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HARROGATE PUDDING (sometimes called Warwickshire Pudding)
Beat three ounces of fresh butter to a cream, work in with it three ounces of pounded and sifted sugar, three ounces of fine flour, half an ounce of candied lemon-peel, finely minced, and the grated rind of half a lemon. Stir these ingredients briskly together, and add a table-spoonful of thick cream, three eggs, well beaten, and a table-spoonful of brandy. Beat all together for ten minutes, pour the mixture into well-buttered cups, and bake in a good oven. Soak the rind of a lemon in half a pint of water, with two table-spoonfuls of sugar, until the flavour is extracted. Let the water boil, and, when cool, add a table-spoonful of brandy, the juice of the lemon, and a few drops of cochineal. Turn the puddings out, pour the sauce round them, sift a little sugar over, and serve immediately. Time, twenty minutes to bake. Sufficient for four persons. Probable cost, 10d., exclusive of the brandy.
A small creamed-butter sponge baked in cups, closer to a set of individual lemon puddings than to anything steamed. The method is sound; only the vessels, the oven description and the colouring need translating.
- The weightsThree ounces each of butter, sugar and flour is a true pound-cake ratio in miniature: about 85 g of each. The eggs are the leavening, so weigh rather than scoop the flour.
- "A good oven"Victorian oven descriptions were relative rather than fixed, but 'good' generally implies something brisker than moderate; around 375F (190C) is a reasonable modern reading. Twenty minutes at that heat suits small cups; the puddings should be risen, golden and just firm at the centre.
- The cupsDariole moulds or ramekins of about 4 fl oz each, buttered heavily so they turn out clean. Fill them no more than two-thirds, as the mixture climbs.
- Ten minutes of beatingThis is the hinge. Without a raising agent the volume comes entirely from air beaten into the butter and eggs. A stand mixer will do it faster, but add the eggs gradually or the batter curdles and the puddings bake heavy.
- Candied lemon-peelHalf an ounce, minced very fine. Modern candied peel can be coarser and wetter than the recipe seems to assume, so chop it small or it may sink and stick to the mould.
- Half a pint of waterAn imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz, about 285 ml. Steeping the pared rind and then bringing the water to the boil gives a thin lemon syrup rather than a thick sauce; it is meant to pool round the puddings, not coat them.
- CochinealA few drops of the old liquid colouring turned the sauce pink. It is a genuine insect-derived dye, still sold as carmine, and is entirely optional — the sauce tastes the same without it. Note that carmine is not suitable for vegans and is a known allergen for a small number of people.
- Yield and timingSufficient for four persons. Small eggy sponges of this kind tend to sink as they cool, which is presumably why the recipe ends 'serve immediately'.
Cassell's hedges on the name, and with reason: puddings of this creamed-butter type were named after spa towns and counties fairly loosely in nineteenth-century cookery books. What marks the recipe as belonging to its period is the costing /t— tenpence, brandy excluded — and the assumption that a household had cream, three eggs and candied peel to hand on an ordinary day. The technique itself, beating butter and sugar to a cream and relying on eggs alone to lift the mixture, is older than chemical raising agents and was still the mark of a careful cook long after baking powder became common.