Home › The Principles of Cookery › Cabinet Pudding, Plain
Cabinet Pudding, Plain
Butter a plain round mould; then fill it with alternate layers of raisins, bread and butter without crust, sugar, and a little grated nutmeg. Pour over it a pint of new milk mixed with two well-beaten eggs; flavour and sweeten. Allow it to soak for half an hour; then place a plate on the top, and steam it for one hour. Sufficient for four or five persons. Probable cost, 10d.
A steamed bread-and-butter custard in a mould — the "plain" version of cabinet pudding, made without sponge cake or candied peel. It is forgiving, but the two things that matter are the soak and the gentleness of the steam.
- The pintCassell's is British, so this is an imperial pint of 20 fl oz, about 2½ US cups. With only two eggs to that much milk the custard sets softly; add a third egg if you want a firmer pudding that will turn out cleanly.
- "New milk"Fresh whole milk, unskimmed and unsoured — the term simply distinguished it from milk that had stood and had its cream taken off. Whole milk is the right substitute; a splash of cream in place of some of the milk is closer still to Victorian dairy.
- The mouldA plain round mould of about 1 quart / 1 litre, well buttered. A pudding basin, charlotte mould or straight-sided tin all work. Fill it no more than three-quarters full so the custard has room to rise.
- Don't skip the half hourThe soak is the whole point: dry bread that goes straight into the steamer stays dry in patches and the custard weeps around it. Press the layers down gently once or twice while it stands.
- "Flavour and sweeten"The book assumes you know: 2-3 tablespoons of sugar in the milk beyond what is layered in, and vanilla, lemon zest or a spoonful of brandy. Nutmeg is already accounted for in the layering.
- SteamingCover the top with buttered paper or foil rather than the bare plate the recipe suggests, then set the mould on a trivet in a pan with water reaching halfway up. Keep the water at a bare simmer — a hard boil curdles the eggs and gives a pitted, watery pudding.
- When it is doneAn hour is right for a quart mould. It should be just set with a slight wobble at the centre; a knife inserted off-centre comes out clean. Rest it five minutes before turning out, or it will slump.
- ServingFour to five as written. A thin custard sauce, warm jam thinned with water, or simply cream poured round it.
Cabinet pudding appears in nineteenth-century English cookery under several names, and chancellor's pudding is commonly given as a synonym; Newcastle pudding is a closely related steamed bread-and-fruit pudding that some writers treat as the same dish. The grander versions line the mould with raisins in a pattern, then fill it with sponge cake or ratafia biscuits soaked in custard. The "plain" version here swaps the cake for buttered bread, which helps account for the modest cost of tenpence: it is the same architecture built from what was already in the house. Pricing each dish was a common habit in Victorian household manuals.