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Carrot Pudding
One cup of grated potatoes (raw), one cup of grated carrot (raw), one cup of currants, one cup of raisins, three-quarters of a cup of suet, one scant teaspoon of saleratus, one and one-half cups of flour, one scant cup of sugar. Steam for three hours. Serve with any good pudding sauce.
— Mrs. Caroline A. Day
A steamed suet pudding of the English Christmas type, thickened with raw grated root vegetables rather than breadcrumbs. The method is simple; the details that trip people up are the leavening, the mould and the steaming setup.
- Saleratus is baking sodaSaleratus was the nineteenth-century name for potassium (later sodium) bicarbonate. Use a scant teaspoon of baking soda. There is no acid ingredient here beyond the fruit, so its job is largely to lighten and darken the crumb rather than to give a full rise.
- SuetBeef suet, the hard fat from around the kidneys, shredded or grated fine. Butchers will often supply it on request; packaged shredded suet is sold in British groceries. Frozen butter grated on the coarse holes is the usual substitute, though the pudding will be softer and less open.
- Grate the potato lastRaw grated potato browns within minutes. Grate it directly into the bowl with the other ingredients, or into the sugar, and mix at once.
- No liquid is listedThe moisture comes entirely from the grated potato and carrot. The mixture should be a stiff, barely droppable batter; if it will not come together, a spoonful or two of milk is within the spirit of the thing.
- The mould and the steamingThe listed quantities make roughly seven cups of mixture, so allow a greased 2.5 to 3 quart pudding basin or lidded mould filled about two-thirds full (or divide between two smaller basins, shortening the time). Cover with pleated parchment and foil tied down, and set it on a rack in a deep pot with boiling water halfway up the sides. Keep it at a bare simmer and top up with boiling water as it goes; the recipe's three hours suits a pudding of this size, and letting the pot run dry is the one real failure.
- Currants versus raisins"Currants" here means dried Zante currants, the small black grapes, not fresh redcurrants or blackcurrants. Both fruits benefit from a brief soak in hot water if they are stiff.
- Yield and sauceRoughly seven cups of mixture, enough for eight to ten servings of so dense a pudding. 'Any good pudding sauce' left the choice open; hard sauce of creamed butter and sugar, and a warm foamy egg-thickened sauce, were among the common options and either suits a dense fruited pudding.
- KeepingSteamed puddings improve after a day or two and reheat well by steaming for another 45 minutes. Cool completely in the mould before wrapping.
Carrot and potato puddings belong to a long line of English boiled and steamed puddings in which grated root vegetables supply sweetness, moisture and binding. Both were cellar staples available in midwinter, when this sort of pudding was most wanted. Recipes of this shape appear in American community cookbooks of the later nineteenth century, usually under the name carrot pudding. The attribution to Mrs. Caroline A. Day is typical of the genre, where each receipt carried a neighbor's name as its warrant.