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Batter Pudding, with Orange Marmalade
INGREDIENTS for a pudding large enough for 6 persons. -4 eggs, 1 pint of milk, 1½ oz. of loaf sugar, 3 tablespoonfuls of flour, pot of marmalade. AVERAGE COST, 1s. 2d.
Make the batter with the above ingredients, put it into a well-buttered basın, tie it down with a cloth, and boil for 1 hour. As soon as it is turned out of the basin, put a small jar of orange marmalade all over the top, and send the pudding very quickly to table. It is advisable to warm the marmalade to make it liquid.
TIME.-1 hour.
SEASONABLE at any time; but more suitable for a winter pudding.
A boiled batter pudding is essentially a steamed pancake batter, turned out and sauced. The critical detail is the vessel: this cooks in a covered basin standing in simmering water, not in the oven.
- The pint is imperialBeeton's pint is 20 fl oz, so 2½ US cups of milk. Using a US pint will give a noticeably stiffer pudding.
- Loaf sugarSugar was sold in hard cones to be broken and crushed at home. Ordinary granulated sugar is the equivalent; 1½ oz is about 3 tablespoons.
- The flour is very scantThree tablespoons of flour to a pint of milk and four eggs is a slack batter, and the result is likely to set more like a loose custard than a pudding you can slice. Some later batter puddings call for considerably more flour to a pint. The original quantity is what it is; be aware of what it produces.
- Mixing orderWhisk the flour and sugar with the eggs and a little of the milk to a smooth paste first, then thin with the rest. Adding all the milk at once invites lumps; the recipe says only "make the batter with the above ingredients" and leaves the method unstated.
- Basin and coveringUse a 1½-quart pudding basin or heatproof bowl, buttered well. A floured cloth tied under the rim was standard; a round of buttered parchment topped with pleated foil, tied or crimped tightly, does the same job and keeps water out.
- Boiling means simmeringStand the basin on a trivet or folded cloth in a deep pan, with water reaching halfway up the sides, and keep it at a steady simmer for the full hour. Top up with boiling water as it evaporates — if the pan runs dry the pudding scorches and the basin may crack.
- "A small jar" of marmaladeRead this as roughly 8 to 12 oz. Warm it gently with a spoonful of water until it pours; boiled hard it turns sticky and dulls the flavour.
- ServingServes six as written. Turn out and sauce immediately; the recipe's instruction is to send the pudding very quickly to table.
Boiled batter puddings are generally reckoned older than baked ones in English cookery: before domestic ovens were common, a batter tied in a cloth or a buttered basin and dropped into the pot beside the meat was one ordinary way to get a sweet course out of eggs, milk and flour. Beeton's book is full of these basin puddings, distinguished from one another chiefly by what goes on top or inside — jam, dried fruit, treacle, or here marmalade. The note that it is "more suitable for a winter pudding" may owe something to the marmalade as well as the weather: Seville oranges, the bitter fruit used for marmalade, reached British markets in a short midwinter season, and the year's preserving was generally done in January and February. The costing of 1s. 2d. is characteristic of the book, which was written for households keeping accounts and wanting to know before they began what a dish would cost.