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Pompadour Pudding, Rich
Pour a third of a pint of boiling cream upon two ounces of finely-grated bread-crumbs, and let them soak until cool. Beat well with a fork, and mix with them five ounces of finely-shredded beef suet, an ounce of flour, two ounces of macaroons crushed to powder, three ounces of powdered sugar, two ounces of table raisins weighed after the stones are taken out, two ounces of dried cherries, four ounces of candied peel cut into thin slices, the grated rind of half a lemon, half a nutmeg, grated, and a pinch of salt. When these ingredients are well mixed, stir in the yolks of four eggs and a glassful of brandy. Pour the mixture into a buttered mould which it will fill to the brim, cover with oiled paper, and tie securely in a floured cloth. Boil or steam the pudding until it is done enough, let it stand a minute or two before turning it out, dish it carefully, and serve at once. If liked, the pudding can be additionally flavoured, and will be improved by boiling in the cream before it is poured over the crumbs three ounces of blanched sweet almonds and three bitter ones. Before sending the pudding to table, pour over it a sauce prepared as follows. Make two glasses of sherry hot, but do not let it boil. Pour it over a large table-spoonful of powdered and sifted sugar, and when this is dissolved stir into it the well-beaten yolks of two eggs. Whisk the sauce briskly over a gentle fire, and when it begins to thicken and is lightly frothed it is ready. Time to boil the pudding, two hours and a half. Probable cost, 2s. 8d., exclusive of the sauce and brandy. Sufficient for a pint mould.
A Victorian steamed suet pudding of the rich, fruited Christmas type, served with a warm sherry sabayon. Two elements of it are no longer acceptable in a modern kitchen, and they are flagged first.
- Bitter almondsThe suggested flavouring of "three bitter ones" is the kernel of Prunus dulcis var. amara, which contains amygdalin and releases hydrogen cyanide when crushed and wetted. Sale of bitter almonds for eating is restricted or prohibited in a number of countries, and domestic methods do not reliably control the dose. This is the reason the page carries a caution.
- The sherry sauceThe sauce is egg yolk whisked into warmed sherry over a gentle fire and taken off "when it begins to thicken" and is lightly frothed. No temperature is given and doneness is judged by appearance alone, so there is no way to know from the instructions whether the yolk has reached a safe temperature.
- If you want a pudding like thisUse a current recipe for a rich steamed fruit pudding and a current recipe for sabayon or zabaglione. The proportions below are given so the original can be read accurately, not so it can be reproduced.
- Imperial liquid measuresA third of an imperial pint is about 190 ml, roughly 3/4 cup of cream. The "pint mould" is a 20 fl oz vessel, about 570 ml — a modern 1-pint US basin will be too small for the quantities listed.
- A glassful"A glassful" of brandy and "two glasses" of sherry are wine-glass measures of the period, generally taken as about 2 fl oz (60 ml) each. The book gives no standard, so treat these as approximate.
- MacaroonsThese are the small dry almond macaroons of the nineteenth century, not coconut macaroons and not French macarons. Italian amaretti are the closest thing on a modern shelf.
- Beef suetFive ounces of shredded fresh suet from a butcher, or packet shredded suet where it is sold. Fresh suet needs the membrane picked out before shredding; packet suet is already floured, which slightly changes the flour balance.
- "Until it is done enough"The book resolves this at the end: two and a half hours boiling or steaming. A pudding of this size and richness genuinely needs that long, and the water must be kept topped up with boiling water so it never drops off the simmer.
- YieldThe book says only "Sufficient for a pint mould" and gives no number of servings. A pudding of this density and richness would go a fair way, but the portion count is an inference, not something the original states.
"Pompadour" was one of a family of names — Nesselrode, Cabinet, Chancellor, Diplomate — that Victorian cookery writers attached to elaborate moulded puddings to suggest court elegance, and it tells you more about marketing than about the Marquise de Pompadour, who is generally invoked in such names without any documented connection to the dish. The recipe is printed in the "rich" register: cream instead of milk, macaroon crumbs standing in for part of the flour, candied peel and dried cherries rather than plain currants, and a wine sauce instead of melted butter, at a probable cost of 2s. 8d. when a plain suet pudding could be had for pennies. The bitter almond note is entirely of its period — a few bitter kernels among the sweet ones is often said to have been the way to get a strong marzipan flavour, before commercial almond essence and, later, food-safety rules made the practice both unnecessary and, in places, restricted.