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Orange Pudding, Boiled
Take the thin yellow rind of two Seville oranges, and boil it until tender. Drain it well, and pound it to a paste. Pour a pint of boiling milk over a quarter of a pound of spongecakes or finely-grated bread-crumbs; soak until cold, then add the rind of the oranges, three table-spoonfuls of powdered sugar, the strained juice of a small lemon, two ounces of clarified butter, and four well-beaten eggs. Mix all thoroughly. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered mould which it will quite fill, tie the mould in a floured cloth, plunge it into boiling water, and let the pudding boil quickly until done enough. A pudding thus made may be steamed or baked as well as boiled. Half a dozen sweet almonds blanched and pounded will greatly improve the flavour. Time, one hour to boil or steam; half an hour to bake. Probable cost, 1s. Sufficient for three or four persons.
A Victorian steamed-pudding formula built on a bread-and-milk panada, lifted with candied-bitter orange rind. The mould must be filled to the brim and sealed well, or water gets in and the pudding turns sodden.
- Seville orangesThese are the bitter marmalade oranges, in season only in midwinter; their rind is fragrant and sharp rather than sweet. If you cannot get them, use the rind of two ordinary oranges plus a strip of grapefruit zest to approximate the bitterness, and expect a milder pudding.
- Boiling the rindPeel the zest away with no white pith, then simmer it 20-30 minutes until a knife goes through easily, changing the water once to draw off harshness. Pound it in a mortar or blitz it with a spoonful of the sugar to a smooth paste; unpounded shreds give a stringy pudding.
- SpongecakesA quarter pound is 115 g. Stale plain sponge, trifle sponges, or an equal weight of finely grated breadcrumbs all work; the mixture should be a thick, spoonable batter after the eggs go in.
- Clarified butterTwo ounces is 55 g. The recipe does not say why clarified butter is specified; melted whole butter works here.
- The mould and clothA pint of milk plus the rest makes roughly a litre of mixture, so a 1-1.2 litre basin filled to the top is right. Modern practice is to butter the basin, cover with a pleated round of baking parchment then foil, and tie under the rim rather than wrapping the whole thing in a floured cloth.
- Boiling versus steamingThe original plunges the cloth-tied mould into boiling water; if you boil a covered basin instead, bring the water well up the sides and top it up from a kettle so it never drops off the boil. Steaming in a covered pan is easier to control and gives the same hour.
- Baking it insteadThe original gives only 'half an hour to bake' with no oven heat stated; a moderate oven, around 350F/180C, suits. It is done when the centre is just set and a skewer comes out clean.
- Yield and servingThree or four portions, as the original says. Turn out onto a warm plate and serve with a thin custard, cream, or a sauce of orange juice heated with sugar and a little butter.
Boiled puddings in a cloth or mould were the backbone of the English sweet course for two centuries, and by the time Cassell's Dictionary was compiled in the late nineteenth century the type had settled into a standard grammar: a starch base of breadcrumbs or stale sponge, milk, eggs, sugar, butter and a flavouring. What varied was the flavouring, and Seville orange was one of them. Sevilles reached British kitchens in quantity each January for marmalade making, and a household with a glut of peel had every reason to find other uses for it. The note on cost — one shilling for a pudding serving three or four — is characteristic of Cassell's, which costed its entries.