ORIGIN OF THE PLUM PUDDING.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 December 1924, Page 7 (Supplement)

ORIGIN OF THE PLUM PUDDING.

The exact origin of the plum pudding aS a Christmas dainty is involved in a considerable amount of mystery. One thing is certain, however, the first plum pudding did not come from Plum-pudding Island, though there is a spot on the globp which bears this exhilarating name. There is an idea current in learned circles that the first plum pudding came into being in Bosnia, when that country was part of Turkey, and that, paradoxical as it sounds, it was not a plum pudding at all. That is, not at the start. Bosnia is especially rich in plums, and the people were in the habit of cooking them jn a sort of stew, into which they mixed literally everything edible they could lay hands on. It was as “plum

porridge” that the viand was first known in John Bull’s home. It was cooked as a fluid mass, and was eaten out of basins and soup plates. It is only within comparatively recent times that it has assumed the cannon-ball aspebt.

“A min slioifld give his wife something for Christmas that she wouldn’t buy for herself,” ;«sserted Mrs. Brown. “That’s jny idea,” agreed Mr. Brown, willingly enough. “Well, what are you going to get me?’’ “A shotgun I’*’