In the Tudor Period

7. Plum pudding was eaten as an appetiser before Christmas dinner.

Plum porridge was much enjoyed as an appetiser to line the stomach before the rich dinner to come. It was a thick broth of mutton or beef, boiled in a skin with plums, spices, dried fruits, breadcrumbs and wine. In the later 16th century, flour was added to make a pudding or cake. Centuries later, the Victorians would remove the meat and turn plum porridge into the rich Christmas pudding we know today, serving it as a dessert.