Mrs Ross

In the short story The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, Mrs Ross was the cook who prepared the Christmas dinner at Kings Lacey. During the events in the story, she had already retired some ten years before but still came in to help whenever there was a need or an emergency.

Poirot complimented her on the dinner, especially the oyster soup, the chestnut stuffing in the turkey and the Christmas pudding. Mrs Ross told him it was just "plain English cooking". The stuffing she had made from a recipe given to her by an Austrian chef she had worked with years ago. The Christmas pudding was her own recipe. She had kept to the old custom of having everyone in the house stir the pudding and make a wish. However she had served the wrong pudding for the Christmas dinner. Annie Bates had broken the mould containing the pudding intended for Christmas so Mrs Ross had to cook and serve the one intended for New Year instead.

Portrayals
Mrs Ross was played by Susan Field in the film adaptation of the story in Series 3 of ITV's Agatha Christie's Poirot.