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Sweet Potato Pudding
4 ounces of potatoes 2 ounces of butter 3 ounces of sugar Juice of 1 lemon Cook and mash the potatoes, beat in the butter and sugar, then add the juice of the lemon. Put it into a well greased mold, and steam for half an hour. Can be baked if liked.
A very small, very rich steamed pudding: the quantities given serve two at most, and the proportions are unusual enough to be worth reading twice before you start.
- The quantities are by weight, and tiny4 oz of sweet potato is roughly one small potato, giving about half a cup of mash. Against that sit 2 oz butter (4 tablespoons) and 3 oz sugar (a scant half cup) — a dessert closer to a rich confection than a bulky pudding. Doubling or tripling is sensible if you are feeding more than two.
- Lemon juice is the variable to watchThe juice of one lemon is 2 to 3 tablespoons, and against half a cup of mash it will dominate. Start with half, taste, and add the rest only if the sweetness needs cutting; a little grated zest gives the lemon character with less liquid.
- There are no eggs, so it will not setWithout egg or flour this steams to a soft, dense purée that holds the shape of the mold only just. Chill it briefly after steaming before turning out, and expect it to slump on the plate.
- Steaming setupGrease a 2-cup mold or pudding basin, cover it tightly with foil or a tied cloth so condensation cannot drip in, and set it on a rack in a pan with water reaching halfway up. Keep the water at a bare simmer and top it up as needed for the half hour.
- If baking insteadThe recipe gives no temperature or time, only "can be baked if liked"; a moderate oven of about 350F, uncovered, in a greased dish for roughly 30 to 40 minutes until the top is set and lightly browned should suit. Baking drives off moisture and concentrates the sugar and butter, so the result will be firmer and more caramelized than the steamed version.
- Cook the potato dryBake or steam the potato rather than boiling it in water. Very wet mash carries excess water into a mixture already high in butter, and the result is more likely to be greasy or to weep during steaming.
- Yield and servingTwo small servings, or four alongside something else. Cream, a spoonful of thin custard, or nothing at all — it is already rich.
Sweet potato desserts had long been standard in American cooking, where the vegetable was cheap and baked into pies and puddings interchangeably with squash and pumpkin. What marks this version's method out is the steamed mold: British puddings were often steamed in a basin over water rather than baked, a technique suited to kitchens where the range was in constant use and oven space was scarce. The note "can be baked if liked" is the compiler acknowledging that readers might have either.