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Zebra Pudding
Butter a basin, shake crumbs all over it, then put a thick layer of fine crumbs on the bottom, then a layer of any kind of jam, then more crumbs, and so on in layers till the basin is full. Over all pour a custard just sufficient to slightly moisten the whole. Cover with buttered paper, and steam for three-quarters of an hour. Different sorts of jam or marmalade may be used.
A steamed layered bread-and-jam pudding of the plainest kind, written in the shorthand of a book that assumed its reader already knew how to rig a steamer. The only real skill is restraint with the custard.
- The hinge: barely moistenThe custard is there to bind, not to soak. Enough to dampen the crumbs and no more, or the layers collapse into a single brown mass and the striped effect that gives the pudding its name disappears.
- Basin size and quantitiesThe recipe gives none. Working from a common small pudding basin of roughly 1 to 1.5 pints (600-750 ml), something like 6 oz (170 g) fine dry white breadcrumbs and 6 oz (170 g) jam will fill it. Make a custard from 2 eggs to 300 ml milk but add it a little at a time, using only as much as dampens the crumbs -- likely well short of the whole quantity.
- CrumbsStale white bread grated or rubbed fine, not the sandy dried crumbs sold for coating. Fresh soft crumbs turn pasty; day-old bread is right.
- Buttered paperSubstitute a round of buttered parchment with a pleat, then foil over it, tied under the rim with string. The pleat allows the pudding to rise; the foil keeps condensation off it.
- How to steamStand the covered basin on a trivet or folded cloth in a deep pan, pour in boiling water to come halfway up the sides, cover the pan and keep it at a bare simmer. Top up with boiling water as it falls.
- TimingThree-quarters of an hour is accurate for a small basin at a true simmer. The pudding is done when the centre feels set and springs back; a fiercely boiling pan will curdle the custard at the edges before the middle firms.
- Choosing the jamFor visible stripes use something dark -- damson, blackcurrant, or a dark marmalade -- against the pale crumbs. Loose jams bleed; a stiff set holds its line.
- Serving and yieldRest five minutes before turning out, then serve hot with pouring custard or thin cream. A basin of this size should serve about four, though the recipe itself gives no yield.
The name appears to be descriptive: cut across, the alternating bands of pale crumb and dark preserve suggest stripes. It belongs to the large family of British steamed crumb puddings that used up stale bread. Steaming in a basin over water was a standard approach in kitchens where oven space was scarce or the range unreliable, and the same technique produced everything from suet roll to Christmas pudding. Jam puddings of this type were staples of nursery and school dinners well into the twentieth century.