Christmas Pud - Steaming Advice Please

[Barmaid]

I'm making the Christmas puds, but just realised I dont have a steamer (it got left behind). No pressure cooker either.

My recipe says steam for about eleventy billion hours.

Will it be OK if I stand in the bottom of a saucepan and pour water half way up and cook it that way? Or should I stand something in the bottom of the pan - scrunched foil perhaps?

[ethandron]

Do it in the microwave...you have a microwave??

[mccfluff]

do it in the nuker

[EcclesCake]

My mum used an upturned saucer, foil would be quieter.

[albaqwerty]

I've heard mention of putting an upturned plate/saucer at bottom of saucepan to stand the bowl on.
Remember not to let the pan boil dry.

[ethandron]

My other half makes the Christmas pud and has done for about thirty years. I cook it in the microwave, and then reheat it on Christmas Day in the microwave..
800w microwave
1 min 40 secs for a one pound pud
2 mins 40secs for a two pound pud

[Barmaid]

I could try the nuker...............What are the timings from scratch Ethandron? Are the times you gave reheating times or cooking times?

Other than that, I think it will be foil........

[ethandron]

Those timings are for reheating, Barmaid.
The recipe himself uses is from our original prestige pressure cooker recipe book and we converted the timings when we got our first microwave.
Based on 800w microwave, for cooking:
2 lb pud: high for 3 mins, stand for 4 mins, cook again for a further 4 mins 10 secs.
1 lb pud: high for 1 min 40 secs, stand for 4 mins, cook again for a further 2 mins 20 secs.
Never fails and saves loads of time and faff.

[MallyJ]

You need to steam your pud twice...firstly to cook it....I put mine in a large saucepan with water about halfway up the side of the pot the pud is in...bring to boil and let it simmer for , in my puds case, 5 hours. This means,by the way that you can delegate tasks to other family members as you can't possibly leave it (himself has not caught on yet!!) I redo the paper on the top and then steam it again on xmas day, putting it on the cooker when the rest of the food is being bunged into serving dishes. This is about 2 hours before pudding time!! The old fashioned way! Oh and I soak the fruit for several weeks in about a bottle of rum......it is lovely!! Do what your recipe suggests but this gets me out of things and is great!

[atalanta]

I use my slow-cooker. I tie the cannon-ball mould full of pud mixture in an old clean gent's hanky to keep it all together, and balance it by making a ring from a clean tea-towel. Add water to half-way up. I cook it on lowest heat all night. I reheat it on the day, the same way, but for only 2 - 3 hours. In the slow-cooker , it is out of the way, and can even simmer away under someone's bed, if there's no room in the kitchen.

[Islay]

slow cooker, upside down saucer boiling water and overnight it

[diddlydo]

Definitely microwave both to cook it in the first place and when re-heating it

[atalanta]

If your pudding contains more than 50 percent sugars ( counting treacle, syrup, actual sugar, sugars in the dried fruit, etc etc) you should definitely Not microwave it, as microwaving such a concentration of sugar can result in the stuff bursting into flames.

[diddlydo]

Atalanta - I've always cooked and re-heated mine in the microwave and never had any bursting into flames.