Ginger Pudding
INGREDIENTS for good-sized pudding.- 1/2 lb. of flour, 1/4 lb.
TIME.-3 days.
SEASONABLE. This should be made dur- of suet, lb. of moist sugar, 2 large teaspooning the summer months. fuls of grated ginger. AVERAGE COST, 6d.
Shred the suet very fine, mix it with the Note. A most refreshing summer drink may flour, sugar and ginger; stir all well tobe easily made with Goodall, Backhouse and Co.'s ginger-beer powder.
A plain Victorian suet pudding, flavoured with ginger and steamed or boiled in a basin. The proportions given are the standard half-pound of flour to a quarter-pound of suet, but the method stops short of the binding and cooking, so both need supplying from general suet-pudding practice.
- SuetShredded beef suet was bought in a lump and grated or chopped with a little flour to stop it clumping. Packet shredded suet, beef or vegetable, goes in directly at the same weight: 4 oz to 8 oz of flour.
- The sugar quantityThe amount of moist sugar has lost its fraction in this entry. For a pudding of this size, 2 to 4 oz of soft light brown sugar is the usual range; moist sugar was an unrefined soft brown, so light or dark muscovado is the closest match.
- Ginger'Two large teaspoonfuls of grated ginger' is ambiguous: it may mean fresh root finely grated, or the dried root grated, which was the commoner grocery form. If using ground dried ginger, reduce the quantity well below the two teaspoons, as the dried spice is more pungent by weight.
- Raising and bindingA suet pudding of this kind needs liquid to bind: about 5-6 fl oz of milk, or milk and one egg, worked in to give a soft dropping consistency. A teaspoon of baking powder sifted with the flour will lighten it, though plenty of suet puddings use none. Without liquid the mixture will not come together in the basin.
- CookingTurn into a greased 1 1/2-pint pudding basin, cover with pleated greaseproof paper and foil, tie down, and steam over simmering water for 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Top up the pan with boiling water as it goes; letting it boil dry is the one thing that ruins the pudding.
- Yield and servingServes four to six. Turn out hot and serve with custard, cream, or a spoonful of golden syrup or warmed treacle poured over.
- Average costSixpence puts this at the cheap end of the book's sweet dishes: flour, fat and sugar with a little flavouring.
Suet puddings steamed in a cloth or basin were the backbone of British sweet cookery through the nineteenth century, cheap, filling and cooked on the same fire that was already boiling the dinner. Ginger reached a Victorian kitchen chiefly as the dried root, ground, a long-established grocery spice, and in preserved form. Mrs Beeton's household books are full of ginger in every register, from gingerbread and ginger wine to bottled ginger-beer powders sold by firms such as Goodall, Backhouse and Co. of Leeds, whose baking powder and flavouring preparations were advertised heavily in cookery books of the period.