Figgy Pudding from 1890: it's not just for Christmas!

Various magazines, websites, and TH-cam publish recipes for figgy pudding every winter holiday season, and a few years ago it came to my attention that a misunderstanding was being perpetuated by the majority of those sources: that figgy pudding is the same thing as plum pudding or Christmas pudding, and that figgy pudding doesn't have any figs in it. The explanation usually given for the discrepancy is either "we don't know why/the answer has been lost to the mists of time" or "they didn't know any better/they were just weird back then". That explanation (also used for plum pudding recipes which, as of the 19th century, don't contain plums or prunes/dried plums) really didn't sit well with me, so I decided to research figgy puddings and plum puddings, back to the earliest recipes that I could find, and see if I could figure out what was going on.
In this video, I summarize the information and make one of my favorite historic recipes for Figgy Pudding, which (surprise!) does have figs in it. Here is the recipe I used:
Fig Pudding.
Time, to boil, four hours.
1/2 lb. bread crumbs
1/2 lb. figs
6 oz. brown sugar
2 eggs
nutmeg to taste
1/4 lb. suet
a little milk
2 oz. flour
The figs and suet to be chopped very fine, and well mixed with the bread-crumbs, flour, sugar, and nutmeg; then stir all the ingredients well together, and add 2 eggs well beaten, and a little milk; press the whole into a buttered mould, tie it over with a thick cloth, and boil it. Serve it with wine sauce or without, as you please.
--from Warne’s _Model Cookery_, ca. 1891.
Here is a translation (into modern English) of the earliest recipe that I could find, for what I believe to be an ancestor of figgy pudding:
Figgy. Take figs, and seethe [boil] them till they be nesh [soft], then bray [grind] them till they be small; then take them up and put them in a pot, and [add] ale to them; then take grated bread, and whole pine nuts, and add them; and let them boil well. When ready to serve, sprinkle with enough powdered cinnamon [to flavor it] and serve it. And if you want to color it in three different colors, you may do it with red sandalwood (a food coloring) [in one part], yellow saffron [in another part], and leave the third part uncolored (i.e. the color of the figs), and sprinkle powdered spices on them, and serve it.
--from HARLEIAN MS. 279. LECHE VYAUNDEZ. ca. 1399-1450.
Further information -
“Fig Bread Pudding from 1907 and the history of Figgy Pudding” the-cup-that-cheers.blogspot....
"Give us some figgy pudding" vichist.blogspot.com/2010/12/g...
"Goode Eats: Bring Us a Figgy Pudding" historicalrecipes.blogspot.com...
"Christmas Pudding: The Historic Interpreter" historicinterpreter.wordpress...
Actual figgy pudding, with figs in it:
“How to make Fig Pudding The Victorian Way -- with Dr. Annie Gray and Kathy Hipperson” • How to Make Fig Puddin...
“Fig Pudding” (a modern recipe) • Figgy Pudding
You make a plum pudding but you call it figgy pudding:
“Figgy Pudding: a Victorian Christmas Tradition” • Figgy Pudding | A Vict...
“How to make Figgy Pudding (it’s surprisingly quite good)" • How to make Figgy Pudd...
“Luxury Christmas Pudding: Figgy Pudding Recipe” • LUXURY CHRISTMAS PUDDI...
Plum Pudding and Christmas Pudding under their own names:
“The Original Christmas Dessert” • The ORIGINAL Christmas...
“How to make Christmas Pudding - The Victorian Way” • How to Make Christmas ...
“The Original Victorian Christmas Pudding Recipe: ‘Food, Glorious Food’: Cooking with Dickens” • The Original Victorian...
Find me elsewhere on the internet:
Blog: The Cup That Cheers the-cup-that-cheers.blogspot....
Instagram: / elizabeth_the_historian
Music:
We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and Canon and Variation by Twin Musicom are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Artist: www.twinmusicom.org/
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies, Deck the Halls, and Deck the Halls B by Kevin MacLeod are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/
We Wish You A Merry Xmas by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Artist: audionautix.com/

[@Janer-52]

A beautifully done presentation. I could almost taste it from my childhood when my mother made it from scratch.

[@nblmqst1167]

Very interesting, thank you for posting.

[@jackiejames4551]

This was really fascinating. Thank you.

[@seasonsofrefreshing7386]

Looks delicious!! Thanks for sharing, friend. Let's stay connected!