(cont)

Produced in batches of 120lb, Tony and his team use strong bread flour from local wheat, local eggs, a little salt and breadcrumbs from their own white loaves. Unique to a Pockingtons pudding is the use of vegetable suet rather than the margarine or butter found in commercial products. This, together with the industrial mixers used in the bakery blending air into the mixture results in a lighter pudding, with almond essence an ingredient addition to the bakery’s recipe.
Freshly chopped apples and grated carrots, plus dates and mixed peel are added, along with raisins and sultanas – many people use cherries in their Christmas puddings, but Pocklingtons choose to eschew the ingredient, along with currents, which Tony frowns upon; “They’ve a really bitter taste, not good at all.” He says.

With the first ingredients folded together with as much air as possible and almost 50lb of fruit added per 120lb batch, it was time to add two pints of milk and the mixture’s alcohol – four cans of Guinness stout and a liberal splash of brandy. A Pocklington tip is to use brandy essence in addition to the Napoleon brandy itself – since steaming the pudding causes the brandy to evaporate, the use of essence too preserves the flavour.

Once the mixture was divided into our individual puddings, and with around 120 individual puddings made per batch, Pocklingtons steam their puddings for over eight hours.

“Steaming Christmas puddings slowly is the best way to cook them.” Says Tony. “Baking is too harsh, and because we steam ours slowly over such a long period and by sealing them they’re sterile when they come out of the steamer and are especially suited to being left either for a couple of months leading up to Christmas, or for a year or two to mature.”

Upon collecting our puddings the following day, and having been urged by Tony to compare Pocklingtons’ lighter puddings to their darker, mass produced contemporaries, we agreed with Tony’s assertion that Pocklingons’ puddings’ lighter texture and less stodgy appeal, plus their flavour were much easier going, and much more enjoyable after the average Christmas lunch which is a pretty heavy going affair anyway.

With the best ingredients, the artisan production of the producer’s star product at this time of year plus a long, slow cooking process, we could hardly come to any conclusion but to say that a Pocklington’s