Can I Use Lard For The Ultimate Christmas Pudding?

Our answer

Nigella's Ultimate Christmas Pudding (from Nigella Christmas) is a traditional steamed Christmas pudding. The fat used is suet, which is easy to buy in the UK in shelf-stable form and is convenient as it is sold already shredded. Originally suet came from cows or sheep, but now a vegetable version is also readily available.

We have tried the Ultimate Christmas Pudding with vegetable shortening but not with lard. However, the two can be used interchangeably in most recipes, so we believe that you should be able to use lard. You could also use butter. We suggest putting the lard in the freezer until it is firm enough to grate, then grate on the large holes of a grater, freeze again briefly to let the fat firm up a little and add in step 3, when you would add the suet.