Asparagus Pudding
INGREDIENTS for 1 pudding. pint of asparagus cut in peas, 4 eggs, 2 tablespoonfuls of flour, 1 tablespoonful of very finely minced ham, 1 oz. of butter, pepper and salt to taste, milk. AVERAGE COST, 2s. 6d.
Cut up the nice green tender parts of asparagus, about the size of peas; put them into a basin with the eggs, which should be well beaten, and the flour, ham, butter, pepper, and salt. Mix all these ingredients well together, and moisten with sufficient milk to make the pudding of the ASPARAGUS TONGS. +++ consistency of thick batter; put it into a pint buttered mould, tie it down tightly with a floured cloth, place it in boiling water, and let it boil for 2 hours; turn it out of the mould on to a hot dish, and pour plain melted or oiled butter round, but not over the pudding. Green pea pudding may be made in exactly the same manner, substituting peas for the asparagus.
TIME.-2 hours.
SEASONABLE in May, June, and July.
A savoury steamed custard-batter pudding from the asparagus season. Two points matter most: the mould must be larger than the recipe says, and two hours of hard boiling is far more than the mixture needs.
- TimingAn egg-and-flour batter of this size will probably be set well before the stated two hours, and a hard rolling boil risks curdling the egg and weeping water; keep the water at a bare simmer and start testing for a clean skewer from about 45 minutes.
- Mould sizeFour eggs, two tablespoons of flour, a pint of cut asparagus and enough milk to loosen it comes to well over a pint. Use a 1.5-litre (2.5 pint) basin, buttered, filled no more than three-quarters full, or it will force the cover off as it rises.
- "Cut in peas"This means cut to the size of peas, not measured in a pea-shaped vessel; the recipe itself says "about the size of peas". An imperial pint of prepared tips is about 570 ml (roughly 2.5 US cups), which will take somewhere in the region of 1 to 1.25 lb (450-550 g) of asparagus once the woody ends are snapped off.
- Covering the basinThe flour worked into the tied-down cloth swells and helps keep water out. Buttered parchment plus a sheet of foil, pleated to allow rise and tied under the rim with string, does the same job and is easier to lift out.
- Water levelThe recipe says only "place it in boiling water" and gives no depth. Bring the water to the boil first, stand the basin on a trivet or folded cloth so it is off the pan floor, bring the water some way up the sides of the basin, and top up with boiling water as it evaporates.
- Melted butter, oiled butter"Oiled butter" is simply butter melted until clear. "Plain melted butter" in books of this period is a thin flour-and-butter sauce, closer to a light sauce made with water or milk. Either is poured around the pudding so the surface stays dry.
- The hamOne tablespoon of very finely minced ham is a seasoning, not a filling. Use a well-cured ham and taste before adding salt, since the ham and the butter may carry enough.
- Yield and costServes three to four as a light first course or supper dish. The 2s. 6d. is Beeton's average cost for the dish and does not convert usefully into modern money.
- ColourLong steaming dulls green vegetables. If appearance matters, blanch the asparagus briefly and refresh it in cold water before folding it into the batter.
Savoury boiled puddings, made in a buttered mould sealed under a floured cloth, were everyday kitchen work in nineteenth-century Britain, and vegetables were treated in the same way as meat and suet: bound with egg and a little flour, steamed, and turned out whole. Beeton's note that the dish is "seasonable in May, June, and July" is the point of it — English asparagus had a short window, forced crops were expensive, and a pudding stretched a modest quantity of tips into a dish for several people. The alternative given at the end, green pea pudding by the same method, shows how the formula worked: it is a vehicle, not a recipe specific to asparagus. The asparagus tongs pictured alongside belong to the dining room rather than the kitchen, a reminder that asparagus was then eaten with the fingers by polite convention and needed its own serving implement.