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Gingerbread Pudding
INGREDIENTS for pudding for 6 persons.-lb. of bread-crumbs, 6 oz. of suet, lb. of golden syrup, 1/2 lb. of ground ginger, 2 eggs, salt, 1 teaspoonful of soda. AVERAGE COST, 10d.
Chop the suet finely and add it to the bread-crumbs, with the salt and the ginger.
Mix the soda with a very little milk, and add it to the golden syrup; then mix all well together with the beaten egg, and pour into a buttered basin. Tie this over with a cloth, and boil for 2 hours or rather more.
TIME.-2 hours.
SEASONABLE. - A nice winter pudding for children.
A plain steamed suet pudding of the sort that filled out a Victorian winter supper. The printed ingredient list has lost several of its fractions in transcription, and one quantity is certainly wrong, so read it with care before you weigh anything.
- The ginger is a misprintHalf a pound of ground ginger in a pudding of this size would not be edible; it would be medicinal. Half an ounce, or a teaspoonful or two, is the likelier intent. Treat the printed figure as corrupt and season by judgement.
- Missing fractions"lb. of bread-crumbs" and "lb. of golden syrup" have both dropped their fractions in the original setting. Half a pound of crumbs (about 4 cups, fresh) with 6 oz of suet and roughly 1/4 to 1/2 lb (about 1/3 to 2/3 cup) of syrup gives a batter of the right consistency: soft enough to drop from the spoon, not pourable.
- SuetBeef suet, chopped fine or grated from the block; packet shredded suet, beef or vegetable, works directly. It needs to be cold and in small pieces so it melts during steaming and leaves the crumb open.
- Golden syrupLight golden syrup — Lyle's or equivalent — not corn syrup and not molasses. Warming it slightly makes it easier to combine with the soda and milk.
- SodaThe teaspoon of bicarbonate needs something acid to work against; golden syrup is only mildly acidic, so the lift will be modest. Mix it in at the last moment and get the pudding into the steam without delay. "A very little milk" means a tablespoon or two, enough to dissolve it.
- Basin and coveringUse a pudding basin of about 1 1/2 pints (roughly 850 ml), buttered, filled no more than three-quarters; with this quantity of mixture a larger basin may be needed. A cloth tied over the rim is traditional; pleated foil or baking parchment tied with string is easier to seal and does the same job of keeping condensation out.
- Boiling means steamingStand the basin on a trivet or folded cloth in a pan of simmering water reaching halfway up the sides, lid on, and top up with boiling water as it drops. Two hours at a steady simmer; a skewer should come out clean. It will not overcook easily, but it will spoil if the pan boils dry.
- Yield and servingSix modest portions. Turn out while hot and serve with custard, a thin white sauce, or more warmed golden syrup — the pudding itself is not sweet enough to stand alone.
Boiled and steamed suet puddings were the backbone of English domestic cookery from the eighteenth century onward, and this one is a thrifty variation on gingerbread: the same trio of ginger, syrup and soda that raises a gingerbread loaf, bound with stale breadcrumbs instead of flour so that nothing went to waste. Golden syrup, a by-product of cane refining sold in tins from the 1880s, was cheaper than sugar and gave the pudding its sweetness; ground ginger, once a luxury spice, had become an everyday grocery item by the late Victorian period. The costing of tenpence and the note that it is "a nice winter pudding for children" tell you exactly where such a dish sat in the household, filling and warming.