“Christmas week is a period of rejoicing mostly all over the world, and is not less remarkable as a week of festivity in this small and isolated portion of Her Majesty’s possessions. In spite of the paucity of public amusements afforded in a young colony, relaxation in a variety of forms has been indulged in by young and old. Roast beef and plum pudding, mince pies, custards, and whip-sillibubs, with a goodly array of foreign and colonial wines, and fruits, have fallen to the portion of the better class, and the modicum of Her Majesty’s coinage in the colony, has no doubt found a quickened circulation in the form of presents, and the usual douceur of the season.”
Perth Gazette and Independent Journal of Politics and News, Saturday 1 January 1848, page 3
Stir up Sunday is a tradition that dates to the Victorian period, when families would gather around and ‘stir’ their homemade Christmas pudding five weeks before Christmas, the last Sunday before Advent begins.
Christian families would stir the mixture from east to west to honour the three wise men who travelled that way to worship the Christ child. Their preferred recipe would use 13 ingredients to represent Christ and the 12 apostles. The pudding was wrapped in a cloth and dried on a hook for weeks before eating to enhance the flavour.
The Book of Household Management by Mrs Beeton would have been consulted by many a home cook searching for Christmas recipes. In this 1891 edition there is a section devoted to Australian cookery and provides recipes for such delights as curried kangaroo tail, roast wallaby and parrot pie.
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Australian Kitchen
Beeton, I (1891) The Book of Household Management, Chapter XLIX page 1256
