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Currant Pudding, Black, Red, or White
Cut a piece of bread about half an inch thick, the size and shape of half a crown. Place it at the bottom of a round basin, and put some fingers of bread, either crust or crumb, in an upright position round it, leaving a distance of an inch between each finger. Boil a pint and a half of currants stripped from their stalks, with a quarter of a pound of sugar. When the juice flows freely, put it and the fruit gently into the mould, a spoonful at a time, and the more solid part first, so as to keep the bread in its position. Cover the top thickly with little sippets of bread, place a plate over the top, and over that a weight to squeeze in the juice, and leave the pudding till cold. Turn it out before serving, and send a little custard or cream to table with it. Stale bread may be used for this pudding. Time, half an hour. Probable cost, 6d., exclusive of the custard. Sufficient for five or six persons.
This is a summer pudding under an older name: no batter, no baking, just bread lining a bowl and sweetened currant juice soaking into it under a weight. The one thing that matters is the pressing and the chilling — the pudding sets only because the bread absorbs juice and compacts, so an overnight rest is worth more than any adjustment to the fruit.
- "The size and shape of half a crown"The coin was about 1¼ inches (32 mm) across, so this is a small disc for the very bottom of the basin, not a full round. A circle cut to fit the base of the bowl, with the side pieces butted together rather than spaced, gives a cleaner turn-out.
- QuantitiesAn imperial pint and a half of currants is about 850 ml by volume, roughly 1¼ lb (550-600 g) of stripped fruit. A quarter pound of sugar is 4 oz, about 115 g or a generous half cup.
- SippetsSimply small pieces or narrow strips of bread. Use a firm white loaf a day or two old; fresh soft sandwich bread turns to paste and modern brioche or enriched loaves are too sweet and too fragile.
- The gaps are a mistake worth correctingThe gaps -- Leaving an inch between the upright fingers risks juice escaping at the sides and the pudding slumping when turned out. Overlapping the bread so the lining is continuous, keeping one piece back for the lid, is the safer course.
- Cook the fruit brieflyCurrants release juice within a few minutes over moderate heat. The half hour given is probably the whole working time rather than a simmer; long boiling turns the fruit to jam and leaves too little free liquid to soak the bread.
- Weighting and chillingA plate that sits inside the rim, pressed down with a couple of tins, is right. "Leave it till cold" is the minimum; six hours in the refrigerator, or overnight, gives a pudding that holds its shape and is uniformly stained through.
- Which currantBlackcurrants are sharp and need the full sugar or a little more; red and white are milder and juicier. Redcurrants are sometimes mixed with blackcurrants or raspberries.
- ServingFive or six portions, as stated. Pouring cream or a thin pouring custard is correct; anything thick fights the fruit.
Bread-and-fruit puddings pressed cold in a basin appear in English cookery under a run of names — currant pudding, hydropathic pudding, summer pudding — though the latter two are recorded only late, and the middle one is often said to come from the water-cure establishments, where invalids were kept off pastry and suet. Cassell's has good reason to include it: it is thrift cookery, using stale bread and a glut of soft fruit from the garden at the one moment of the year when currants are cheap, with no oven, no flour and no fat. The note on probable cost, sixpence, is characteristic of the book, which priced dishes for the mistress of a modest household budgeting by the week. Blackcurrants in particular are generally reckoned to have been a kitchen-garden staple in Britain rather than a market crop, which would explain why a recipe like this assumes a pint and a half of them arriving at once.