"That owes for the most part, of course, to A Christ­mas Car­ol, the novel­la that revived the pub­lic cul­ture of a hol­i­day that had been falling into desue­tude by the mid-nine­teen cen­tu­ry. What­ev­er its lit­er­ary short­com­ings, the book offers a host of mem­o­rable images, not least culi­nary ones: Mrs. Cratchit's pud­ding, for instance, which Dick­ens likens to "a speck­led can­non-ball, so hard and firm, blaz­ing in half or half-a-quar­tern of ignit­ed brandy, and bedight with Christ­mas hol­ly stuck into the top.""
"In the Tast­ing His­to­ry video at the top of the post, host Max Miller teach­es you how to make just such a hol­i­day pud­ding - and indeed a fig­gy one, a con­fec­tion whose name we all rec­og­nize from no less a stan­dard car­ol than "We Wish You a Mer­ry Christ­mas," even if we don't know that pud­ding, in the Vic­to­ri­an sense, refers to a kind of cake."
"The fig­gy pud­ding Miller makes from an orig­i­nal 1845 recipe looks, and seems to taste, more like an alco­hol-soaked ver­sion of the fruit­cakes many of us still receive come Christ­mas­time. Despite its rep­u­ta­tion for lead­en unde­sir­abil­i­ty, rein­forced by decade after decade of John­ny Car­son gags, the fruit­cake has a rich his­to­ry, which Miller reveals in the video just above, and culi­nary strengths beyond its extreme shelf life."
Mid-nineteenth-century revival reshaped English-speaking Christmas customs and created enduring culinary imagery, including a holly-topped, brandy-ignited pudding. A Tastings History video provides a recipe for such a holiday pudding and for a figgy version whose name appears in the carol "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", while explaining that Victorian 'pudding' often meant a kind of cake. The figgy pudding based on an 1845 recipe resembles an alcohol-soaked fruitcake. Fruitcake has a reputation for being heavy and unappealing, yet it possesses a rich history and notable culinary strengths beyond its extreme shelf life. A playlist contains additional Christmas-themed confections.
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