Thursday Cottage Christmas Pudding - 454g

A cottage called Thursday

Thursday Cottage was founded in 1963 in a cottage of that name outside Spaxton, Somerset. Yes, the cottage was called Thursday, which beats most house names on most lanes. For many years the business was owned and run by Hugh and Pam Corbin of Lyme Regis, who sold it in 2002. It is now an independent part of the Tiptree group, with production at Trewlands Farm in Tiptree, Essex, where the range is still handmade.

Jam people with a warrant

The parent company is Wilkin & Sons Ltd, established in Tiptree, Essex, in 1885. They have held a Royal Warrant for preserves and marmalades continuously since 1911, and today hold it as Purveyors of Tiptree Products to King Charles III. That is well over a century of keeping the royal toast covered. Somewhere in Essex there is a great deal of fruit that has done its duty.

Small pans, short runs

Thursday Cottage specialises in luxury handmade jams, marmalades and curds for the independent trade, and each boil still produces only about 100 jars. The range runs to a Fine Cut Orange Marmalade with Whisky and a Strawberry Jam with Champagne, which tells you they have a sense of occasion. Their Amaretto Butter is sold as a twist on traditional brandy butter, so the pudding need never go out on its own.