loading . . . The information literacy of Christmas Puddings It's that time of year, and I was searching for my mother's Christmas Pudding recipe (which I archived on this blog in 2015): googling information literacy christmas pudding. Seeking the link I wanted, my eye was caught by the "AI overview", which, to my surprise, had attempted to cobble together something about information literacy as applied to Christmas Puddings.
Can I do better than Google Gemini? I rather think I can!
Christmas puddings: through the lens of the ACRL Information Literacy Framework
All quotations in blue are from the Framework
Authority Is Constructed and Contextual
Here we have to consider both the pudding itself and the recipe. So, who is an authority for recipes? There are several candidates: celebrity chefs (high citation counts), recipes from the earliest days of festive puddings (historical accuracy), the first hit you get when searching christmas pudding recipes (algorithmic calculation), your mother's recipe (she's your mother).
Now, ACRL tells us that we must "view authority with an attitude of informed skepticism and an openness to new perspectives, additional voices, and changes in schools of thought." Therefore we ought to look at other people's mothers' recipes, recipes that have none of the ingredients you'd expect to find in a pudding, dubious-looking recipes from the 1960s, and the last recipe to be posted on tiktok. However, at the end of the day, "the information need may help to determine the level of authority required." I want a recipe that will deliver a pudding I know I like to eat, so my mother's recipe it is.
It will be a similar process in deciding "who is the authority who decides that this is the best pudding?" If they are a jury member at the International Taste Institute they must know a thing or two about good food, as must the head buyer responsible for seasonal desserts at a leading supermarket chain. The Consumers' Association is bound to have conducted tests, with proper criteria and everything and with my expert googling powers I can identify the "Christmas puddings: ranked" articles in all media outlets and see which is consistently top.
Once again, though, information literates "recognize that unlikely voices can be authoritative, depending on need." Thus, deficient though I am in any cookery qualification, I determine that the ultimate authority for judging "is this pudding nice?" is - me.
Research as Inquiry
Information literate learners "appreciate that a question may appear to be simple but still disruptive and important to research". Therefore they will find the question "What is a Christmas pudding, anyway?" meaningful and worthy of inquiry. In pursuing this, they will "maintain an open mind and a critical stance" (is it even a pudding?), "demonstrate intellectual humility" (admit they know nothing of the history of cooking) and "seek appropriate help when needed" (what does Wikipedia say about puddings?)
Information Has Value
As we all know, information has "several dimensions of value, including as a commodity, as a means of education, as a means to influence, and as a means of negotiating and understanding the world." The information contained in my mother's Christmas Pudding recipe can educate you about what a woman born in the 1920s thought should go into a Christmas Pudding (it is not, for example, vegetarian). It could be valuable if you use the recipe to produce the expensive commodity of Fortnum & Mason's' luxury pudding for non-vegetarians and make a tidy profit. You may think there is social capital in proving that your mother could cook. Also, "Experts understand that value may be wielded by powerful interests in ways that marginalize certain voices": so they will know that Elon Musk's (2025) Super-duper seasonal recipes book is not value for money, ignoring, as it does, the Christmas Pudding recipes of ordinary working people.
Scholarship as Conversation
"Communities of scholars, researchers, or professionals engage in sustained discourse with new insights and discoveries occurring over time as a result of varied perspectives and interpretations."
Indeed, debates about what should go in a Christmas pudding, what recipes are used in different countries, how you cook it (steamed, boiled or microwaved?), what it symbolises etc. etc. rage, in humble kitchens and in the ivory towers of academe. See, for example, Brieger et al. (2014), Chevalier (2018), Williams (1897), or Young (2005).
Should one even be eating this embodiment of one's colonial past? Discuss.
Information Creation as a Process
It certainly is! You can't just think up a successful recipe without going through a process. You have to "look
to the underlying processes of creation as well as the final product to
critically evaluate the usefulness of the information." Critical
questions are "Did this cook actually taste the pudding?" and "Is
this pudding recipe just a random collection of ingredients suggested by
AI?"
You would expect the recipe creator to "value the process of matching an information need with an appropriate product", for example, it needs some spice and they select (say) cinnamon, rather than jalapeno pepper. They would also be able to "articulate the capabilities and constraints of information developed through various creation processes"
and thus rank a recipe developed through thoughtful addition of
ingredients and judicious tasting of the end products higher than a
vaguely-worded recipe that now and then produced something edible.
You also need to "look beyond format when selecting resources to use": yes, usually you always use videos for recipe guides, but perhaps you could, after all, benefit from my mother's Christmas Pudding recipe, even though it's just written down.
Searching as Strategic Exploration
Information literate people will "determine the initial scope of the task required to meet their information needs." The recipe they use will be determined like questions like: What size of pudding do I want? Will I be serving it to vegan friends? How far am I prepared to go in terms of exotic ingredients? Can I be bothered with steaming?
They will "identify interested parties, such as scholars, organizations, governments, and industries, who might produce information about a topic" (see above)Â and then "determine how to access that information" (shall I buy a cookery book? shall I go straight to a trusted source like this or this? what about Youtube?). Using "different types of searching language" (Christmas, Xmas, Figgy) one will "recognize the value of browsing and other serendipitous methods of information gathering" (scroll through all the photos of puddings to spot the yummiest).
However, you also need to "know when [you] have enough information to complete the information task".
Perhaps I'll just follow my mother's Christmas pudding recipe, after all.
Good information literate eating! If you found this even vaguely amusing you might like the SCONUL 7 Pillars of chocolate literacy which is shorter and probably wittier.
Images
Photo of Christmas puddings potted up ready for steaming by Sheila Webber, taken November 2025.
Holly image by Ted Balmer on Unsplash
References
Brieger, D. G., Amir, A. B., Punch, G. J., Lim, C. S. H., & Toh, J. (2014). What proof is in your Christmas pudding? Is caring under the influence possible? Medical Journal of Australia, 201(11), 702-704. https://doi.org/10.5694/mja14.01478
Chevalier, N. (2018). Iconic dishes, culture and identity: The Christmas pudding and its hundred years’ journey in the USA, Australia, New Zealand and India. Food, Culture & Society, 21(3), 367–383. https://doi.org/10.1080/15528014.2018.1451042
Musk, E. (2025). Super-duper seasonal recipes. [This is misinformation, but I think you knew that.]
Williams, E.E. (1897, December). Our Christmas plum puddings. Windor Magazine, 7, 64-68. https://www.victorianvoices.net/ARTICLES/Windsor/Windsor1898A/W1898-PlumPudding.pdf
Young, P. (2005). Economy, Empire, Extermination: The Christmas Pudding, the Crystal Palace and the Narrative of Capitalist Progress. Literature & History, 14(1), 14-30. https://doi.org/10.7227/LH.14.1.2 [It is about Dicken's story, but includes a pudding recipe, I think that counts.] http://dlvr.it/TPfSwY
