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Almond Pudding
4 ounces of ground almonds 8 ounces of white bread crumbs 4 ounces of sugar 2 ounces of melted butter Grated rind of 1 lemon A little grated nutmeg Mix the bread crumbs, almonds, sugar, lemon and nutmeg together, and add the melted butter; put into a well greased basin; cover with greased paper, and steam for two hours. Serve with any sweet sauce.
A plain steamed crumb pudding of the type that filled out meatless menus. As printed it has no liquid and no egg, which is worth thinking about before you tie down the paper.
- The missing binderEight ounces of crumbs, four of almonds and two of butter will not readily cohere into a pudding on their own; comparable steamed crumb puddings generally include milk, and often beaten egg, to bind. The original is silent on this, so it may well be an omission: if the mixture is dry, add enough milk to bring it to a soft dropping consistency.
- Weights to volume4 oz ground almonds is roughly 1 cup, 8 oz fresh white breadcrumbs about 4 cups loosely packed, 4 oz sugar a scant 2/3 cup, 2 oz butter 4 tablespoons. Use fresh soft crumbs, not dried packaged crumbs, which absorb far more liquid.
- The basinA "basin" is a heatproof pudding bowl; the recipe does not specify a size. Choose one large enough to hold the mixture filled no more than three-quarters, to allow for rise. Grease it well and line the base with a disc of parchment.
- CoveringGreased paper alone leaks steam and condensation. Pleat a layer of parchment and a layer of foil together to allow for rise, and tie it under the rim with string.
- SteamingSet the basin on a trivet or folded cloth in a pan of simmering water reaching halfway up the sides, lid on. Keep the water at a bare simmer and top up with boiling water; two hours is right for this size, and the pudding is done when a skewer comes out clean.
- Ground almondsBuy almond flour or ground almonds rather than almond meal with skins if you want the pale colour the recipe assumes. Ground almonds go rancid quickly; smell them before using.
- Yield and sauceServes four to six. "Any sweet sauce" in this period means custard, a thin lemon or arrowroot sauce, or warmed jam let down with water.
Meatless cookery leaned heavily on the steamed pudding, which needed no oven, tolerated cheap crumbs and stale bread, and could be set over the same pot doing other work. Almonds carried the nutritional argument: in vegetarian and Lenten cooking they stood in for the richness of meat, a role they had played in European fast-day kitchens since the medieval almond-milk tradition, when ground almonds legitimately replaced dairy on days when dairy was forbidden. The lemon rind and nutmeg here are a common English seasoning pair for a sweet crumb pudding, and the pudding is finished with the instruction to serve it with "any sweet sauce."