Along with sprouts, Christmas pudding is so entrenched in our festive cuisine that, even at the end of an enormous dinner, we feel almost duty bound to eat it. But while the older generations delight in this time-honoured tradition, their passion is not shared by their grandchildren. Because although 84% of over 55s said in a survey for Country Life magazine that they would eat nothing else for dessert on December 25, 53% of 16 to 24-year-olds said they positively disliked Christmas pudding. Television chef Clarissa Dickson Wright is one of the enthusiasts. "I love Christmas pudding, particularly if it is sliced and fried in butter the next day! "At the end of the meal when you are all flagging, suddenly the lights go off and someone brings through a flaming pudding, it brings another wow! moment." But Dickson Wright, who won fame with her late friend Jennifer Paterson in the Two Fat Ladies TV series, can empathise with the younger generation. "I have to admit, I didn't like it when I was 16 or 17, although I loved the ritual. I think the taste is too sophisticated and rich for young people. And when you are young, you are incapable of pacing yourself, so by the time you get to the Christmas pudding you are stuffed." But there's good news for young people who hate Christmas pud so much they wish it was made illegal. It is in England. In 1644 Oliver Cromwell outlawed plum pudding and mince pies in a statute that has never been formally repealed. Cromwell, who was a Puritan in all senses of the word, declared them to be "abominable idolatrous things to be avoided by Christians" and stipulated that people could be jailed for eating or making them. Dickson Wright jokes: "I think you can be fined a shilling. Don't tell Mr Blair or he'll probably bring it back to pay for another war!" The origins of Christmas pudding are hazy but it is thought to derive from pagan plum pottage or plum porridge, a fearful brew of mutton broth thickened with brown bread, to which raisins, currants, prunes and spices were added as available. Dickson Wright says: "It was an amazing act of faith in mid-winter - they ate about half of all the food they had stored, and just hoped they wouldn't starve. But it was also very prudent because it gave that great sugar high just when everyone was at their lowest ebb." The Christmas pudding started to take shape in Tudor times, when people introduced beef suet and breadcrumbs and started boiling it in a cloth. But the final finishing touches came with the industrial revolution, when basins became commonly available, allowing the addition of alcohol to the pudding itself. Here is a Christmas pudding recipe for the stalwart traditionalists, and a couple of alternatives to keep everyone happy! :: Two Fat Ladies Full Throttle by Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright is published by Ebury Press, priced £9.99. | 
