In article >,
Kate Dicey > wrote:

> JP Coane wrote:
>
> > Please tell me this site is a joke.
>
> Why should it be a joke? The recipes are all genuine (if a little
> ordinary). The history bit is rather too well condensed to remain
> really accurate, but if you look at a few food histories, it has the
> bones of truth in there.
>
> Here in the UK steamed and boiled suet and other puddings, both sweet
> and savoury, are a tradition that go back to the Dark Ages and beyond.

Unless you are talking about Apicius, I don't think we know much about
recipes in the UK earlier than the early medieval (aka "Dark Ages")
period.

The page says:

"Christmas puddings originated as a fourteenth century 'porridge' called
frumenty. They were made of cereal, breadcrumbs, mutton and beef with
raisins, wines, prunes, currants and spices. they were stuffed in
sausage skins, enclosed in a pastry and baked."

1. Frumenty, at least the recipes I am familiar with, isn't made of
"mutton and beef," it is served with the meat.

2. So far as I know it didn't have breadcrumbs

3. Nor prunes and currants

4. But did have eggs and milk (or almond milk)

5. And wasn't stuffed in a sausage skin, enclosed in a pastry and baked.

"It was eaten as a fasting dish before the Chrismas festivities."

Not if it was made out of mutton and beef, as the page just (mistakenly)
asserted.

So far as I know, the link between frumenty and Christmas pudding is
invented--does anyone here have evidence for it?

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