Christmas Plum Pudding and Hard Sauce

to the person who requested a Christmas pudding with lots of alcohol, well, the authors of the book (_The Bad-For-You Cookbook_, if anyone cares) say,
"it absorbs more rum than your humble authors on a hot night in Jamaica, and it
*cannot* go bad under any circumstances, short of being injected with penicillin
and left in the sun." Ahem.
Christmas Plum Pudding and Hard Sauce
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The cookbook says to start this pudding around Thanksgiving, so it has time to
sit and absorb alcohol for a month before Christmas.

1 1/2 C currants
2 C raisins
3/4 C prunes
2 C mixed candied fruit, (orange or lemon peel, cherries, whatever)
1 pound beef suet, well cleaned
juice and grated zest of one lemon
juice and grated zest of one orange
5 C bread crumbs, preferably homemade
2 1/2 C flour
1 C chopped almonds
2 C peeled and chopped cooking apples
1 1/2 C firmly packed brown sugar
1 T each ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg
2 t salt
1 quart rum or cognac
4 eggs

Wash the candied fruit, raisins and prunes. Chop the prunes. Mince the candied 
fruit and the suet.

Add all ingredients except liquor and eggs to a large bowl. Stir to mix very 
well. Add 1 cup of the liquor and stir again. Cover the bowl with a clean
kitchen towel and put in a cool place.

Uncover every day, add 2 tablespoons run or cognac and stir will. Recover. 
Continue until all but 1/4 cup of the liquor is added. At this stage, pudding
can stand 2 to 4 weeks.

When you are ready to cook it, add the eggs. The mixture may be thinned a little
with milk if it seems necessary. Butter and flour pudding mold (a mteal mixer
bowl works well). Add pudding mixture and cover with clean cotton cloth, tying
securely with string. Set mold in large pot of boiling water and boil at least
six hours.

Remove and let stand 30 minutes. Unmold onto serving platter, then heat remaining
run or cognac, pour it over the pudding and light it. Serve with hard sauce.

Hard Sauce for Plum Pudding
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1 c unsalted butter, softened
2 C confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 t vanilla
3 T brandy
nutmeg

Thoroughly cream butter. Beat sugar in gradually, as if making mayonnaise. Add
vanilla and brandy, beating gradually. Pour into serving bowl and sprinkle nutmeg
over the surface. Chill until needed.

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