For some, Boxing Day is the real highlight of the festive season. The flurry of present-wrapping and preparations to create the perfect Christmas are over and you can sit back and relax more. And, as it turns out, this is no different for the royals.
While the Royal Family’s divisive Christmas dinner might spark debate, their Boxing Day indulgences are much less controversial. Former royal chef Darren McGrady worked for the family for 15 years and knows a thing or two about how they spend 26th December after their traditional walk to church and roast the day before.
On the menu is leftover Christmas pudding, but transformed into a treat that's - if anything - more decadent than the dessert was originally. Darren explained back in 2017 that on Boxing Day the chefs "would fry up slices of Christmas pudding in unsalted butter to snack on".
This sounds like a delicious festive treat - though probably something you wouldn't want to snack on regularly! The Royal Family's Christmas puddings are made well ahead of the festive season and the one served on Christmas Day at Sandringham is often from the year before.
It's carried to the table by the Palace steward and served at 2pm, according to Darren, and it's "doused" in fine brandy and decorated with holly. The brandy helps to create the traditional theatrical display of blue flames when the pudding "lit in front of everyone".
The former royal chef explained that there "is a lot of alcohol in it" and it's served with brandy butter and brandy sauce. All of that will give it extra flavour and this likely comes through in the slices that are fried and eaten the next day too.
Given that Darren claimed the royals are "remarkably disciplined with food" and that "most simply graze", it’s likely there’s lots of pudding left over for Boxing Day. So this easy way of serving up the pudding the next day sounds inspired, and in keeping with King Charles’s well-known ethos of reducing food waste.
In 2023, reports suggested that His Majesty was imposing a strict no-waste policy. This also applied to Afternoon Tea, with the King apparently requesting that he and Queen Camilla should be served slices from same cake until that cake is complete, rather than bringing them slices from a newly-baked one.
This way, they could minimise food waste. So King Charles would likely be very happy that Christmas pudding gets a new lease of life on Boxing Day.
Of course, fried pudding isn’t all that’s on the Boxing Day menu. The day starts off on a strong note, with Darren revealing, "After a hearty breakfast on Boxing Day, the men - desperate to get out of the house - go shooting."
The ladies then "generally join them at a cottage on the estate for a hot lunch of beef bourguignon, or venison stew, with mashed potatoes, braised red cabbage and apple pie". The evening meal is supposedly "game - venison, served with dauphinoise potatoes and carrots".
Back when Darren cooked for the family, their evening meal would usually be followed by more treats, including "chocolate-based" pudding to please the late Queen Elizabeth II. Some of her favourites for Boxing Day, as per the chef, included "Chocolate marquise or Chocolate perfection pie, a multi-layered creation made up of cream, meringue and cinnamon".
