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Steamed Fruit Pudding
Mrs. R. S. Triggs. 1 C light molasses 1 °C milk 2 T lard 1 t soda Steam two hours. 1 cup brown sugar 12 t salt 1 C raisins Flour enough to make very stiff batter Sauce 1 T butter 1 T flour Brown together and pour on boiling water to right consistency.
A church-supper shorthand recipe, typed by someone who assumed the reader already knew how steamed puddings work. The ingredient lists have been run together in printing, so read the whole thing before you start.
- Sort the two lists firstEverything through "Flour enough to make very stiff batter" belongs to the pudding: 1 cup light molasses, 1 cup milk, 2 tablespoons lard, 1 teaspoon soda, 1 cup brown sugar, salt, 1 cup raisins. The four items printed after the sauce directions (egg, 1/2 cup molasses, 2 tablespoons sugar, 2 tablespoons melted lard) carry no heading of their own; they read most naturally as a second, richer sauce, but the page does not say so, and how they were meant to be used is guesswork.
- "12 t salt"A dropped fraction. Read it as 1/2 teaspoon. Anything approaching 12 teaspoons would be inedible.
- "1 °C milk"The degree sign is a stray character for the fraction bar or a smudge; it means one cup of milk. C is cup, T tablespoon, t teaspoon throughout.
- Flour enough for a very stiff batterWith this much liquid expect roughly 3 to 3 1/2 cups of flour. Aim for a batter that holds its shape on the spoon rather than pours hen collapse; too loose and two hours of steam gives you a wet, sunken center.
- Soda, not baking powderThe teaspoon of soda is there to react with the acid in the molasses, which is what leavens the pudding. Stir it into the molasses and let it foam, then combine; do not substitute baking powder measure for measure.
- LardOrdinary rendered lard. Butter or vegetable shortening can be substituted in the same quantity.
- How to steam itGrease a 2 quart mold or pudding basin, fill it no more than two-thirds, cover tightly with a lid or foil tied down, and set it on a rack in a pot with boiling water reaching halfway up the mold. Keep the water at a bare simmer for the full two hours and top it up with boiling water as it drops -- letting the pot run dry is the one thing that ruins the pudding.
- The browned-flour sauceCook the tablespoon each of butter and flour until it smells nutty and turns the color of a copper penny, then add boiling water off the heat, a little at a time, whisking. It thickens as it returns to a simmer. The recipe specifies no seasoning at all, so sweeten to taste if you want it sweet.
- If you make the egg sauceThe egg-and-molasses mixture needs to be cooked, not merely stirred together: heat it over simmering water, whisking, until it thickens and coats the spoon, somewhere in the region of 170F. Push it much hotter and it risks curdling.
- YieldServes six to eight, cut in wedges and sauced hot. It reheats well in the steamer the next day.
Steamed molasses puddings are generally traced to the English boiled pudding, and they persisted in American home cooking long after cake had moved into the oven. Molasses, brown sugar, raisins and lard are all pantry staples with long shelf lives, and this sort of pudding could be assembled from what was already in the house. The recipe offers two sauces, one thinned with boiling water, the other enriched with egg and molasses. The page itself shows only a contributor's name.