The colonial history of the Christmas pudding

+ whisky's barreling prices US Edition - Today's top story: How the Christmas pudding, with ingredients taken from the colonies, became an iconic British food [View in browser]( US Edition | 18 December 2023 [The Conversation] [The Conversation]( Top headlines - [Understanding urban heat islands]( - [How blind people hear motion]( - [Pushing back school start times]( Lead story I still recall the divine taste of the freshly baked plum cake – an iconic British pudding – which my Anglo-Indian school friends would treat us to around Christmastime in India. Little did I know back then of its history as a vehicle of empire building. In the 1920s, the pudding – incorporating ingredients from Britain’s colonies, such as dried fruits from Australia and South Africa, cinnamon from Ceylon, spices from India and Jamaican rum – [became a way to replicate British culture](, writes Troy Bickham, a historian of Great Britain and the empire at Texas A&M University. Its promotion as the “Empire Pudding” landed it on the dining tables of people across the empire, and indeed many in India still regard it as part of “tradition.” In the U.S., where I now live, Christmas pudding can often, as Bickham jokingly describes, taste like a “boiled mass of suet … as well as flour and dried fruits that is often soaked in alcohol and set alight.” But what is remarkable, as Bickham writes, is that there are “so many adaptations,” including American ones – with pecans and cranberries as well as bourbon substituted for brandy – serving as a reminder of an Anglo-American concoction. So, this year, for a whiff of nostalgia, I might settle for a version sold at London’s airports and brought over by friends transiting through – and let it be another reminder of our new global connectedness. [ [Understand what’s going on in Washington and around the world. Get our Politics Weekly newsletter.]( ] Kalpana Jain Senior Religion + Ethics Editor/ Director of the Global Religion Journalism Initiative Today's newsletter supported by [readers like you]( The Christmas pudding, a legacy of the British Empire, is enjoyed around the world – including in former British colonies. esp_imaging/iStock via Getty Images Plus [How the Christmas pudding, with ingredients taken from the colonies, became an iconic British food]( Troy Bickham, Texas A&M University The Christmas pudding, once known as the ‘Empire Pudding,’ reflects the lasting legacy of the British Empire. Science + Technology - [Do you hear what I see? How blindness changes how you process the sound of movement]( Ione Fine, University of Washington; Woon Ju Park, University of Washington Detecting and tracking motion is key to survival. 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But, there are many, many, technical barriers to this being a reality, it may happen one day but we’re nowhere near that.” – Logan Kistler on the story, [Mutton, an Indigenous woolly dog, died in 1859 − new analysis confirms precolonial lineage of this extinct breed, once kept for their wool]( - - More of The Conversation Like this newsletter? You might be interested in our weekly and biweekly emails: • [Weekly Highlights]( • [Science Editors' Picks]( • [This Week in Religion]( • [Politics Weekly]( • [Global Perspectives]( • [Global Economy & Business]( Trying out new social media? Follow us: • [Threads]( • [Bluesky]( • [Mastodon](• [Post.news]( • [LinkedIn]( - - About The Conversation We're a nonprofit news organization dedicated to [helping academic experts share ideas with the public](. We can give away our articles thanks to the help of foundations, universities and readers like you. 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