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Canned Cherry Pudding
1 can cherries 1 cup milk 1 tablespoon sugar 1 tablespoon melted shortening 2 1/2 cups sifted flour 2 eggs beaten 4 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt Beat all ingredients together except cherries. Drain cherries and add to batter. Turn into greased mold and steam 2 hours. When ready to serve make a sauce of the cherry juice, thickened with cornstarch, and sweetened with sugar. Teaspoon of rum extract may be added to give extra flavor. Serves 8.
A steamed pudding of the plain, thrifty sort: the batter is barely sweetened, and nearly all the sugar arrives in the sauce poured over it. Two points decide whether it works — the mold must be no more than two-thirds full, and the water under it must never stop simmering.
- The can of cherriesThe recipe does not say what size. A No. 2 can, roughly 20 oz or 2 1/2 cups with juice, was the usual mid-century tin and is the likeliest intent. A modern 15 oz can of tart red cherries in water is the closest match; if you use a 21 oz pie filling you will have a much sweeter, thicker pudding and far less juice for the sauce.
- Sugar is not a typoOne tablespoon in the batter is correct for this style. The pudding itself tastes like a soft biscuit dough; the sweetness comes entirely from the thickened juice. If you want a dessert-sweet pudding, expect to sweeten the sauce heavily rather than adjusting the batter.
- Setting up the steamerGrease a 1 1/2 to 2 quart pudding mold or heatproof bowl, fill it no more than two-thirds, and cover tightly with a lid or foil tied down. Stand it on a rack in a deep pot with boiling water reaching halfway up the mold, cover the pot, and keep the water at a steady simmer for the full two hours, topping up with boiling water as it drops.
- DonenessTwo hours is right for a full-size mold. A skewer into the center should come out with no wet batter; individual cups or a shallower dish will be done in 45 to 60 minutes.
- Drain the cherries wellSitting them in a sieve for ten minutes matters — surplus juice loosens the batter and the fruit sinks. Tossing the drained cherries in a spoonful of the measured flour helps keep them suspended.
- The cornstarch sauceFigure about 1 tablespoon cornstarch slaked in cold juice per cup of cherry juice, then simmered a minute or two until it clears. Add sugar to taste; tart canned cherries usually want 3 to 4 tablespoons per cup.
- Rum extractA bottled flavoring sold alongside vanilla, common in the period. A tablespoon of dark rum or brandy stirred into the finished sauce off the heat does the same job.
- ServingLet the mold stand five minutes, then run a knife around the edge and turn out. Serves 8, and it reheats well by steaming slices for a few minutes.
Steamed puddings survived in American cookbooks long after the open hearth disappeared because they ask almost nothing of an oven — useful in a household economizing on fuel, and useful again in a small apartment kitchen. This one belongs to the canned-goods era: a can of cherries with a cup of milk and some baking powder turns into eight servings of dessert with no fresh fruit and no yeast. The trick of thickening the packing syrup with cornstarch for the sauce is the same thrift at work, wasting nothing from the can. Rum extract gives the pudding the suggestion of a much richer British Christmas pudding at a fraction of the cost.