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Baked Fruit Pudding
1 pound of bread crumbs. 1/2 pound of chopped suet. 1/2 pound of raisins. 1/2 pound of currants. 1/2 pound of sugar. 1 pint of milk or water. 3 eggs. Salt. 1 teaspoonful of mixed ground spices. 1 level teaspoonful of soda Crumble the bread small; mix all the dry articles with it except soda, which dissolve in the milk. Beat the eggs in the milk and stir up the pudding with it, add the brandy last. Bake one hour in buttered pans. Cover with paper to keep the fruit from blistering.
What the following pudding has done that it should be called the "queen of puddings" no one knows, but that is one name it is known by on both sides of the Atlantic. Cooks demur at the appellation, because there is always as good a pudding in their repositoryas as ever was brought out, and each one is the queen for the day. However this is a pretty pudding.
A plain steamed-pudding mixture sent to the oven instead of the pot. It is straightforward, but the ingredient list and the method do not quite agree, and no oven temperature is given.
- The missing brandyThe method says "add the brandy last," but no brandy appears in the list. Two to four tablespoons is in keeping with puddings of this size; stir it in after the egg-and-milk mixture.
- Oven temperatureNone is given. A pudding of this density wants a moderate oven, 350F, for the stated hour; test with a skewer at the centre, which should come out clean and hot.
- The paper coverThis is the instruction that matters. Fruit sitting proud of the surface scorches and bursts before the centre sets. Lay buttered parchment or foil loosely over the pans for the first 40 minutes, then uncover to colour the top.
- SuetBeef suet, shredded fine, not the block fat you trim off a steak. Packaged shredded suet works directly; from a butcher, chill it hard and grate it. Frozen grated butter is one common substitute, though the crumb comes out shorter and less springy.
- CurrantsDried Zante currants, a small black grape, not fresh red or black currants. Modern dried fruit is generally soft enough that soaking is optional.
- Mixed ground spicesThe period blend is typically nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and mace, sometimes with allspice and ginger. Pumpkin-pie spice is a reasonable stand-in for the teaspoonful called for.
- Bread crumbsSoft crumbs from stale white bread, torn or grated, not dry packaged crumbs, which will absorb the milk and give a pasty result. A pound is roughly eight to ten cups loosely packed.
- SodaDissolving it in the milk is deliberate. There is no acid in the mixture to react with it, so it acts on heating and by raising the pH, which encourages browning. Do not increase it or the pudding takes on a soapy note.
- Pans and yieldThe batter fills two 8-inch round cake pans or a 9x13 dish, and serves ten to twelve. Serve warm with hard sauce, brandy sauce or cream.
Baked fruit puddings like this one are the oven-going cousins of the boiled and steamed puddings that dominated English and American winter tables, the same suet-and-dried-fruit formula that gives Christmas pudding its character but lightened with bread crumbs and set in a pan rather than a cloth or basin. The remark about the "queen of puddings" is not a comment on this recipe at all: it introduces the pudding that follows, and the author says only that the name is used on both sides of the Atlantic without anyone knowing why, and that cooks resent the title. The name is most often attached to the bread-crumb pudding layered with jam and topped with meringue. Bread crumbs are the tell of a thrifty tradition, using up stale loaf in an age when bread was baked or bought in quantity and nothing went to waste; suet did the work of butter at a fraction of the cost. A book aimed at the working pastry cook would want a recipe like this because it scales cleanly, bakes in batches, and holds for days.