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Peach Pudding Steamed
Mix well a cup of flour and two of breadcrumbs with half a cup of chopped nuts (almonds preferably). Stir in the yolks of three eggs, three-fourths cup of sugar, a little lemon juice, two heaping cups chopped peaches, and, last, the stiff whipped whites of the eggs. Place in buttered mould and steam two hours. Serve with peaches pressed through a sieve and sweetened.
A steamed sponge leavened only by beaten egg whites, so the folding is the whole recipe. There is no butter, no baking powder and no liquid beyond the fruit and eggs.
- Fold, do not stirThe whites are the only leavening. Beat them to firm peaks and fold them in in three additions with a spatula; if you beat them into the heavy crumb mixture the pudding steams into a dense brick.
- BreadcrumbsDry crumbs from stale white bread, not packaged seasoned crumbs. Two cups of dry crumbs weigh in the region of 8 oz; fresh soft crumbs weigh roughly half as much per cup, so you would need appreciably more of them by volume for the same weight.
- The mouldA pudding basin or tube mould large enough to take the mixture no more than two-thirds full; with these quantities that means something in the region of two and a half to three quarts. Butter it, and cover the top with buttered parchment and foil tied down, or the condensation will soak the surface.
- Setting up the steamerStand the mould on a rack in a deep pot with boiling water halfway up the sides, lid on, water at a bare simmer. Top up with boiling water as it drops; two hours will take a good deal of it.
- PeachesPeel them (30 seconds in boiling water, then cold) and drain the chopped fruit before measuring. Two heaping cups of very juicy peaches will otherwise weep enough liquid to make the base pasty.
- AlmondsSweet almonds only, blanched and chopped fine. Bitter almonds, which some period recipes call for as flavouring, are not a substitute here.
- DonenessA skewer into the centre should come out clean and the pudding should have pulled slightly from the sides. Let it stand 10 minutes before turning out or it will crack.
- The sauceRaw sieved peaches with sugar, essentially a fresh purée. Make it just before serving, add lemon juice to keep the colour, and thin with a spoonful of water if it is too thick to pour.
- YieldServes six to eight. Best warm; it firms considerably when cold and can be re-steamed for 20 minutes.
Steamed puddings of this kind sit at the end of a long British line — suet and breadcrumb puddings boiled in a cloth or basin — but this one appears to have been lightened in what is often described as the American manner of the turn of the century: no suet at all, the fat coming only from egg yolks and almonds, and the rise from whipped whites rather than a boiled batter's swelling. The recipe itself carries no date, so the placing is inference rather than fact. Serving the pudding with nothing but sieved raw fruit and sugar, in place of a hard sauce or custard, suggests a taste for fresh fruit flavour presented plainly.