Mansfield Pudding
INGREDIENTS for large pudding. The crumb of 2 rolls, 1¼ pint of milk, sugar to taste, 4 eggs, MARBLED JELLY. 2 tablespoonfuls of brandy, 6 oz. of chopped suet, 2 tablespoonfuls of flour, ib. of currants, teaspoonful of grated nutmeg, 2 tablespoonfuls of cream. AVERAGE COST, 1s. 8d.
Slice the roll very thin and pour upon it a pint of boiling milk; let it remain closely covered for 1/4 hour, then beat it up with a fork and sweeten with moist sugar; stir in the chopped suet, flour, currants and nutmeg. Mix these ingredients well together, moisten with the eggs, brandy and cream; beat the mixture for 2 or 3 minutes, put it into a buttered dish or mould and bake in a moderate oven for 1½ hour. Turn it out, strew sifted sugar over and serve.
TIME.-1 hour.
SEASONABLE at any time.
A Victorian baked suet-and-breadcrumb pudding, closer to a firm bread pudding than to a steamed one. The soaking stage does the real work: the bread must go completely soft before anything else is added.
- The rolls"The crumb of 2 rolls" means the soft interior of two plain white dinner rolls, crusts discarded. Slightly stale bread is generally preferred, as it drinks the milk without turning to paste.
- SoakingPour the boiling milk over the sliced crumb and keep it tightly covered for a full 15 minutes, then break it up with a fork until no lumps remain. Unsoftened pockets of bread will stay dense and gluey after baking.
- SuetSix ounces of chopped beef suet was bought as a lump and chopped fine at home. Packet shredded suet, beef or vegetable, works directly; if using a block, chill it hard and grate it.
- Moist sugarThis is unrefined soft brown sugar. Light brown sugar is the nearest equivalent; about 3 oz suits the quantity of milk and currants here.
- OvenA moderate oven is usually taken as about 350F (180C). Bake in a buttered dish set in the middle of the oven until the centre is set and a skewer comes out clean.
- TimingThe two times given in the original disagree. For a pudding of this size in a single deep dish, judge by set rather than clock — expect somewhere between 1 and 1½ hours, and cover the top loosely with foil if it colours early.
- Turning outA suet pudding of this richness holds together better if left to stand 10 minutes after baking. Butter the mould generously and, if using a fluted mould, dust it with sugar as well as butter.
- YieldThe original calls this the "large pudding" quantity but gives no number of servings. It is very rich; small portions with cream or a plain custard are enough.
- CurrantsThe quantity of currants has lost its fraction in this printing. Half a pound is a plausible reading for a pudding built on a pint of milk and four eggs, though a quarter pound is equally possible.
Puddings named for places and people fill the middle of Victorian cookery books, and Mansfield Pudding belongs to the large family of English "bread and suet" bakes that stretched a little stale bread, a handful of dried fruit and some kitchen fat into a substantial sweet course. The type sits between the older boiled plum pudding and the lighter baked custards that were becoming fashionable by the 1860s: suet gives it the richness of the boiled sort, while baking in a mould gives it a shape and a browned top. The brandy and cream mark it as a company dish rather than an everyday one, and the costing of one shilling and eightpence points the same way.