Home › Desserts › One-Kalp Pound
One-Kalp Pound
PRICE IS CENT Larkin Ce.
One cup of molasses One cup of milk One egg. One tablespoon of butter One teaspoon of Larkin Soda. One cup of milk One egg One teaspoon of Larkin Soda One teaspoon of Larkin Allspice One teaspoon of Larkin Cinnamon One teaspoon of Larkin Cloves One and one-half cups of Graham flour One cup of raisins Steam three hours.
A plain steamed spice pudding of the sort that Larkin Company premium booklets printed to move their own soda and spices. The ingredient list as printed carries no sweetener and no fat, so treat it as a skeleton and expect to supply both.
- Soda needs an acidThe recipe says only "milk". If that is fresh sweet milk, it is only faintly acidic and will not neutralise a whole teaspoon of soda, which risks a soapy taste. Steamed puddings of this type were commonly built on sour milk, buttermilk, or molasses, any of which supplies the acid the soda wants.
- Missing sweetener and fatAs listed, this makes an unsweetened, fatless brown bread rather than a dessert. Steamed puddings of this kind normally carry some molasses or brown sugar and a little butter or beef suet, so both will have to be supplied by the cook.
- Graham flourGraham flour is coarse whole-wheat flour with the bran left in. Modern stone-ground whole wheat is the closest match; ordinary whole-wheat flour works but gives a finer, tighter crumb.
- The moldFill a greased pudding basin, coffee tin, or heatproof bowl of about a quart and a half no more than two-thirds full, and cover tightly with greased foil or a tied cloth. Steam is the whole method here; an uncovered mold takes on water and the pudding collapses.
- How to steamSet the mold on a rack in a deep pot, add boiling water to reach halfway up the sides, cover, and keep the water at a bare simmer. Top up with boiling water as it evaporates so the pot never runs dry.
- Three hours is not excessiveA dense whole-grain batter in a closed mold genuinely wants that long at 212F. It is done when a skewer comes out clean and the pudding has pulled slightly from the sides; a shorter steam leaves a gummy center.
- RaisinsToss the raisins in a spoonful of the flour before folding them in so they stay suspended rather than sinking to what becomes the top of the turned-out pudding.
- Yield and servingAbout six servings. Rest the mold five minutes before unmolding, and serve warm with hard sauce, a lemon sauce, or plain cream.
The Larkin Company of Buffalo built its business on selling soap and household goods by mail, with premiums attached, and it distributed small cookbooks whose recipes conveniently called for Larkin soda, Larkin cinnamon, Larkin cloves and Larkin allspice by name. Recipes like this one are advertising as much as instruction: the pudding is a standard American steamed spice pudding, close kin to the steamed brown breads and "boiled" puddings that had been made in a covered mold over water since well before ovens were reliable in every kitchen. Steaming suited a coal or wood range, since it required only a pot kept simmering rather than a stable oven temperature for three hours, and the technique survived in home cookery long after baking became easy.