Home › Hot Desserts › Nut and Fruit Pudding
Nut and Fruit Pudding
8 ounces of pine kernels 8 ounces of almonds 4 ounces of dates or figs 4 ounces of sultanas Blanch the almonds, and grind them with the pine kernels in a nut mill, and pound well in a mortar. Clean and partly cook the sultanas by pouring boiling water over them a few hours before required. Stone, and clean the dates, and chop them up; mix all together by putting through a mincing machine. Steam in a basin or mold about seven hours. Any other nuts or fruits may be substituted.
A dense, unsweetened, flourless pudding built entirely from ground nuts and dried fruit — closer to a steamed nut loaf than to a suet pudding. The chief thing to know is that the mixture holds no liquid, no egg and no leavening, so nothing about it needs seven hours of steam.
- The steaming timeSeven hours would have suited a range where a pan could sit quietly at the back all day. Nothing in the mixture has to set, so the long steam is largely a matter of warming through and firming, and a much shorter steaming — two to three hours — should serve. Keep the water at a bare simmer and top it up with boiling water so the pan never runs dry.
- The nut millA nut mill was a small hand-cranked grater that reduced nuts to a fine dry meal; the mortar then worked that meal finer. A food processor does both jobs, but pulse rather than run it — worked continuously the almonds and pine nuts turn to butter and the pudding becomes greasy and heavy.
- Blanching the almondsCover them with boiling water, stand two minutes, drain, and the skins slip off between finger and thumb. Dry them well before grinding or the mixture goes pasty.
- "Partly cook the sultanas"This appears to mean no more than plumping: boiling water poured over and left to stand for a few hours, then drained thoroughly. Dried fruit of the period was generally sold uncleaned and was often drier than the soft, frequently oil-coated fruit sold now, which will usually plump in a fraction of the time.
- The mincing machineThe final pass through a hand mincer was to bind everything into one paste. A processor does it, but the mixture will still be crumbly; press it firmly into the basin so it holds together when turned out.
- The basinA 1 1/2-pint pudding basin, well greased. Cover with a pleated round of baking parchment and foil, tied under the rim, so condensation cannot drip in — this mixture has no liquid to spare and no batter to absorb water.
- Sweetness and seasoningThere is no added sugar; all of it comes from the dates and sultanas. Figs give a drier, seedier pudding than dates. A little grated lemon zest, cinnamon or mixed spice would not be out of keeping, and lifts a mixture that can otherwise read as flat.
- Yield and servingAbout 1 1/2 lb of very rich pudding — six to eight small servings, no more. It wants a thin pouring sauce: custard, or a lemon or orange sauce, against the density of the nuts.
Meatless cookery of this period came largely out of the vegetarian and food-reform movements that grew up in Britain and America from the mid-nineteenth century onward, often with religious or health-reform backing, and nuts were their staple protein. Whole shops and mail-order firms sold nut meals, nut butters and nut mills, and cookbooks of the era treat ground almonds and pine kernels the way a conventional book treats suet and minced beef has the substantial thing at the centre of the dish. This pudding is a straight substitution exercise: the form is the traditional British steamed fruit pudding, hours in the basin and all, but the flour, suet, eggs and sugar have simply been deleted rather than replaced, leaving nuts and dried fruit to do every job at once. It closes with the line "any other nuts or fruits may be substituted."