Pudding Sauces.

Yesterday we looked at some slightly different ideas for Christmas pudding and mince pies; today I want to offer you a couple of slightly different sauces for your chosen pudding.

Teetotal Pudding Sauce.
is made with melted butter, to which a little cream has been added, sweetened to taste, and flavoured with any of the favourite spices.
The Corner Cupboard, Robert Kemp Philp, 1853

Orange Sauce.
½ cup orange juice
2 teaspoons orange marmalade
1 teaspoon grated orange rind
1 teaspoon lemon juice
½ cup sugar
4 eggs separated
⅛ teaspoon salt
Cook orange juice, marmalade, rind, lemon juice, sugar, and egg yolks in a double boiler or a heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens. Beat egg whites with salt until they hold firm peaks. Fold egg whites into orange custard mixture before serving.
Life, Dec 8, 1961

Or how about this rather tropical idea from, of all people, the very English Eliza Acton, in 1845? One shudders to think of the availability (and price) and quality of pineapples at the time.

A Very Fine Pine-Apple Sauce Or Syrup, For Puddings Or Other Sweet Dishes.
After having pared away every morsel of the rind from a ripe and highly flavoured pine-apple, cut three-quarters of a pound of it into very thin slices, and then into quite small dice. Pour to it nearly half a pint of spring water; heat, and boil it very gently until it is extremely tender, then strain and press the juice closely from it through a cloth or through a muslin strainer* folded in four; strain it clear, mix it with ten ounces of the finest sugar in small lumps, and when this is dissolved, boil the syrup gently for a quarter of an hour. It will be delicious in flavour and very bright in colour if well made. If put into a jar, and stored with a paper tied over it, it will remain excellent for weeks; and it will become almost a jelly with an additional ounce of sugar and rather quicker boiling. It may be poured round moulded creams, rice, or sago; or mingled with various sweet preparations for which the juice of fruit is admissible.
*It is almost superfluous to say that the large squares of muslin, of which on account of their peculiar nicety we have recommended the use for straining many sweet preparations, must never have a particle of starch in them; they should he carefully kept free from dust and soil of any kind, and always well rinsed and soaked in clear water before they are dried.
Modern Cookery, Eliza Acton, 1845

From a previous post: Honey and Butter sauce.

Quotation for the Day.
A lovely thing about Christmas is that it’s compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together
Garrison Keillor