I've been making CP for several decades but am not expert enough to be sure about this:
I usually follow Delia's recipe, initial steaming is 8 hours. BBC GF also says 8, Nigella suggests 5.
I made my pudding yesterday, expecting to be at home most of the daytime. Won't bore you with why but ended up having to go out and not knowing how long I'd be, didn't want to leave the pudding steaming in case it boiled dry - thank goodness as ended up being out several hours and we had plans last night too.
Bottom line is that the pudding was steamed for 4 hours, max 4.5. I'd rather not resteam today, having fiddled with a clean, dry paper & foil topping last night.
My gut feel is that this will be ok and I'll just steam several hours on Christmas Day.
Any CP experts think that will be a problem ? Main concern is whether it will affect it's 'storability', am sure flavour will be fine if steamed for most of Christmas Day ?
Thanks