Puddings, tradition and magic
The tradition goes that everyone in the household has to stir the Christmas pudding, for good luck, and everyone gets to make a wish. A traditional pudding would have been made weeks ago, but I don’t have anywhere suitable to keep a pudding dry and cool for that long. For some years now, I’ve assembled my pudding on Christmas Eve, or the day before intended consumption, but I keep with the stirring traditions.
Kitchen magic
Grating the apple, first
I am making puddings
With my great grandmother
Who cooked them up
In a copper boiler
Lit in the scullery
That became a kitchen
Long before my birth.
Orange peel, lemon zest
Breadcrumbs, suet.
She was long buried
Before I started making
Festive puddings,
She is with me, each year.
We make puddings for people.
Rum, whiskey, beer, spices,
Dried fruit, not traditional
Fewer currents, more apricot
Stirring for good luck,
A household makes wishes
Spooning hopes into the mix.
Boiling. Great grandmother’s anxiety
Becomes my ease, slow cooker
My friend and accomplice.
Feeding friends, family, futures
Comfort, fruit, sweetness.
Wishes, witchcraft,
Pudding magic
Offerings. Hope.
