Finding this meant good luck. Do you think that this is where we got the idea for putting money in birthday cakes?

The recipe she has been using for years came from a reprint of a recipe used in a hotel in Britain, where the chef makes hundreds of these each year for the guests and for retail. It has some unusual ingredients. One of these “unusual” ingredients is prunes. Hah! A real plum pudding. Pureed prunes add to the rich dark colour of her puddings; that and the dark stout. There is a lot of alcohol in Maureen’s puddings. Besides the stout, there is brandy, whisky, rum, and gin.

            The making of plum puddings is a major undertaking. There is a lot of preparation required for the long list of ingredients, which Maureen then allows to “marry” for a week before she finally fills her earthenware bowls and puts them on to steam. On this particular morning, she had put a batch of puddings in at 5AM, and they wouldn’t be done until around 10. 

            I decided that this was one speciality that I would let Maureen keep, and purchased two puddings, one for our own Christmas dinner and one to use as a hostess gift. The six-pence are not included.