Steaming Times For Christmas Puddings

Asked by TheFlyingScotsman. Answered on 3rd May 2016

Full question

Hi Guys, I'm making Nigella's Christmas Pudding using the 2.8 litre basin but wanted to know if there was a general rule of thumb for steaming times using smaller pudding basins. I currently have a 1kg and 500g pudding basins that I would like to use but unsure for how long I steam them for. Any help here would be much appreciated.

Our answer

Nigella's Ultimate Christmas Pudding (from CHRISTMAS) benefits from some matuting time, though this can be just 6 weeks ahead. If you are making the pudding further in advance then you may prefer to freeze the pudding until closer to Christmas itself. The recipe stipulates a 1.7 litre (3 pint/7 cups/1.7 quarts) basin and the steaming time is initially 5 hours, followed by 3 hours for the second steaming, before eating (usually on Christmas day).

However the pudding batter is also enough to fill two smaller basins, one of 1.2 litres (2 pints/5 cups) and one of 600ml (1 pint/2 1/2 cups). These should be fairly close in size for the 1kg and 500g basins mantioned. For these basins we suggest steaming initially for 3 hours, and then for a further 3 hours before eating. As steaming is a very gentle form of cooking it is difficult to overcook the puddings, so the same steaming time for both size basins is fine.