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Three Eggs (Raspberry Jam about half)
Quarter of a pound of Butter. Raspberry Jam, about half a pound.
Half a pound of Bread-crumbs.
Quarter of a pound of Sugar.
Beat the butter and sugar to a cream, then add the eggs and bread-crumbs. Butter a shape well, and coat it with brown crumbs. Put a layer of mixture and a layer of jam alternately, till the shape is full. Bake one hour in a moderate oven.
The ingredient list has come adrift from its heading: the title carries the eggs, and the butter is named in the method but never quantified. Work out those two before you start, and the rest is a straightforward baked crumb pudding.
- The missing butterThe method says to cream butter with the sugar, but no weight is given anywhere. Butter is often paired with sugar at equal weight in puddings of this kind, so a quarter of a pound (4 oz / 115 g) is a sensible reading — but it is a reconstruction, not what the page says.
- Weights in fullThree eggs, about 8 oz (225 g) raspberry jam, 8 oz (225 g) breadcrumbs, 4 oz (115 g) sugar, plus the butter above. The recipe does not say which crumbs; soft fresh ones suit better than dried, which will drink the eggs and bake heavy.
- "A shape"A metal or china pudding mould; the mixture will need something in the region of 1.5 to 2 pints (850 ml–1.1 l). A charlotte mould, a deep cake tin or a pudding basin all work. Butter it thickly and turn brown crumbs around the inside so the pudding releases cleanly.
- Brown crumbsThese are raspings — crusts dried hard in a cooling oven and crushed, the Victorian equivalent of dried breadcrumbs. Shop-bought dried crumbs are a direct substitute for lining the mould.
- Moderate oven350F / 175C. If the top colours before the hour is up, cover it loosely with foil; the centre needs the full time to set.
- Layering the jamKeep the jam layers thin and stop them short of the mould wall. Jam against hot metal caramelises and glues the pudding in place, which is how these puddings come out in pieces.
- Turning outRest it five to ten minutes out of the oven before inverting, so the structure firms. Longer than that and the jam sets fast to the mould.
- Yield and servingSix modest portions. It wants a pouring custard or plain cream; the jam already carries the sugar.
Baked crumb puddings like this belong to the long British tradition of turning stale bread into dessert — a tradition that had already produced bread pudding, queen of puddings and the charlotte. The layering of mixture and jam is the same instinct behind the steamed jam roll, and raspberry was the usual choice, though the reasons for that preference are not documented here. The heading on this page is garbled — an ingredient stranded in the title, the butter present in the method but nowhere weighed — which may suggest a printed text serving as a memory aid for someone who had watched the dish being made rather than a complete set of instructions.