Steaming Christmas Pudding

kah22

I’ll be making a number of Christmas puddings this weekend. They will be in those little plastic jars with the snap on lids.

For steaming purposes; rather than steaming the traditional way i.e. covering the top with foil and tie a piece of string around the foil can you just put the plastic cap on, or would that be to tight? Or maybe it would pop off during the steaming?

Thanks for any advice you can offer

Kevin

Robin9

Expect the plastic lid to blow off and your kitchen/oven/microwave to be splattered

My mother used to put hers in a saucepan of boiling water - muslin cloth on the top, tied down with string.

CapricornLass

Hi, if you are talking about those white plastic pudding basins with a lid, then yes, you can use the plastic lids - I've been doing that for years. The lid has to be tight fitting and snapped on properly. I found that water condensed on the foil and dripped onto the pudding if I just used a foil lid and string.

Incidentally, I use my slow cooker for steaming my puddings, although its shape means I can only do one pudding at a time. The other method I found useful was to do them in the oven, especially when I had a lot of puddings to do. Put the puddings in a roasting tin, add enough boiling water to half fill the tray, and then cover very tightly with foil. Put into a preheated oven, 160 degrees/140 fan (sorry, no idea what that translates to in gas settings!) Check every 2-3 hours, and top up the boiling water as required.



I don't know about other containers, but I would check that they are capable of standing up to being boiled before you start. If they don't, then I would considering buying foil pudding basin containers in the supermarket and using them instead.

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Put in pot bowl. Cover pudding with grease proof paper. Over bowl with foil. My pud takes 8 hours to steam.

Never nuke them in the microwave. The grease proof paper grows with the pudd. When done. Remove foil and grease proof paper. Recover with new grease proof paper and bowl with foil.

Well_Preserved

Slow cooker for me, too. Though as you say it's a slight disadvantage only being able todo one at a time - but so easy I can do it overnight, just checking water levels before bed & again in the morning if necessary.

Lance_De_Boils

Robin9 wrote: »

Expect the plastic lid to blow off and your kitchen/oven/microwave to be splattered

My mother used to put hers in a saucepan of boiling water - muslim on the top, tied down with string.

You might want to edit your post before the mods delete it.:rotfl:

kah22

CapricornLass wrote: »

Hi, if you are talking about those white plastic pudding basins with a lid, then yes, you can use the plastic lids - I've been doing that for years. The lid has to be tight fitting and snapped on properly. I found that water condensed on the foil and dripped onto the pudding if I just used a foil lid and string.

Incidentally, I use my slow cooker for steaming my puddings, although its shape means I can only do one pudding at a time. The other method I found useful was to do them in the oven, especially when I had a lot of puddings to do. Put the puddings in a roasting tin, add enough boiling water to half fill the tray, and then cover very tightly with foil. Put into a preheated oven, 160 degrees/140 fan (sorry, no idea what that translates to in gas settings!) Check every 2-3 hours, and top up the boiling water as required. .

Just to clarify. Regarding steaming in the oven. Are you talking about the plastic tubs with lids on them? If yes I assume it’s still 7 hours or should I increase or decrease the timings?

Kevin

Savvy_Sue

CapricornLass wrote: »

The other method I found useful was to do them in the oven, especially when I had a lot of puddings to do. Put the puddings in a roasting tin, add enough boiling water to half fill the tray, and then cover very tightly with foil. Put into a preheated oven, 160 degrees/140 fan (sorry, no idea what that translates to in gas settings!) Check every 2-3 hours, and top up the boiling water as required.

kah22 wrote: »

Just to clarify. Regarding steaming in the oven. Are you talking about the plastic tubs with lids on them? If yes I assume it’s still 7 hours or should I increase or decrease the timings?

MIL used to do hers in the oven overnight. Can't tell you about temperatures.

kah22

After reading CapricornLass post I thought I’d try to steam in the oven this year as I need to do four puddings

However, looking at the bottom of the bowls it says ‘not for oven use.’ So I suppose that’s that hit on the head

Kevin

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Just nuke the things and give us a picture of the carnage.