Half-Pay Pudding
INGREDIENTS for pudding sufficient for 6 persons. lb. of suet, lb. of currants, lb. of raisins, lb. of bread-crumbs, 2 tablespoonfuls of treacle, 1/2 pint of milk. AVERAGE COST, 8d.
Chop the suet finely; mix with it the currants, which should be nicely washed and dried, the raisins, which should be stoned, the flour, bread-crumbs and treacle; moisten with the milk, beat up the ingredients until all are thoroughly mixed, put them into a buttered basin, and boil the pudding for 3½ hours.
TIME.-3½ hours.
SEASONABLE at any time.
HAM, FRIED.
Halibut Steaks. (American Recipe.) -INGREDIENTS. -Some slices of halibut. eggs, crackers or bread-crumbs, hot lard or dripping, salt.
Wash and wipe the steaks dry, beat the eggs, and roll out the crackers till they are powdered fine (in lieu of these grate breadcrumbs). Dredge the steaks with flour, then dip them in the egg, and cover with cracker or bread-crumbs, and fry on both sides in plenty of hot lard or dripping.
They are also very good cut thinner than for frying, and broiled over a clear fire, first being seasoned with pepper and salt.
Oyster sauce is a nice accompaniment to this fish, or if a cold one be preferred Tartare.
TIME.-10 to 15 minutes to fry the steaks.
SEASONABLE at any time.
Ham Omelette (A delicious Breakfast Dish.) - INGREDIENTS for breakfast dish for 4 persons. -6 eggs, 4 oz. of butter, saltspoonful of pepper, 2 tablespoonfuls of minced ham. AVERAGE COST, 18.
Mince the ham very finely, without any fat, and fry it for 2 minutes in a little butter; then make the batter for the omelette, stir in the ham, and proceed as in the case of a plain omelette. Do not add any salt to the batter, as the ham is usually sufficiently salt to impart a flavour to the omelette. Good lean bacon or tongue, answers equally well for this dish; but they must also be slightly cooked previously to mixing them with the batter. Serve very hot and quickly, without gravy.
TIME.-From 4 to 6 minutes.
SEASONABLE at any time.
Ham, Fried, and Eggs. (A Breakfast Dish.)-INGREDIENTS. Ham, eggs; allow 2 eggs and a slice of ham to each person. AVERAGE Cosr, 1s. per lb.
Cut the ham into slices, and take care that they are of the same thickness in every part. Cut off the rind, and if the ham should be particularly hard and salt, it will be found an improvement to soak it for about 10 minutes in hot water, and then dry it in a cloth. Put it into a cold fryingpan, set it over the fire, and turn the slices 3 or 4 times whilst they are cooking.
When done place them on a dish, which should be kept hot in front of the fire during the time the eggs are being poached Poach the eggs, slip them on to the slices of ham, and serve quickly.
TIME.-7 or 8 minutes to broil the ham.
SEASONABLE at any time.
Note. Ham may also be toasted or broiled; but, with the latter method, to insure its being HAM, POTTED. well cooked, the fire must be beautifully clear, or it will have a smoky flavour far from agreeable.
Ham, Potted. (A nice addition_to the Breakfast or Luncheon Table.) -INGREDIENTS.-To 2 lbs. of lean ham allow lb. of fat, 1 teaspoonful of pounded mace, teaspoonful of pounded allspice, nutmeg, pepper to taste, clarified butter. AVERAGE COST, 2s. 6d.
Cut some slices from the remains of a cold ham, mince them small, and to every 2 lbs. of lean allow the above proportion of fat. Pound the ham in a mortar to a fine paste with the fat, gradually add the seasonings and spices, and be very par ticular that all the ingredients are well mixed and the spices well pounded. Press the mixture into potting-pots, pour over clarified butter, and keep it in a cool place.
SEASONABLE at any time.
Ham, Potted, that will keep
A plain boiled suet pudding of the thriftiest sort, cheap enough to be named for an officer's reduced income. It needs a covered basin, a big pot and three unhurried hours.
- The quantitiesThe weights for suet, currants, raisins and breadcrumbs have lost their fractions and cannot be read off the page as printed. In puddings of this family the parts are taken in equal weight — a quarter pound of each is the usual scale for six, flour included — but treat that as the pattern rather than as this book's figure.
- FlourFlour is stirred in during the method but never listed among the ingredients as printed. It is there to bind, and is taken in the same proportion as the crumbs.
- Half a pint of milkAn imperial pint is 20 fl oz, so half a pint is 10 fl oz, or a scant 1 1/4 US cups. Add it gradually: the mixture should be a soft dropping consistency, not pourable.
- SuetShredded beef or vegetarian suet from a packet works directly; a piece of raw beef suet must be stripped of membrane and chopped or grated very fine, and it is easiest to do straight from the refrigerator.
- TreacleBlack treacle, not golden syrup — it gives the dark colour and slight bitterness. Dark molasses is the nearest American equivalent; blackstrap is harsher than English black treacle.
- The basin and the boilButter a 1 1/2-pint pudding basin, cover it with pleated parchment and foil tied under the rim, and stand it on a trivet or folded cloth in a pan of simmering water reaching halfway up. Keep a kettle at hand and top up with boiling water; if the pan runs dry the basin cracks and the pudding scorches.
- TimingFollow the three hours given in the method. The stated total is unreadable, and three hours at a steady simmer is right for a basin this size.
- ServingTurn out onto a warm dish and serve with custard, a sweet white sauce or more warmed treacle. It reheats well by steaming for 30 to 40 minutes.
The name is the joke and the recipe is the point: half-pay, the explanation generally goes, was the reduced allowance drawn by British army and navy officers not on active service, a genteel poverty that ran through nineteenth-century fiction and household writing alike — though the derivation is traditional rather than documented. A pudding built on suet, breadcrumbs, dried fruit and treacle uses no eggs and very little flour, and its cost is given here as eightpence for six people — cheap even by the standards of the book. Boiled suet puddings of this kind were the backbone of English domestic cookery for most of the century, since a basin in a pot of water needed no oven and could share the fire with everything else; the arrival of reliable ranges and steamed sponge puddings gradually pushed them aside.