STIR-UP SUNDAY

From X-rays to steam trains, we have a lot to thank the Victorians for, but the most delicious 19th-century creation is surely the Christmas pudding. Although versions of the sumptuous, spiced dessert have been made since the 1300s, the incarnation we eat today has only been around for the past 200 years. Such is its importance, British tradition dictates we should start making it five weeks in advance of the big day. And so, on the last Sunday before Advent, families gather over spattered recipe books and age-old pudding basins to blend dried fruit, suet and strong liquor, perhaps throwing in a silver coin for luck – stirring, of course, from east to west, in remembrance of the Three Wise Men.