“Ah” sighed my mother as she finished the last spoon of our Christmas pudding “ This reminds me of the time just before you were born, when I made our first Christmas pudding”
It was November 1956, in post-war Sheffield. Pea-souper smogs were still common. A young German wife, Rose, and her British army husband 'Lofty' were expecting their first baby, living under the shadow of the university in a small mid-terrace house. With hardly a penny to their name, it was a house full of fun and laughter. The younger sister, barely 18, but trained in child care, had come over from Germany to help and keep Rose company in a foreign land.
Christmas was but a month away and Rose had read in a woman's magazine about the famous British Christmas Pudding! Furthermore, this was going to be the first time with the in-laws. The decision was made – we'll make our own!
Following the recipe to the letter, the shopping was done and huge mounds of dried fruit, carrots, apples, suet, flour, treacle and spice went into the largest bowl that could be found in the kitchen. As the only coal fire in the house was in the living room, Rose and her sister set to work there. It looked as if it was going to be a big pudding, a very big pudding – in fact a gargantuan pudding!
The pudding was covered as it now had to rest for the night. The result of all this hard work was proudly displayed to Lofty when he came back home in the evening.
All the excitement and effort had the effect of inducing another kind of labour. Rose, nine months pregnant, and Lofty had to take an unexpected walk to the maternity hospital at 2 am, on a cold winter's night. After an exhausting 22 hour labour, I was born, a 9lb giant of a baby!
Rose's young sister was now increasingly worried, not only for her sister and the baby – but the pudding mixture had been left for longer than overnight. Would all their work be for naught? As her English was not up to understanding the recipe herself, she brought it along to the very first visit of the new mother and her baby. Together, they pored over the recipe, line by line. They discovered that they had overlooked a minor detail –
The recipe was for 22 puddings!
So poor Rose's sister had to return home, carefully form all the puddings in any cloths that she could find and steam them for the rest of the day.
The puddings were a triumphant success! Having been prepared so well in advance they became their appreciated presents for all the family, both in England and Germany – arriving by post, train and boat in time for Christmas 1956.
No comments:
Post a Comment