// A Salute to Plum Duff
Len Black
When retired flight engineer Len Black’s wife Mary arrived in New Zealand from Scotland in 1926 accompanied by her parents, two younger sisters and several aunts and uncles, among their belongings was a notebook packed with household hints and recipes.
One of the most important recipes, produced every Christmas by Mary’s mother for various relatives, was titled ‘Scots Plum Duff’. When Mary and Len married, the task of producing the Plum Duffs fell to Mary as the eldest. “It was only natural that I would help her with this task, particularly as one of my hobbies was cooking,” says Len.
Unfortunately for Len, but happily for everyone else, he decided to tinker with the recipe.
Plum Duff
“Out went the rolled oats, suet and treacle. I had a strong urge to use rum for flavouring and puzzled over the way to obtain maximum flavour and then I had a sudden inspiration. I would use lots of golden syrup and put half in a pot with two pounds of fruit mixed with half a cup of rum and half a cup of fruit juice, stirred and simmered for one hour and left to stand for 24 hours.”
The next step Len recalls was to work out the rest of the ingredients into the right quantities so as not to overflow the steamer dish.
“After lots of furtive trial and error, I had it - a cooked plum duff exactly filling the steamer dish and when cooked went right up to the lid, would come out nicely in one piece, and would cut without crumbling.”
This year, 83-year-old Len has made 150 plum duffs for friends and charities - no small feat given each one takes five hours to cook! It’s a task that keeps the retired flight engineer particularly busy in the lead up to Christmas, and marks a different challenge after his 20 years in the Air Force, 1949–1969, where he was a Flight Engineer attached to No 40 and 41 Squadrons.
Today Len still pops down to catch up with the crew at No 40 Squadron, and is a favourite visitor who can be counted on to bring the pike lets for morning tea.