The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding

Season’s Greetings crime readers and food lovers! Today we are reading the Poirot short story, The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding and eating that exact thing!  This is the first time I have ever made plum or Christmas pudding.  I chose this recipe, which comes from an October 1993 issue of Home Beautiful  because it had apricots and no fruit peel in it.  I further tweaked the recipe to remove the raisins and figs which I am not fond of and replaced them with dried strawberries and blueberries. The fruit was then soaked for two weeks in a combination of Pedro Ximenez sherry and brandy!!!

The Adventure of The Christmas Pudding – The Plot

As mentioned, this is a short story  – it is only  44 pages in the edition that I read so it is something that can easily be read in around an hour.  However, for such a short story there is a LOT going on!

We open with someone called Mr Jesamond, trying to persuade Poirot to take on a case.  Poirot is not so keen.

Mr Jesamond interrupted “Christmas time,” he said, persuasively.  “An old fashioned Christmas in the English countryside.”

Hercule Poirot shivered.  The thought of the English countryside at this season of the year did not attract him…he had suffered too often in the historic country houses of England”

Eventually, Poirot agrees to take the case.  A young potentate from an unnamed country has been visiting England to have some of the family jewels re-set by Cartier in order to give them to his bride to be.  However, the young man, away from his conservative homeland, has done what young men away from their conservative homelands are wont to do. Even worse, he allowed his new lady friend to wear the family ruby one night.  Needless to say, she and the ruby vanish.

In order to avoid a scandal, Poirot is called to visit Kings Lacey, home of the Lacey family to find the thief and the ruby!

We have:

• Sarah, the granddaughter of the Lacey’s who has taken up with a bounder whom she has brought home for Christmas, along with his sister who is recovering from an operation and is confined to bed
• Several mentions of the bounder’s tight black jeans! (Ooh Aggie!!!)
• Someone sneaking about Poirot’s bedroom at night
• Drugs in the coffee
• Some delightful snarkiness about Poirot’s nightcap (sadly missing from the adaptation)
• Something that is definitely not a sixpence in the Christmas pudding!

The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding – The Covers

The covers here nearly all show a Christmas Pudding.  I do like the one where Poirot’s hat takes the place of the pudding and I also very much like the one where the Creme Anglaise on the pudding takes on the skull and crossbones.  There is a very stylish French cover, except you can’t tell because apparently there is no French translation for Christmas Pudding (hint, it is the black and yellow on).

There is also a Spanish cover that does Poirot no favours! I mean at no point do we ever hear that Poirot is particularly handsome but oof..too cruel, Spain, too cruel!

Unflattering depictions from Spain aside, I am saving my most, my worst level of scorn for the cover on the bottom right.  I mean.  WTAF unknown publisher?  The book is called the Adventure of the Christmas Pudding not The Adventure of the Blueberry Layer Cake!!!

The Recipe – Christmas Pudding

On a silver dish the Christmas pudding resposed in its glory.  A large football of a pudding, a piece of holly stuck in it like a triumpant flag and glorious flames of blue and red rising around it.  There was a cheer and cries of “ooh – ah:.

Hercule Poirot merely surveyed the portion on his plate with a rather curious expression on his face.  A result, no doubt of finding a cryptic note in his bedroom which had read,

“DON’T EAT NONE OF THE PLUM PUDDING.

– ONE WHO WISHES YOU WELL

Agatha Christie,  The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding

Other Food Mentioned in The Adventure of The Christmas Pudding

For such a short story, there is a HEAP of food mentioned here:

• Oyster Soup
• Two turkeys – one boiled, one roast
• Elvas Plums, Carlsbad Plums, almonds, raisins, crystallised fruit and ginger
• Scones, crumpets, sandwiches and three kinds of cake
• Tea
• Hard Sauce
• Brandy
• Mince Pies
• Christmas dessert
• Christmas cake
• Cold supper
• Chestnut Stuffing
• Eggs and bacon (ALWAYS)
• Coffee
• A tisane

We usually have brandy butter and custard with our Christmas pudding but this year I am going to give hard sauce a go!  It sounds delicious!

The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding is not much of a mystery.  It is very obvious who the wrong ‘un is.  Having said that, it is an absolutely delightful and charming Christmas story so well worth a read!  It is one of the few Poirot adaptations that is not available on Youtube but the Audiobook, which is read by Hugh Fraser who plays Hastings in the series is available.

Dear friends, I hope Santa brings you everything you want and you have a merry, happy and safe holiday season!