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Show 250,000 PUDDINGS FURNISHED London Manufacturer Made That Many to Meet the Demands of the Christmas Spirit. The manufacture of plum pudding In England is mainly confined to London Lon-don and is carried on by all the principal prin-cipal bakeries, delicatessen and other establishments. The industry was greatly boomed by the Boer war. In the opening days of that struggle strug-gle the Yuletlde season Increased the natural solicitude for the fathers and sons and husbands In far away Africa, and the plum pudding was requisitioned requisi-tioned in large quantities to express the feeling at home and carry at least a spark of Christmas cheer to enliven the soldiere' camp. Thousands of pounds of plum pudding pud-ding were sent out, but the demand was far In excess of the supply, a fact which gave greater urgency to the demand and by concentrating general lntrest In the pudding added Immensely to Its popularity, and especially es-pecially as the soldier called loudly for more. The result Is that today the bulk of plum pudding consumed In the United Kingdom is supplied by public purveyors and hundreds of thousands of pounds are shipped abroad. Manufacturers begin active operations as soon as the new crops of raisins, currants and other required fruits appear In September. All the constituents of plum pudding, which do not Include plums, are prepared and manipulated by elaborate and expensive ex-pensive machinery. Currants are washed and stems removed, raisins are stoned, nuts are shelled and ground, oranges and lemons are peeled, the peel candled and cut up, eggs are beaten and all other ingredients ingredi-ents prepared by machinery. Exclusive of milk and rum the ingredients in-gredients used by a single manufacturer manufac-turer in supplying plum pudding to meet the demands of the Christmas season of 1910 aggregated 620,10 pounds, the number of puddings furnished fur-nished aggregating 250,000. There are three or four London manufacturers, says Daily Consular and Trade Reports, Re-ports, each of whose output perhaps equaled that described, and there are quite a large number of smaller establishment! es-tablishment! in which plum pudding was supplied for home and foreign consumption. The pudding Is put up In packages weighing one to five pounds each and securely packed to Insure preservation and safe transportation. Properly prepared pre-pared and packed the plum pudding of England, with ordinary care on the part of the housewife, will retain Its virtues for a year or more. |
