Steaming a Christmas pudding

Hollydoilly10 and the evidence for your extraordinary statement is what?

How many people rely on Christmas pudding for a significant part of their daily nutritional needs?

I find the best way is in the oven. Pudding in a roasting tin with boiling water (like a bain marie) cover with double layer of aluminium foil, making sure it is sealed round the edges and cook for required time. Hey presto - done! You would be amazed that the same amount of water is still in the tin it just condenses and recycles!!!

I use a slow cooker too. I find that if microwaved the consistency of the pudding is different. I do use the microwave to reheat leftovers though.

I cook the pudding traditionally in a large steaming saucepan but reheat on the day in the slow cooker as it frees up hob space and doesn’t add steam to an already overheated kitchen!

Going to try my slow cooker this year for my pud.
But to be honest I microwave mine, haven’t made them for years. I think if I still made mine I would steam it. Did have a pressure cooker which I used that was great.

You can do it in an ordinary saucepan but do keep an eye on it to prevent boiling dry.

I always used to steam mine, like my Mum always did. Never had enough room on my hob for everything else. Then I realised it can be microwaved in a fraction of the time!

I cook mine in a saucepan with a trivet underneath. But reheat on Christmas Day for 2 minutes in the microwave, perfect. I make enough for 2 years every other year and freeze the spare ones. I love the idea of using a fish kettle. I bought one years ago in a charity shop and have never used it. So 2020 will be it’s christening.

Hi jellybeanjelly,
Like many other posters I use my slow cooker nowadays, though I have used my pressure cooker in the past.
Have you got or can you borrow a deep sided pan for your bigger pud if neither of these options are suitable?

Yes just like gonegirls but about sixty years old. However when we moved one year and couldn’t track it down in the boxes of stuff until after Christmas, her indoors did it in a colonder over the biggest pan, the one we boil the big gammon joint for Christmas in, and that worked fine.

Used to spend hours steaming but now microwave. So quick and easy!

If I buy a ready made one I microwave it, takes less than 5 minutes and no steam. But for cooking from scratch I use an electric steamer. I can remove the basket bases and stack them so the pudding sits in the bottom one. Have had an electric steamer for years and probably use it every day for vegetables. Great when all the family are eating as it frees up hob space.

Now I'll have to stay up until about midnight to make sure the water stays topped up.
Thank you Graham Norton, you helped me to stay awake and turn off the puddings.

Has nobody heard of those new fangled things called microwave ovens?
You could (perhaps) reheat a Christmas pudding in a microwaves but the initial cooking needs to be long slow steaming or simmering.
IMO!

reheat on the day in the slow cooker as it frees up hob space and doesn’t add steam to an already overheated kitchen!
GrAnne me too, you can put it on first thing then forget about it until needed.
Does anyone remember the case of the microwaved Christmas pudding which was done for too long, caught fire and set the rest of the house on fire?

I used to do a lot of steamed puddings when my boys were at home. I always used a saucepan and topped up the water, as I had never heard of steamers then but my Mum used to have something which had holes in the bottom and fitted on top of a saucepan and she just put the saucepan lid on top of that. She had it for years but I’m sure you can get fancier versions now. If she was steaming more than one thing she would improvise using a metal colander on top of a saucepan of water and put the saucepan lid on top. I never thought of steaming in the slow cooker. We don’t really have many puddings now since DH was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and he hates anything with dried fruit in so I just get a small Christmas pud from Aldi and it can be warmed up in the microwave. It doesn’t taste as good as home made ones which were steamed for ages but it is less fuss.

Neilspurgeon0 I see your OH uses the colander method as well.

I use a pressure cooker, but have steamed in a saucepan, standing on an upturned saucer, But make sure you do stand it on something if it's in a plastic basin and keep the water well topped up or you are in danger of basin melting. I did try microwaving once but it came out too hard. Home made ones are so much better than shop bought.

I did try microwaving once but it came out too hard.
I think they tend to be a bit hard and, if done too long, a bit gluey if done in a microwave.

Why did I never think of doing my Christmas Pudding in my Slow Cooker?! What a brilliant idea. Duh! Haven’t made my pud yet, so can try it out this year?

I would never let a microwave anywhere my Xmas puds. The two things just don't belong together. Long and slow all the way, including the reheating on Xmas day.

We use the slow cooker with it resting on a jam jar lid to keep it off the base , put water to about half way. Can be anywhere and for no specific time. Have in the past tried a microwave and it's just not the same as a long slow steam. (Won't have any this year, may be too many syns!!)

Hours in a saucepan taking up hob space, filling the kitchen with steam- or minutes in the micro?

Buy a Slow Cooker 123kitty - doesn't use a hob space, sits somewhere else quietly cooking the pud.

And a steamer for the veg, all in together in layes - boiling destroys the vitamins!

Another vote for the slow cooker method,will use it tomorrow as it's stir it up Sunday so will be making the pudding then!

I don't understand why anyone would steam a Christmas pudding when they are so quick and yummy done in the microwave oven. The recipe in the book that came with mine makes a perfect pudding from scratch. I keep the slow cooker for braising the red cabbage (Christmas Eve), then for mulling the wine or cider on Christmas morning.