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Apple Plum Pudding
Shred finely six ounces of beef suet; add to it a pinch of salt, half a pound of finely-grated bread-crumbs, four ounces of sugar, half a pound of raisins, half a pound of currants, half a pound of chopped apples, two table-spoonfuls of dried flour, two ounces of chopped candied peel, and half a tea-spoonful of mixed spice. Mix the dry ingredients thoroughly, then beat four eggs in a wine-glassful of brandy, stir well together, pour into a well-oiled mould, or tie up in a well-floured pudding-cloth, and boil four hours. Serve with brandy sauce. Time to boil, four hours. Sufficient for six persons. Probable cost, 1s. 8d., without the brandy.
A boiled suet pudding of the everyday sort — no long maturing, no flaming at table — lightened with apple and bound with breadcrumbs rather than flour. The measurements are straightforward; the vessels and the water are where it goes wrong.
- Keep the water at a steady simmerA four-hour boil means the pan must never drop below a simmer or run dry; top up with boiling water, never cold, or the pudding sinks. A basin covered with pleated parchment and foil in a lidded pan of simmering water is the same thing with less risk of flooding.
- Beef suetShredded packet suet works directly, 6 oz by weight. Fresh butcher's suet needs the membrane pulled away and the fat grated on the coarse side of a box grater, easiest when very cold. Vegetable suet gives a slightly softer crumb but behaves the same.
- "Dried flour"Flour warmed in a low oven or before the fire to drive off moisture, so it would not clump when stirred into the dry mixture. Two tablespoons of ordinary plain flour, sifted, does the job now.
- A wine-glassfulIn Victorian cookery books this is roughly 2 fl oz, about a quarter cup. The eggs are beaten into it and the whole poured over the dry mix; there is no other liquid, so the batter will look stiff before boiling.
- Mixed spiceThe British blend — cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, coriander, sometimes clove and ginger. It is not the same as American pumpkin pie spice, though that is a near-enough substitute. Half a teaspoon is deliberately restrained here.
- Mould or cloth"Well-oiled mould" means a metal or china basin greased and covered, lowered into the water. A cloth must be scalded, floured heavily while damp, and tied with room for expansion; the flour forms the skin that keeps water out. The basin is more forgiving.
- Bread-crumbs"Finely-grated" implies bread dry enough to grate, i.e. a stale loaf rather than fresh soft crumb. Avoid dried packaged crumbs, which drink more liquid and give a denser pudding.
- ServingSix portions, as stated. Turn out after five minutes' rest so the pudding firms enough to hold its shape. Brandy sauce here is the sweet pouring kind — butter, sugar, cream or milk and brandy warmed together — rather than hard sauce.
"Plum" in an English pudding has meant dried fruit generally, not plums, since well before this book was compiled; raisins and currants are the plums in question, a usage generally traced back to the medieval plum pottage that Christmas pudding is usually said to descend from. What distinguishes this version is the half-pound of chopped apple, which adds moisture and acidity and cuts the cost. Cassell's habit of quoting a probable cost, here 1s. 8d. without the brandy, and the parenthetical exclusion of the spirit tells you the brandy was treated as a luxury addition rather than an assumed ingredient.