Steamed Fig Pudding

A crumb-and-suet pudding of the old English type, steamed long and slow and served hot with a sweet sauce. Two of its quantities have not survived legibly, so treat the proportions below as guidance rather than gospel.

• Uncertain quantitiesThe milk measure and the crumb measure as printed cannot be read as written, and no weight is given for the figs or the suet. A workable pudding of this type runs roughly 2 cups soft crumbs, 1 cup milk, 1/2 lb chopped dried figs and 1/2 cup finely chopped suet to the 1 cup brown sugar, but that is reconstruction, not the book's own figure.
• SuetBeef suet is the hard fat from around the kidneys; it melts slowly and leaves the crumb open rather than greasy. Butchers will supply it on request, and shredded packet suet works. Chilling it before chopping keeps it from smearing.
• Chop figs and suet togetherThis is the instruction that matters. The suet coats the sticky fig pieces so they separate and distribute instead of sinking into a single mass at the bottom of the mold.
• Melon moldA ribbed, oval, tightly lidded tin mold of about 1 to 1.5 quarts. A pudding basin, a covered tin pail, or a metal bowl with buttered parchment and foil tied down does the same work. Fill no more than two-thirds and leave room to rise.
• How to steamSet the mold on a rack in a deep pot, add boiling water to come halfway up, cover, and keep the water at a bare simmer. Top up with boiling water as it drops so the pot never runs dry.
• The long time is realThree and a half to four hours is not an exaggeration for a dense suet pudding of this size. Steam heat is gentle and the mixture is heavy; the pudding is done when a skewer to the center comes out clean and the top springs back.
• SaltA full teaspoon in a pudding this size reads high by modern habit, but salt does keep the brown sugar and figs from tasting flat. Scale it back if your crumbs or fat are already salted.
• Stirling SauceLowney's own accompaniment, given elsewhere in the book. Any hot sweet pudding sauce serves: a creamed butter-and-sugar hard sauce, or a thin vanilla or lemon sauce poured over at the table.
• Yield and keepingServes eight to ten in modest slices. Suet puddings keep well wrapped in the refrigerator for several days and reheat by steaming for 30 to 40 minutes.