Figgy pudding or fig pudding is any of many medieval Christmas dishes, usually sweet or savory cakes containing honey, fruits and nuts. In later times, rum or other distilled alcohol was often added to enrich the fruitiness of the flavour.
Etymology
Medieval cooking commonly employed
figs in both sweet and savoury dishes.
One such dish is fygey, in the 14th century cookbook ''
The Forme of Cury
''The Forme of Cury'' (''The Method of Cooking'', from Old French , 'cookery') is an extensive 14th-century collection of medieval English recipes. Although the original manuscript is lost, the text appears in nine manuscripts, the most famou ...
''.
The Middle English name had several spellings, including , , , , and . The latter is a 15th-century conflation with a French dish of fish and
curd
Curd is obtained by Denaturation (biochemistry), coagulating milk in a sequential process called curdling. It can be a final dairy product or the first stage in cheesemaking. The coagulation can be caused by adding rennet, a Kefir cheese, ...
s called , meaning "curdled" in
Old French
Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th [2-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...
. But it too came to mean a "figgy" dish, involving cooked figs, boiled in wine or otherwise. A turn of the 15th century herbal has a recipe for figee:
has the recipe under the name "fignade" on page 42. Richard Warner's has it under the name "fyge to potage". ''Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management'' contains two different recipes for fig pudding that use
suet
Suet ( ) is the raw, hard fat of beef, lamb or mutton found around the loins and kidneys.
Suet has a melting point of between and solidification (or congelation) between . Its high smoke point makes it ideal for deep frying and pastr ...
, numbers 1275 and 1276.
In popular culture
Often associated with the original traditions of Christmas, it is most notably referred to in the
Christmas carol
A Christmas carol is a Carol (music), carol on the theme of Christmas, traditionally sung at Christmas itself or during the surrounding Christmas and holiday season. The term noel has sometimes been used, especially for carols of French or ...
"
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
"We Wish You a Merry Christmas" is an English Christmas carol, listed as numbers 230 and 9681 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The famous version of the carol is from the English West Country.
Popular version
The Bristol-based composer, conductor ...
" in the lines "Now bring us some figgy pudding," "We all love our figgy pudding," and "We won't go until we get some!" Figgy pudding is not
plum pudding, although it can be considered a precursor to it. It is not as rich, nor as complex in its recipe.
See also
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Figgy duff (pudding)
Figgy duff is a traditional bag pudding from the province of Newfoundland and Labrador most commonly served as a part of a Jiggs dinner. It is sometimes called a raisin duff. The word 'Figgy' (or figgie) is an old Cornish term for raisin; perha ...
*
Christmas pudding
Christmas pudding is sweet, boiled or steamed pudding traditionally served as part of Christmas dinner in Great Britain, Britain and other countries to which the tradition has been exported. It has its origins in England in the Middle Ages, me ...
References
Cross-reference
Reference bibliography
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{{cookbook, Figgy Pudding
British puddings
Fig dishes
Christmas food
Foods with alcoholic drinks