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Syrup Cup Puddings
The moulds for these puddings should be about the size of small tea-cups. Line them with a suet or crust paste rolled as thinly as possible. For every half pound of treacle allow the grated peel and strained juice of an orange, a table-spoonful of grated apple, the same of orange marmalade, two ounces of currants or sultana raisins, and a little nutmeg or mixed spice. Fill up the cups with alternate layers of paste or treacle mixture, having paste as the top layer, then steam the puddings, with a sheet of greased paper laid over the top, for an hour and a half. Turn out, and serve plain or with a plain sweet sauce. Probable cost, 2 1/2d. each.
A small steamed suet pudding built in layers rather than a single filling — the paste is there to soak up the treacle, so it must be rolled thin or the cups turn stodgy. Nothing here is difficult; the details are all in the vessels, the paste and the steam.
- Treacle, not syrupDespite the title, treacle in a British book of this date could mean either black treacle (close to blackstrap molasses) or a paler refiners' syrup; the word covered both, and a lighter syrup gives a milder, sweeter result. Half a pound is about two-thirds of a cup by volume; weigh it rather than measure it.
- The moulds"About the size of small tea-cups" suggests something in the region of 4 to 5 fl oz; modern dariole moulds or ovenproof ramekins are the nearest equivalents. Grease them well, since treacle clings as it cools.
- Suet crust pasteThe standard proportion is 8 oz self-raising flour to 4 oz shredded suet, a pinch of salt, and cold water to a soft but rollable dough. Vegetable suet works identically. Plain flour needs 2 tsp baking powder added.
- Roll it thinThis is the hinge. Layered paste swells as it steams, and paste rolled too thick will leave the middle of the pudding pasty rather than saturated with treacle.
- SteamingCover each mould with pleated greased parchment or foil — the pleat allows the pudding to rise. Stand them in a pan of simmering water reaching halfway up the sides, lid on, and top up with boiling water during the hour and a half so the pan never runs dry.
- Grated appleUse a firm tart apple and grate it just before mixing; it exists to add moisture and acidity against the treacle, not bulk. A tablespoon per half pound is not a misprint.
- Mixed spiceBritish mixed spice is a sweet blend of cinnamon, coriander, nutmeg, allspice, ginger and clove. Pumpkin pie spice is the nearest ready substitute; a quarter teaspoon is plenty for this quantity.
- Yield and servingThe recipe gives no yield; half a pound of treacle with its additions, layered with paste, will fill several teacup moulds, the number depending on mould size and how thin the paste is rolled. The "plain sweet sauce" of the period means pouring custard, or a thin sauce of sugar, water and butter — cream also works.
- The cost2½d. each is old pence, twelve to the shilling. It marks this as a thrifty family pudding rather than a dinner-party dish.
Steamed treacle puddings belong to the great Victorian family of boiled and steamed sweets that made a cheap, filling finish to a meal: flour, suet and a dark sweetener, cooked over the same fire that was already going. Treacle — the by-product left after sugar refining — was among the cheapest sweeteners available to a British household in the nineteenth century, and golden syrup came to sit alongside it, which may be why the title says "syrup" while the method says treacle. What lifts this version above a plain treacle sponge is the orange: peel, juice and marmalade all at once, plus grated apple, cutting the flatness of molasses with acid and bitterness. Cassell's, an encyclopaedic work aimed at middle-class households running on a budget, routinely quotes a probable cost per portion, and at 2½d. a head this sat firmly in the everyday column rather than the company one.