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INDIAN PUDDING (another way) (Butter a pudding-mould)
Butter a pudding-mould, and place on the inside pieces of preserved ginger, cut into nice tasteful forms. Lay slices of spongecake in a bowl, and pour over them a pint of boiling cream, into which, when well soaked, beat sugar enough to sweeten (say about two ounces), and half a dozen well-whisked eggs. Beat the mixture, and fill the buttered basin. The pudding may be steamed or boiled from three-quarters of an hour to an hour, or till firm. The syrup from the ginger is usually served warmed up as sauce. Turn out the pudding, and send it hot to table, with the sauce poured over it. Probable cost, exclusive of ginger, 2s. 4d. The above ingredients are sufficient for four small sponge-cakes.
A steamed sponge-and-custard pudding lined with preserved ginger, of the kind that lives or dies by how gently it is cooked. Keep the heat low and steady and the custard sets silky; let the water gallop and it curdles.
- The hinge: gentle heatThis is a baked-custard mixture in disguise, so the water under the mould should barely tremble rather than boil hard. A rolling boil will scramble the eggs and weep liquid when the pudding is turned out.
- Pudding-mould and basinThe recipe uses "mould" and "basin" interchangeably. A pint of cream with six eggs and the soaked sponge makes considerably more than 1.5 pints of mixture, so use a metal mould or ceramic pudding basin of at least 2 pints (about 1.1 litres). Butter it well, press the ginger pieces against the sides and base, then cover with buttered paper or foil tied down so condensation cannot drip in.
- A pint of creamAn imperial pint is 20 fl oz, about 570 ml. Single cream or half cream and half milk gives a lighter set than modern double cream, which can make the pudding heavy.
- Preserved gingerStem ginger in syrup, sold in jars, is the direct equivalent. Crystallised ginger is not, being dry and sugar-coated; if that is all you have, the sauce will need to be made from sugar syrup with a little grated fresh ginger.
- Sponge-cakeThe closing line ("sufficient for four small sponge-cakes") is ambiguous, but plain small sponge cakes of the trifle-sponge type are the likely equivalent. Stale cake soaks better than fresh.
- Pouring on boiling creamSoak the sponge in the hot cream first and let it cool to warm before the beaten eggs go in, or add the eggs slowly while whisking. Six eggs hitting scalding cream in one go will thicken into threads.
- TimingThree-quarters of an hour to an hour, as the recipe gives. It is done when the centre feels set to a light press and a skewer comes out clean; rest it five minutes before turning out or it will slump.
- YieldThe recipe gives no serving count; a pudding of this size would serve about four to six. The ginger syrup, warmed with a spoonful of water to loosen it, is enough sauce for the whole pudding.
Despite the name, this has nothing to do with the American cornmeal-and-molasses pudding also called Indian pudding; here it is the preserved ginger alone that appears to earn the title. Stem ginger in syrup was an imported store-cupboard luxury, and Cassell's typically pricing the dish "exclusive of ginger" is a quiet admission that the jar was the expensive part. The construction is thoroughly of its period: a steamed mould, a decorative lining that becomes the pattern on the turned-out pudding, and sponge-cake as the body of it.