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Tomato Dumplings, or Puddings
Take some small pudding basins that will hold one tomato each, and line them with thinly-rolled suet or other crust, as the dumplings can be steamed, or boiled, or baked; for the latter a short crust should be used. The fruit should be skimmed, and seasoned with salt and pepper. No gravy or water should be put in. Put on a top of crust, and cook for an hour or more. Cups may be used instead of pudding basins. Probable cost, 2d. to 2 1/2d. each.
A one-tomato suet pudding, steamed in a teacup or small basin. The method is sound but the printing is terse, and one word in it is almost certainly a misprint.
- "Skimmed" means skinnedThe tomato should be peeled — score a cross in the base, drop into boiling water for 20-30 seconds, then into cold, and the skin slips off. Left on, the skin shrinks inside the crust and turns to leathery threads.
- Why no liquidThis is the hinge of the recipe. A whole tomato throws off a great deal of juice as it cooks, and any added water or gravy will waterlog the crust and burst the pudding. Season it and close the lid.
- Suet crust proportionsThe book assumes you know them: 8 oz self-raising flour (or plain flour with 2 tsp baking powder), 4 oz shredded suet, a good pinch of salt, and about 5 fl oz cold water to a soft dough. Roll thin — about 5 mm — since there is little filling to support a heavy lining.
- Short crust for bakingIf baking rather than steaming, use shortcrust, as the book directs. The book gives no oven temperature; a moderate oven, around 350F/180C, suits it. An hour is right for a pudding this small; the crust should be pale gold and firm underneath.
- Vessels and coveringA dariole mould, a ramekin or a heavy teacup of about 150 ml each holds one medium tomato. For steaming, cover each with a pleated square of baking parchment or foil tied down, or the steam will condense straight into the crust.
- Steaming and boiling timesAn hour in a steamer over gently simmering water is enough for these; the book does not explain its 'or more', which may allow for larger vessels or a slower heat. If boiling, stand the covered basins in water reaching two-thirds up their sides and keep it at a bare simmer, topping up with boiling water.
- SeasoningSalt and pepper alone is very plain by modern taste. A little sugar sharpens the tomato, and a scrap of butter, a shred of basil or a rasp of nutmeg tucked in with it will not offend the recipe's logic — but keep anything wet out.
- Yield and serviceOne dumpling per person as a savoury course or a light supper dish, turned out onto a warm plate. Serve at once; the crust stiffens as it cools.
- The costTwopence to twopence-halfpenny each is the book's own Victorian figure and is given as a guide to household economy, not as anything convertible.
Cassell's places this among a run of tomato dishes that reflect how relatively new the fruit still felt in the ordinary British kitchen in the later nineteenth century -- commercial glasshouse growing expanded from around the 1880s, and the fruit was treated with some experiment as it became cheaper. The idea itself is older than the ingredient: a suet crust wrapped round a single piece of fruit is the same construction as an apple dumpling, well attested in English cookery from the eighteenth century, and the compiler appears to have substituted the newer fruit. The instruction that it may be "steamed, or boiled, or baked" suits a book written for kitchens with very different equipment -- a coal range with an unreliable oven, or no oven at all and only a pot on the hob. The insistence on no gravy or water, and the careful note of a price in pence, belong to the same practical register, and the success of the dish rests on the tomato's own juice.