Alternative To Suet For Christmas Pudding | Ask Nigella.com (2024)

Our answer

Nigella's Ultimate Christmas Pudding uses suet as this is the traditional ingredient. Vegetarians could use vegetarian suet, which is available in many UK supermarkets. Outside the UK suet can be difficult to find and vegetable shortening is the best alternative. The same weight should be used - 150g and for the US it is 14 tablespoons. As shortening is quite soft it is best to freeze it overnight before grating. Do this the night before you wish to make the pudding then the next day grate the shortening on the coarse side of a box grater and put the grated fat back into the freezer while you measure out the remaining ingredients. Put all of the pudding ingredients, including the grated shortening, into a large mixing bowl and stir until there are no large lumps of vegetable shortening, though you should see small flecks.

Butter could also be used as an alternative and the method for using butter is the same as for shortening. The weight of butter is also the same as for the shortening, though for the US the amount of butter should be reduced to 12 tablespoons as shortening and butter have slightly different volume to weight measurements. The traditional day to make Christmas Pudding is Stir-Up Sunday, which this year is on Sunday 26th November 2017.