Kevin Smith is a master butcher, chef, and co-owner of Beast &amp; Cleaver, The Peasant, and Little Beast in Seattle. The Peasant has been named a top Seattle restaurant by The Seattle Met, Eater, and The Infatuation. Kevin was also nominated for Best Emerging Chef by the James Beard Foundation.

Kevin Smith

Christmas pudding is a classic holiday dessert with medieval roots that serves as a great introduction to the wild world of British cuisine. It’s a pudding but not a <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/custard-parametric-analysis">custard</a>. It’s a dessert, packed with beef fat. It’s (sort of) a cake that’s steamed, not baked. If you’re going full medieval, you make it a year in advance, wrap it in a pillowcase, and hang it over the fireplace until next Christmas. And then you douse it in booze and set the whole thing on fire.Christmas pudding defies logic and definition, but one thing is for sure: When done right, it’s downright delicious.In terms of texture and flavor, Christmas pudding gives off <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/pure-24-carrot-cake-with-fresh-carotene-cream-cheese-frosting">carrot cake</a> vibes with a baba au rhum boozy kick. It’s at once dense and moist, rich and delicate, sweet and spiced. Finished with a flourish of flaming brandy and a generous pour of lightly sweetened cream, this is a holiday dessert worth celebrating, without being a <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/classic-panettone-in-one-day">panettone-level</a> project. Take it from the pudding pro himself, Kevin Smith: “This is the easiest dish in the world to make.”Hold on a sec, you may be saying, puddings and cakes are never easy. What’s the catch? Well, the thing about Christmas pudding is that the process of making it is nothing like making a delicate batter or temperature-sensitive custard. You don’t need a stand mixer or a double boiler. In fact, in terms of composition and procedure, this pudding more closely resembles meatballs, just with a mix of brandy-soaked dried fruit standing in for ground meat. Like a meatball farce, the pudding is bound together with eggs and a breadcrumb panade. Just like a good meatball, the pudding base is enriched with extra animal fat, in this case beef suet, the hard fat that surrounds the cow’s kidneys. Grated fresh quince is folded into the mix, which keeps the pudding moist and light, just as grated daikon does in <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/xiu-mai-vietnamese-meatballs">Vietnamese xíu mại</a>; they’re even both steamed! But unlike with meatballs or cake batter, the mixing method for Christmas pudding is completely foolproof because there’s no worry of overmixing. There’s no myosin to develop, and there’s so little flour in the base that gluten development isn’t a concern.Just stir everything together, pack it in a mold, steam it, then set it on fire. No wonder this is our favorite butcher’s favorite dessert! And now it’ll be your favorite, too.

Christmas Pudding