Carrot puddings are steamed puddings, like plum pudding.
Their featured ingredients are grated raw carrot and dried fruit.
Steamed Carrot Pudding became popular in Canada at Christmases during the First World War as a substitute for Plum Pudding and all its rationed ingredients such as sugar. Many Canadian families, particularly on the West Coast, have never lost the preference for it at Christmas.
During World War Two, the British Ministry of Food reprinted the recipe for it in their Cookery Leaflet Number 4, calling it War-and-Peace Pudding, and noting : “This pudding was made in Canada during the last war, and since then many people have never bothered with a rich Christmas pudding.”
Cooking Tips
“War-and-Peace Pudding: Mix together 1 cupful of flour, 1 cupful of breadcrumbs, half a cupful of suet, half a cupful of mixed dried fruit, and, if you like, a teaspoonful of mixed sweet spice. Then add a cupful of grated raw potato, a cupful of grated raw carrot and finally a level teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda dissolved in two tablespoonsful of hot water. Mix all together, turn into a well-greased pudding bowl. The bowl should not be more than two-thirds full. Boil or steam for at least 2 hours.” — British Ministry of Food Cookery Leaflet Number 4
History Notes
Boiled Carrot Puddings have been made for hundreds of years. Carrots were common root vegetables available to everyone that had the added bonus of being relatively sweet in their own right — an important consideration in the days before added sweeteners were a luxury to all but a few.