h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If they celebrated Guy Fawkes in Canada, there's no reason why they shouldn't celebrate it in the US, too. When Guy Fawkes was doing his thing, America was not yet independent.

I can see why you'd have felt cheated, Trillian. The gifts inside crackers are lovely.

Good point, TC. They celebrate it in South Africa and Zimbabwe with no appreciation of its historical significance. It's just an excuse to set off fireworks and burn someone you don't like in effigy.

Come on, America. Surely you can think of someone unpopular!

I was taught that the "mincemeat" (all one word) was originally a shortened form of "minced sweetmeats", sweetmeats being a term whose definition I was always uncertain of. It definitely included raisins and sultanas, and possibly other _dried_ fruit, or possibly all sweet fruit.

Additional: a quick investigation brought this up: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sweetmeats

We do the 4th of July instead. Plus, we've got Thanksgiving in November, so there'd be a conflict between them. Haven't got time for both.

I've got someone I'd like to burn in effigy as often as possible. Sign me up!

Mincemeat definitely used to contain meat. Nowadays some mincemeat still contains beef suet, but no actual meat.

RF

Not even bacon?

Does anybody else set fire to puddings (for a brief description see post 13). We stick a bit of holly on the top, pour on brandy and light it. This is supposed to date back to pre-Christian times, symbolising the rebirth of the undying sun round about the time the nights start to get shorter.

we inherited a bottle of overproof white rum from a party, paint stripper and un drinkable, we used it to "flash" the xmas pud for a few years untill it ran out

we do not waste drinking booze on "flash"ing a pud now

>>This is supposed to date back to pre-Christian times, symbolising the rebirth of the undying sun round about the time the nights start to get shorter.

Stuff and nonsense. It's simply because flambeeing makes puddings taste good. Think crepes Suzette. The symbolic connection will have been thought of later.

Anyway - it was Christian monks in the Hebrides who invented distilled drinks.

Fanny Craddock used vodka in public demonstrations because the flame lasts for ages.

I've never had Christmas pudding before at all, not to mention a flaming one.

In the Bottom Christmas episode, Eddie Hitler drinks all the brandy and winds up making vodka margarine- it sounded disgusting. But wouldn't the alcohol burn off anyway? It's not like the dessert would taste like vodka afterward, would it?


I've been apprehensive around flaming foods, anyway, ever since I singed off part of an eyebrow and all the hairs on one arm in a flambeeing incident several years ago. Though back when I was bartending my way through college, we used to pour a shot of Bacardi 151 on top of frou-frou drinks like Mai Tai or Zombie, and light that. It looked really cool. Amazing how many people one had to remind to blow the flames out before trying to drink.

There are two things going on here, Psychocandy. Vodka margarine is a disgusting Bottom-style variant on brandy butter, which is a mixture of sugar, butter and brandy and is not intended for burning (though all three ingredients would no doubt burn very well).

Burning Christmas pudding is relatively risk-free, because the pudding won't burn and it only needs a splash of brandy to make the dish look special as it's carried to the table.

Burning drinks, as you say, have to be extinguished, because they contain a lot of flammable material. Depending on the recipe, some can burn all the way to the bottom of the glass - something your customers clearly didn't realise.

We've used brandy several times to light Christmas puddings. Usually, it goes for about 20 seconds before dying out, leaving a faintly alcoholic but rather nice taste to the pudding.

Ah, I didn't realize that the brandy butter wasn't meant for burning. for clearing that up for me.

It's easy to make if you can't buy it, Psychocandy.

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/2073/brandy+butter

Very cheering melting on a hot pudding some cold winter night.

Presumably it works as well with a non-butter "butter" (I can't eat dairy)? I've never made a pudding but it sounds like I could manage a reasonable facsimile of one. It'd put that old bottle of brandy that's gathering dust in my pantry to good use. Unfortunately, it's not cold here anymore...

Sure. Don't worry about using real butter.

Just let the brandy gather a bit more dust and wait for the next blizzard.