As is tradition, the Museum of East Dorset in Wimborne will be serving up Christmas pudding on 10 December 2022 between 10am and 4pm when it will hold its annual Great Pudding Stir.

Visitors are invited to take part in the event, which will take place in the Victorian kitchen.

The pudding will be made using a recipe from the kitchen bible, ‘Beeton’s Book of Household Management’, edited by Mrs Isabella Beeton between 1859 and 1861. The original recipe for ‘A Plain Christmas Pudding for Children’ contained:

1lb flour, 1lb bread crumbs, ¾lb stoned raisins, ¾lb currants, ¾lb suet, 3 or 4 eggs, milk, 2oz candied peel, 1 teaspoonful powdered allspice, ½ teaspoonful salt

The pudding took five hours to make and would feed nine or 10 children at an average cost of one shilling and ninepence. Today, 8oz sugar is added to make it more palatable for modern tastes.

Visitors can stir a huge bowl of the dry mix and make a Christmas wish, before sampling the final product heated on the coal-fired range.

The Great Pudding Stir is included with usual museum admission. Annual passes are valid for this event.