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Orange Suet Pudding
To two cupsful of stale bread add one pint sweet milk, one cup fine-chopped suet, three-fourths cup of sugar, two well-beaten eggs, a saltspoon of salt, one-half teaspoon baking powder, the juice of one orange and grated rind of two. Stir together and set aside for twenty minutes in a covered bowl, then bake in buttered pudding-dish (tying cloth over top), for three-quarters of an hour. This may, instead, be boiled, in one mould or in individual, small ones, tying the cloth over tops securely and boiling-for the large mould, one hour; for the smaller one, forty minutes.
A plain bread-and-suet pudding lifted with orange, and one that works either baked or steamed. The book gives no oven heat and no yield, so both need filling in.
- The hinge: soak the bread properlyThe twenty minutes covered is what turns dry bread into custard rather than gritty lumps. The recipe says only "two cupsful of stale bread"; measuring it torn or crumbed rather than in thick slices gives the more even result. Press it under the milk so all of it hydrates.
- Oven temperatureThe book specifies no heat. A moderate oven, around 350F, is a reasonable modern reading, and the recipe's three-quarters of an hour at that heat should set the egg without curdling it; test with a knife in the centre, which should come out clean and not wet.
- Sweet milk and saltspoon"Sweet milk" means ordinary fresh whole milk, as opposed to the soured or buttermilk that period recipes also used. A saltspoon is about a quarter teaspoon.
- SuetBeef suet, the hard fat from around the kidneys, chopped or grated fine and kept cold. Butchers will often supply it on request; packaged shredded suet, including vegetarian versions, is sold in the UK and by baking suppliers elsewhere. Frozen suet grates much more easily than fresh.
- Rind of two orangesGrate only the coloured zest and stop at the pith, which is bitter. Zest before juicing, and rub the zest into the sugar so the oils spread through the batter.
- The cloth over the topWhen baking, the tied cloth traps steam and keeps the surface soft; a lid or foil crimped over the dish does the same. When boiling, the cloth is structural — grease and flour the cloth, leave a little slack for expansion, and tie it tight enough that no water gets in.
- Boiling methodThe recipe says boiled. A gentler modern handling is to set the mould on a trivet or folded cloth in a pan of water that comes halfway up, cover, and keep the water at a bare simmer rather than a rolling boil, topping up with boiling water so it never drops below halfway. The recipe's own times: one hour for a large mould, forty minutes for small.
- Baking powderHalf a teaspoon in this much batter does very little lifting; its job is to keep the crumb from packing dense. Do not increase it, or the pudding takes on a soapy edge that fights the orange.
- Yield and servingServes six modestly, or four generously. It wants a sauce — a thin orange or lemon custard, a hard sauce, or simply cream — as the pudding itself is only lightly sweetened.
Suet puddings were the backbone of English and American everyday cookery for centuries, because suet is cheap, keeps well, and gives richness without butter; adding stale bread made a dessert out of what would otherwise be waste. What dates this particular version is the orange. By the time collections like this were being printed, refrigerated rail cars and Florida and California groves had made citrus an ordinary winter grocery in much of the United States rather than a Christmas-stocking luxury. The technique of a batter baked or boiled interchangeably in a cloth-tied mould is older still, and is often said to be a holdover from the era when a reliable pot of hot water came before a reliable oven.