A festive pottage, half-broth half-compote, where meat juice meets dried fruits, sweet wine, and a shower of Eastern spices. Thick, brown, fragrant: the Christmas luxury that the English served long before pudding replaced it.

Why this dish? Newton was born on Christmas Day 1642 (Julian calendar then in use in England). 'Plum pottage', the spiced ancestor of Christmas pudding, was THE festive dish of the Nativity on English tables: one can well imagine the child of Woolsthorpe and later the great man tasting it each year on that day, which was both Christmas and his birthday.

I am told I was born on the day of the Nativity, and each year my mother would have this pottage set upon the table at Woolsthorpe. It must be kept long on the fire, until the beef broth and the currants become one dark thickness, then pour in a glass of Spanish wine and grate the nutmeg with a liberal hand. I was not a glutton, you know, but this dish I willingly suffered, for it smelled of childhood and home. Eat little and hot: it will satisfy a regiment.

How it was made : Plum pottage graced English Christmas tables in the 17th-18th centuries. It was made from the broth of feast meats, enriched with dried fruits, bread, wine, and spices. Over the 18th century, it became thicker and was boiled in a cloth: thus gradually emerged the 'Christmas pudding' we know today.

The contemporary twist : Serve it in a small warm cocotte with a spoonful of unsweetened whipped cream: a Christmas pre-dessert that tells three centuries of history in one bite.

Isaac Newton · Charactorium