He admits he’s done it before—given Christmas pudding to complete strangers. But this time, Gary Corcoran is sending his infamous Newfoundland recipe a little further a field to CF members in Afghanistan.

Chefs Steve Watson from Central Dairies Ltd., Garry Corcoran from RBC Dominion Securities, CFPSA’s Shirley Penny and Kevin Hutchings, honorary colonel of the 1st Battalion, The Royal Newfoundland Regiment cook up a storm preparing Christmas puddings for CF members deployed on Op ARCHER.

Mr. Corcoran, vice-president and branch manager at RBC Dominion Securities in St. John’s, Nfld. agrees maybe he should have been a chef. But then, of course, it would be a job and not half as much fun.

Working in a demanding job, cooking is his stress reliever and he and some like-minded friends take full advantage of his penchant for a good beef roast or cozy night in for 100.

Take, for example, a Saturday morning in late November when he, Steve Watson from Central Dairies Ltd., and his wife Pat, Kevin Hutchings, honorary colonel of the 1st Battalion, The Royal Newfoundland Regiment and Shirley Penny, amenities co-ordinator for the Canadian Forces Personnel Support Agency (CFPSA) all gathered at the mess at CFS St. John’s. Their goal: Christmas pudding for the troops in Afghanistan, all 900 of them. Ten hours later—with a few alterations to the recipe—they were done.

First—no booze—the original recipe actually calls for Screech. Plus, he added blue potatoes to the mix. Last year, he and his band of merry chefs actually peeled the requisite potatoes and parsnips—yup, the recipe calls for parsnips, too—by hand, while boiling the pudding on Coleman stoves.

This year, thanks to the support of Commander Gary Reddy, CFS St. John’s base commander, they had full use of the mess and all its kitchen gadgets, shaving hours off production time.One hundred and thirty puddings later—they each contain about eight servings—they were done. “It was a little more sensible,” Mr. Corcoran says wryly,“to do the puddings at the mess.”

Now while this is the second year that Mr. Corcoran has made puddings for deployed troops, he has actually been making them for friends and clients for years. In fact, every Christmas he gives away between 80 and 100 puddings, and yes, he has given them to complete strangers.

He tells the story like this.One Christmas Eve—“miracles” always do seem to happen then—he was at the local supermarket and a woman was searching for Christmas pudding. While the store was out, he offered her one that he still happened to have in his car. He didn’t know her and she certainly had no idea who he was, but she went home with a pudding, nonetheless.

Mr. Corcoran says he cooked the puddings for the troops because he wanted them to know that someone was thinking of them.“It’s not so much that we made the puddings,” he explains,“a chef could do that. It’s that someone cared enough to make them and send them to Afghanistan.”

CFPSA’s Ms. Penny says she’s seen an increase in giving over the past few years. In charge of Operation SANTA, the program that ensures the Christmas puddings reach Afghanistan in time for the holidays, she says many companies are donating items.“They are really stepping up to help,” she says.“And they’re not asking for anything in return.”

This year soldiers will again receive boxes of goodies courtesy of Op SANTA. From Frisbees, to baseball hats and a golf shirt, each parcel contains items donated by some 60 companies.

She even received feedback from soldiers last year on Mr. Corcoran’s Christmas pudding. The verdict: mm, mm good. And the giving is very much a two-way street.“It makes Canadians back home feel they are part of our deployed forces,” she explains.

Shortly after our initial interview, Mr. Corcoran sent an e-mail. He’d been thinking about one particular question. He wrote: “I mentioned that it was a nice thing for the soldiers to think that people they don’t know took the time to make and send them puddings. In retrospect, it’s exactly what they do every day—rendering their services to people they don’t know. This is a little something in return for their tremendous contribution to make the world a better place to live.”

Maybe it’s also just a bit like giving a stranger a pudding on Christmas Eve.