Chef's Table

Chef’s Table
An old-fashioned holiday

One of my holiday favorites each year is Christmas plum pudding, an old-fashioned, steamed plum pudding with hard sauce. This is a traditional favorite that my wife makes each year shortly after Thanksgiving. She cures it with brandy for several weeks then serves it after our Christmas meal. The recipe has been handed down through several generations and tweaked just a bit along the way. I am really big on traditions.

One of the components of the family recipe is ground suet, which is the solid white fat found around the kidneys and loins of beef, sheep and other animals. Suet is traditionally used in British cooking, particularly in dumplings, mince meat pies, suet puddings and some pastries. We order the suet from our butcher. There are vegetable versions available now that are made from oils such as palm oil and are usually combined with rice flour, which can be directly substituted for the animal fat version in recipes. However, if you’re a traditionalist or in the meat biz, like we are, you need to use suet to get that special combination of flavors.

I know suet may not seem like the healthiest of choices, but I believe strongly in a couple of ideals I will share. One is tradition. I believe it is essential for one generation to pass along some living knowledge of our past, a common thread to our heritage, and what makes us all unique. Secondly, everything in moderation and nothing in excess seems to strike a harmonious balance for me. So a little suet (and brandy) is just fine. A couple of brisk walks will help it get through the arteries, I hope!

Another tradition: Each Christmas Eve we gather as a family, along with our extended family of friends, to celebrate the joys of the season with the traditional, and not so traditional, Italian seven fish. I have great memories of my mom, aunts and grandmother cooking for days before the big event. So now we prepare the seven (it usually turns into 10 to 12) fish that night. I won't belabor the religious significance of this, merely that it is one of our family’s favorite evenings! It’s something from our childhoods, like the plum pudding, to pass along to our children.
I sincerely hope you consider making and keeping some of your traditions this season with your families. Of course, ours seem to always revolve around food. Please share your holiday tradition with us. Happy Holidays to all.

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