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German Pudding, Boiled
Put the thin rind of a large lemon into half a pint of milk. Let the milk stand for half an hour, then boil, and pour it over half a pound of stale crumbs of bread, finely grated. When cool, beat it with a fork, take out the lemon-rind, and add three ounces of butter, three ounces of sugar, and four eggs, well beaten. Butter a plain round mould rather thickly, put in a layer of the soaked bread-crumbs, etc., then a layer of either good jam or marmalade, and repeat until the mould is full. Put soaked bread at the top. Cover with buttered paper, put the mould in a pan, and boil or steam the pudding. Serve with German pudding sauce (see GERMAN PUDDING SAUCE). Time to boil or steam, an hour and a half. Probable cost, 1s. 6d. Sufficient for five or six persons.
A Victorian steamed breadcrumb pudding, layered like a trifle with jam. The method is sound; only the vessels and a few conventions need translating.
- Quantities in modern termsHalf a pint of milk is 10 fl oz (about 1 1/4 cups) by the imperial measure this book uses. Half a pound of stale breadcrumbs may be anywhere from about 2 to 4-plus cups depending on how dry the bread is and how finely it is grated, so weigh if you can; 3 oz butter is 6 tablespoons, 3 oz sugar a scant half cup.
- The mouldA "plain round mould" is a straight-sided metal or ceramic pudding basin of about 1 1/2 quarts. Butter it heavily as instructed, since the sugar in the jam layers will catch on any bare patch.
- Buttered paper, not a lidThe buttered paper is the period's covering; a round of parchment under a sheet of foil, tied or crimped at the rim, does the same job. It must be secure enough to keep condensation off the surface of the pudding.
- Boil or steam"Put the mould in a pan" means a water bath on the stovetop, water reaching halfway to two-thirds up the basin, kept at a bare simmer and topped up with boiling water as it falls. A steamer basket over simmering water works equally well and is less anxious.
- Lemon rind"Thin rind" means pared with no white pith, which turns bitter in milk. The recipe steeps first and boils after; follow that order, as a hard boil at the outset may carry off some of the volatile oil.
- Temper before adding eggsThe instruction to let the crumb mixture cool matters. Beat in the butter and sugar while it is warm if you like, but the four eggs go in only once it is no more than lukewarm, or they will set into threads.
- Jam layersUse a thick preserve. A loose or runny jam will bleed into the crumb and the layers will vanish; marmalade holds its line best.
- Timing and turning outAn hour and a half is right for this size. Let the pudding stand five to ten minutes before inverting, so it firms enough to release cleanly. Serves five or six, as stated.
Steamed and boiled puddings built on grated stale bread were a mainstay of British domestic sweets through the nineteenth century, when bread was too dear to waste and the pudding basin and pan of simmering water were common kitchen equipment. The "German" label attached to a great many Victorian dishes and carried no single meaning; judging from the dishes themselves it seems to have been applied to sweets thought to be in a Continental style, often ones involving layered preserves or a rich custard sauce, and the fashion owed something to the German connections of the royal household after 1840. Cassell's cross-reference to a separate German pudding sauce is characteristic of these big alphabetical dictionaries, which broke a dish into parts and expected the cook to assemble it from several entries. The stated cost of 1s. 6d. for five or six people places it as a respectable but unextravagant family pudding.