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[The Blog of Phileas Fogg: 1883 onwards] December 11th 1885

From: Harry Hayfield <harryhayfield~at~googlemail.com>
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:28:27 -0800 (PST)
To: jvf~at~gilead.org.il

Today was going to be decorations day, but a slight emergency this
morning put paid to that. I don't know if I mentioned this earlier or
not, but when we bought Westwood Hall we also became owners of the land
and as you might expect we picked up a few tenant farmers. And as none
of us have the first idea about farming, we decided from the start that
we would be as gracious and welcoming as possible (and as a result we
are all very friendly with them and they know that if they have a
problem they can ask us for help).

Which is why at a little after half past nine this morning, there was
an almighty hammering at the front door and when Passepartout opened
it, in dashed Mr. Woolman (one of the tenant farmers) in a right state.
After offering a little brandy to soothe his nerves, he managed to
explain that the frame his butter churn was held in had broken and he
wanted to know if we had a spare one as his family was coming to stay
over Christmas and he had the right amount of cream. After a little
thought, I said "You are looking, am I right, for something that can
shake a barrel of cream very quickly and for a long time?". Mr. Woolman
nodded. "WILLIAM" I shouted, "MR. WOOLMAN NEEDS YOUR ASSISTANCE!" and
explained that William would do a much better job than any churner.

That, however, left us a person short so my wife decided on making the
Christmas pudding. Now, I know that some people say that Christmas
puddings should be made a year in advance and that we only made ours a
fortnight or so ahead, but how many of those people know a time
traveller? So, what's in our pudding? Well, the first time we made a
pudding in 1872, it was to the Reform Club's recipe. Our first true
Fogg pudding was in 1873 and over the years we've adjusted it as we
felt fit, and settled on the following ingredients in 1882.

1lb shredded beef suet, 8oz flour, 8oz breadcrumbs, 8oz sugar, 1lb
raisins, 1lb currants, a large pinch freshly grated nutmeg, 2 tsp mixed
spice, 4oz chopped candied peel, a pinch of salt, the rind of a lemon 8
eggs which have been beaten and 10½fl oz brandy

The pudding took most of the day to prepare and by the time William had
returned (with a barrel filled with at least 20lbs of butter as a gift
from Mr. Woolman) the pudding was ready for us to take to London on the
23rd and ask the Doctor to age it by a year for us!

--
Posted By Harry Hayfield to The Blog of Phileas Fogg: 1883 onwards on
12/11/2009 11:28:00 PM

Received on Sat 12 Dec 2009 - 01:28:34 IST

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