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Thanksgiving Pudding II
1/3 cup suet 1/2 lb. figs, finely chopped 2 1/2 cups stale bread crumbs 3/4 cup milk 1 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon salt 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg 1/2 cup English walnut meats 1/2 cup raisins, seeded and cut in pieces 2 tablespoons flour 4 eggs 2 teaspoons baking powder Chop suet and work with the hand until creamy, then add figs. Soak bread crumbs in milk, add eggs well beaten, sugar, salt, and spices. Combine mixtures, add nut meats and raisins dredged with flour. Sprinkle over baking powder and beat thoroughly. Turn into a buttered mould, steam three hours, and serve with Yellow Sauce II, flavored with brandy.
A steamed suet pudding of the English Christmas type, dressed for the American Thanksgiving table. The whole thing hinges on maintaining a steady, gentle steam for the full three hours.
- SuetBeef suet from a butcher, chopped fine and worked with the hands until it creams, is the original. Frozen suet grated on a box grater blends more easily; frozen unsalted butter or vegetable shortening, grated, is an acceptable stand-in, though the texture will be a shade less light.
- Bread crumbs"Stale bread crumbs" means soft crumbs torn or rubbed from day-old bread, not the dry sandy crumbs sold in canisters. Dry crumbs absorb far more milk and will give a heavy pudding.
- The mouldUse a 2-quart or larger pudding basin or covered mould, buttered well and filled no more than two-thirds, since the pudding rises. Cover tightly with a lid, or with buttered parchment and foil tied down with string, so condensation does not drip in.
- Setting up the steamStand the mould on a rack in a deep pot, pour in boiling water to come halfway up the sides, and keep it at a bare simmer. Check every 45 minutes and top up with boiling water; letting the pot run dry is the usual way this pudding fails.
- Testing itAfter three hours a skewer pushed into the centre should come out clean and the pudding should feel springy. Let it rest ten minutes before turning out, or it may slump.
- Baking powderThe recipe directs sprinkling it over at the end and beating it in; the four beaten eggs contribute lift as well. Measure the baking powder level, as excess can leave a soapy note in a long-steamed pudding.
- Figs and dredgingDried figs, stems trimmed, chopped fine. Tossing the raisins and nuts in the two tablespoons of flour keeps them suspended rather than sinking to what will become the top of the turned-out pudding.
- The sauceYellow Sauce II is a separate egg-based sweet sauce given elsewhere in the book; any thin pouring custard with a spoonful of brandy stirred in at the end will serve in its place.
- Yield and keepingServes eight to ten. Leftovers keep several days refrigerated and reheat well by steaming slices for 15 to 20 minutes.
Suet puddings boiled or steamed in a cloth or basin came to American kitchens directly from English practice, where the plum pudding was the fixed close of the Christmas dinner. American cookbooks of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries repeatedly relocated the form to Thanksgiving, and numbered variants like this one, built on figs rather than the older currants and candied peel, reflect how freely the cooking-school writers treated the fruit. The reliance on suet is a reminder of a period when beef fat was a routine kitchen staple rather than a specialty order, and the three-hour steam belongs to a household that expected the range to be lit all afternoon anyway.