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Almond and Raisin Pudding
Soak a quarter of a pound of the stale crumb of bread in half a pint of new milk; add two table-spoonfuls of finely-shred suet, the same of currants washed and picked, a little sugar, the juice and finely-chopped rind of a lemon, three well-beaten eggs, and a table-spoonful of ale. Well butter a mould or basin. Place raisins in rows round it with four ounces of sweet almonds blanched and split in alternate rows (the butter will make them stick), and pour the mixture in. Put it into boiling water, and allow it to boil for three hours. Turn out and serve with wine sauce. Sufficient for five or six persons. Probable cost, 1s.
A Victorian steamed bread pudding, lined decoratively with raisins and split almonds so the pattern shows when it is turned out. Nothing here is difficult, but the mould has to be sealed against the water and the pot kept topped up for three hours.
- Seal the mouldThe recipe says only to put the buttered basin into boiling water. Cover it with buttered parchment and a sheet of foil, pleated to allow rise and tied under the rim with string, or the pudding waterlogs. Water should come no more than two-thirds up the side, and be replenished with boiling water as it evaporates.
- Half a pint of new milkAn Imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz, about 1 1/4 US cups. "New milk" is simply fresh whole milk, as distinct from skimmed or the previous day's; whole milk is the equivalent.
- Bread and quantitiesA quarter pound of stale crumb is 4 oz (115 g) of the interior of a loaf, crusts discarded, torn or grated coarse rather than blitzed to dust. Four ounces of almonds is about 3/4 cup once blanched and split.
- SuetTwo tablespoons of shredded beef suet was the standard pudding fat. Packaged shredded suet, beef or vegetarian, works directly; frozen butter grated coarse is a workable stand-in, though the crumb will be slightly denser.
- Sweet almondsThe distinction from bitter almonds mattered in the period, when both were sold. Any supermarket almond is the sweet kind. Blanch them in boiling water for a minute, slip the skins, and split each along its natural seam with a paring knife while still damp.
- The aleA single tablespoon is for flavour and a little lift, not leavening you can measure. A dark mild or brown ale suits it; the pudding is fine without.
- Timing and turning outThree hours of gentle boiling is correct for a pudding of this size and produces the close texture intended. Let the basin stand five to ten minutes off the heat before inverting, so the pattern of raisins and almonds releases with the pudding rather than staying stuck to the butter.
- Wine sauceThe book assumes you know it: a sweetened sauce of sherry or madeira thickened with butter and a little flour or egg, served hot. Yield is five or six as written, and the 1s. costing is a period price note, not part of the method.
Steamed and boiled puddings built on stale bread, suet and dried fruit were the backbone of English domestic sweets through the nineteenth century, made possible by the pudding cloth and later the pudding basin, which allowed a substantial dish to be cooked over a single pot on a range already occupied with dinner. Lining the mould with fruit and split almonds in alternate rows is a small piece of thrift theatre: the ingredients are the same cheap ones as in the batter, but arranged so the turned-out pudding arrives at table looking deliberate. Cassell's New Dictionary of Cookery, an enormous alphabetical compendium aimed at middle-class households with one or two servants, characteristically closes each entry with the number it feeds and its probable cost — one shilling here — a reminder that the book was as much a budgeting tool as a set of instructions.