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Kentish Suet Pudding
Shred a quarter of a pound of beef suet very finely, add a pinch of salt, and ten ounces of fine flour; mix thoroughly, and make up into a paste, by the addition of an egg beaten up with a little cold water. Put the whole into a floured cloth, tie it securely, plunge it into boiling water, and boil quickly for an hour and a half. This pudding is very good with a jar of jam emptied over it, or eaten with hot gravy and boiled meat. If any is left, it may be toasted before the fire until brightly browned, and served with the same accompaniments as before. Probable cost, 4d. Sufficient for five or six persons.
A plain boiled suet dough — no sugar, no raising agent — meant to stretch a meal and be eaten sweet or savoury. The whole trick is in the wrapping and the vigour of the boil.
- Quantities4 oz (115 g) shredded beef suet to 10 oz (285 g) plain flour, a pinch of salt, one egg and cold water to bring it together. Aim for a firm dough that just holds, not a batter; too much water and it will be heavy and soggy.
- SuetFresh beef suet from a butcher needs shredding while very cold, or grating from the freezer. Packaged shredded suet works directly; vegetarian shredded suet behaves much the same in this dough.
- The clothScald the cloth, wring it out, then flour it generously — the flour forms the skin that keeps water out. Tie it securely, as the recipe says, leaving only a little room for the dough to swell, and knot the string with a loop so you can lift it clear.
- Keep it boilingThe water must be at a rolling boil before the pudding goes in and must never drop below a boil, or water soaks into the dough. Top up with boiling water, not cold, and keep the pudding off the pan bottom with an upturned saucer or a trivet.
- TimingAn hour and a half is right for this size. It cannot be rushed, and a modest overrun does no harm.
- ServingSufficient for five or six persons. Unmould onto a warmed dish and cut in thick wedges; with jam it is a pudding, with gravy and boiled beef it is the starch course.
- LeftoversThe instruction to toast slices before the fire translates to slicing about 1 cm thick and browning in a dry or lightly greased frying pan. Cold suet dough is dense and firms up in the fridge, which makes it slice cleanly.
- "Probable cost, 4d."Cassell's priced its recipes in pence for household budgeting. Fourpence for a dish feeding six is the entire point of the recipe.
Suet puddings boiled in a cloth were a staple of English cooking from the seventeenth century onward, once the pudding cloth freed the cook from stuffing a mixture into an animal's gut or stomach. County names attached loosely to these puddings and rarely denote anything strict; Kentish here signals a plain, unsweetened, unfruited version rather than a documented regional formula. The closing note on toasting leftovers reflects a period habit of household economy in which nothing edible went to waste.