Plum Pudding Pie: A Cook's Book of Christmas

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

These cookbooks share a common editorial approach: both are substantial
(150 and 200 recipes, respectively); both are bare bones (the recipes
stand alone, unadorned with comment, graphics, or photos); and both have
the same page layout (which is practical and orderly but unimaginative,
and provides little incentive to try the recipes). The extreme no-frills
approach doesn’t inspire confidence, although all the recipes are,
apparently, tested prior to publication.

There is mix of imperial and metric measurements, with both usually
given. There is no nutritional analysis. Cooks may have trouble with
some of the terminology and ingredients, such as sago, friand tins,
strong flour, caster sugar, and self-rising flour.

Butter, Sugar, Flour offers recipes for a wealth of baked
goods—breads, biscuits, buns, muffins, pies, cakes, cookies, squares
(“slices”)—as well as for German Stolen and Australian Damper,
among the international classics.

Plum Pudding Pie has recipes for every component of the
menu—appetizers, entrées, side dishes, desserts, and beverages. The
emphasis is on traditional Christmas fare, such as roast goose, mince
pie, hot toddy, Yorkshire pudding, roast turkey and pheasant, fruitcake,
yule log cake, game pie, eggnog, and gingerbread.

The books will be appreciated by experienced, confident cooks who value
a quantity of recipes without needing any hand-holding or encouragement
to tackle new recipes and make substitutions in ingredients when
necessary.