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Fig Pudding II
1/4 lb. suet 1/2 lb. figs (finely chopped) 1 large sour apple (cored, pared, and chopped) 1/4 lb. brown sugar 1/4 lb. bread crumbs 1/4 cup milk 2 eggs 3 oz. flour Cream the suet, and add figs, apple, and sugar. Pour milk over bread crumbs, and add yolks of eggs, well beaten; combine mixtures, add flour and whites of eggs beaten until stiff. Turn into buttered pudding mould, and steam four hours. Serve with Lemon Sauce III.
English Plum Pudding I 1/2 lb. stale bread crumbs 1 cup scalded milk 1/4 lb. sugar 4 eggs 1/2 lb. raisins, seeded, cut in pieces, and floured 1/4 lb. currants 1/4 lb. finely chopped figs 2 oz. finely cut citron 1/2 lb. suet 1/4 cup wine and brandy mixed 1/2 grated nutmeg 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon 1/3 teaspoon clove 1/3 teaspoon mace 1 1/2 teaspoons salt Soak bread crumbs in milk, let stand until cool, add sugar, beaten yolks of eggs, raisins, currants, figs, and citron; chop suet, and cream by using the hand; combine mixtures, then add wine, brandy, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, mace, and whites of eggs beaten stiff. Turn into buttered mould, cover, and steam six hours.
A steamed suet pudding of the old English type, lightened with beaten egg whites rather than leavening. The four-hour steam is not padding — it is what softens the suet and the fig skins into something tender.
- Weights, not cupsMost of this is by weight: 4 oz suet, 8 oz figs, 4 oz brown sugar, 4 oz bread crumbs, 3 oz flour (about 2/3 cup); the milk (1/4 cup), the eggs and the apple are measured by volume or count. Weighing the crumbs matters most, since a cup of loose crumbs can vary considerably.
- SuetBeef suet is the hard fat from around the kidneys, sold by butchers on request and shredded in packets in Britain. "Cream the suet" means working it with the fingers or a spoon until soft and pliable, not melting it; grating it frozen is a common alternative. Frozen grated butter can stand in, though the pudding will be denser.
- FigsDried figs, stems removed, chopped fine. Old dried figs are leathery; a ten-minute soak in hot water, drained well, gives a better crumb.
- A sour appleA tart cooking apple — Bramley, Granny Smith or similar. It supplies acid and moisture, so a sweet eating apple will leave the pudding flat and cloying.
- The mouldA 1 1/2-quart pudding basin or covered mould, buttered, filled no more than two-thirds. Cover tightly with buttered parchment and foil tied under the rim, or the lid, so condensation cannot soak in.
- SteamingSet the mould on a rack in a deep pan, add boiling water to halfway up the sides, cover, and keep at a bare simmer for the full four hours. Top up with boiling water as it drops; if the pan boils dry the pudding scorches and the mould can crack.
- Doneness and servingThe pudding is done when it is firm to the touch and a skewer comes out clean. Rest ten minutes before turning out. Serves six to eight, and it reheats by steaming for 30-45 minutes.
- Lemon Sauce IIIThe cross-reference is to one of the numbered lemon sauces given elsewhere in the book. Any sharp lemon or brandy sauce serves the same purpose: cutting the richness of the suet.
Fig pudding belongs to the same family as the boiled and steamed suet puddings long established in English cookery — the pudding cloth is recorded from the seventeenth century — in which a floured cloth or a covered mould let a pot of simmering water do the work of an oven. Figs travelled well from the Mediterranean, arriving pressed into blocks or strung in rings, and by the late nineteenth century they were a familiar grocery item alongside raisins and currants, which may be why a book of this period offers a fig pudding beside the more elaborate Christmas plum pudding. The apple and the beaten egg whites here lighten the mixture; the four hours of steam and the quarter pound of suet are the older pattern.