by Eda Payne
Mary Murphy’s Christmas Pudding
Christmas this year in Adelaide will be different for me having returned from a whirlwind visit to London and Edenderry, seeing old friends, meeting up with siblings and organising a cousins get-together. I loved the opportunity to show my children and grandchildren where I grew up in Edenderry.
We realised that we would not be celebrating Christmas together this year as my grandson and his partner are living in London on a temporary basis, hopefully not longer than three years. It will be the first year I won’t see both my grandsons together at Christmas time.
As I was growing up in Edenderry, near Tullamore, in Ireland, my mother always made a Christmas pudding. The smells of the pudding, wrapped in cloth, pervaded the house with the scent of Christmas approaching. She never neglected to put a fat lighted candle on the front window ledge to welcome travellers.
In 1954, my family joined the mass exodus to London. We continued the traditions we brought with us with the addition of a Christmas tree but dropped the lighted candle on the windowsill.
Then in 1959, I was made aware of an opportunity to visit Australia for 2 years at a cost of ten pounds! I had an aunt there with her husband and 12-year-old daughter. My uncle was a chef and made the best Christmas pudding I had ever tasted. He cooked it in a bowl rather than a cloth and made it big enough for an extra family of three to join us.
In Adelaide I met my future husband. When we got married in 1962, his mother passed on to me a copy of ‘Mary Murphy’s Christmas pudding recipe’. Mary Murphy was Brian’s great, great grandmother who had survived the famine years by working in one of the great houses owned by the English landlords of the time.
Unfortunately, as we always had Christmas at my mother in law’s, I didn’t get the opportunity of making a Christmas pudding myself. It took a few years before I got the chance of making MY Christmas pudding. I followed my uncle’s idea of making it in a bowl. The smell of it cooking brought back so many memories from childhood.
When our children arrived, they, one by one, learned the art of Christmas pudding making. In turn their children were indoctrinated and now at the ages of twenty-two and nearly twenty, my grandsons are accomplished Christmas pudding makers. As little people they had helped, but they now are the makers and cooks. This year is different, though, with one grandson living in London.
On returning to London from visiting my home in Edenderry with my siblings, thoughts turned to our youth and Christmas traditions. The question arose quite spontaneously about the making of the Christmas pudding, and we decided to make it in London before the Australian part of the family returned to Oz.
The reunited cousins came with me to buy the ingredients from a bulk food shop very close to where we were living. Coincidentally, the woman who served us came from Sydney, and her boss was from Adelaide.
On our return to our house in London. the exact ingredients were measured out, but only a quarter of the recipe was needed. I supervised, but it was not necessary. This hallowed treasure has been handed down from my husband’s great grandmother to our children and, and now our grandchildren were the chefs. I must confess that when 16 eggs were called for, I allowed 20 to cover the spillage! Shards of egg shells had to be taken care of also. They are now 22 and nearly 20 but still young people, and very enthusiastic. I am confident now, though, that London and Adelaide can do justice to ‘Mary Murphy’s Christmas pudding recipe’.
The ingredients are as follows:
1 kg dark brown sugar
1 kg raisins
1 kg currants
1 kg sultanas
500 grams mixed peel including dried apricots and glazed cherries
500 grams almonds
16 eggs
1 kg butter
2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon2 tsp mixed spice
2 tsp ground cloves
6 cups self-raising flour
2 tsp salt
6 cups bread crumbs
As far as I am concerned, they can all go in together.
Divide between the number of bowls you can fill. Cover with greaseproof paper, damp down, then cover with foil and tie down, making sure the cover is waterproof. An average size pudding takes one and a half hours to cook, and can be stored, when cooked, literally for years!
Eda Payne is a retired teacher living in Adelaide. She is a regular contributor of poetry and prose to Tinteán.
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