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Boiled Roll Paste
It is required to be as light and dry-looking when boiled, as bread or biscuit, and to peel apart in flakes. It is made in the same general manner as puff paste, but to secure the flakiness must be rolled only 4 times. No shortening nor powder to be rubbed in, but all to be rolled in layers. The softer the dough can be, to roll well, the better will be the pudding. 2 pounds of flour. 1 pint of water--full measure. 1 teaspoonful of salt. 3/4 pound of firm, cold, sweet lard. 4 teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Butter can be used instead of lard, and the salt omitted. Lay aside a large handful of the flour to dust with. Pour the cold water in the middle of the rest of the flour and mix carefully to have it smooth. Turn the dough on the floured table, work it very little, spread it out by rolling; drop the lard in lumps an inch apart all over, sprinkle the salt on that, sift a little flour over, fold it in three, and count that one turn. Roll it out again, spread two teaspoons of powder over it dry like so much flour, fold over and count two. At the next rolling spread on the rest of the powder, and one more rolling and folding, making four times, finishes it. Common short paste and biscuit dough can also be used for roll puddings; also biscuit dough improved by having shortening rolled in.
This is a rolled-in fat pastry made for boiled puddings — the dough that gets spread with jam or fruit, rolled up, tied in a cloth and simmered. It behaves like a rough puff, and the four-turn limit is the whole point.
- Four turns, no moreThe instruction that governs everything: roll and fold exactly four times. Further turns subdivide the fat into sheets too thin to steam apart, and a boiled pudding has no dry oven heat to rescue it — it comes out close and heavy rather than flaking.
- Nothing rubbed inUnlike short paste, no fat and no baking powder is worked into the flour. The lard goes on in lumps and the powder is dusted on dry between turns, so both end up in discrete layers. Resist the reflex to cut fat into the flour first.
- Measures2 pounds of flour is roughly 7 cups or 900 g; a full pint of water is 2 cups (475 ml); 3/4 pound of lard is 340 g. This makes a large batch — the recipe gives no yield, but it will make several roll puddings. Halve it for a household.
- "Powder"Baking powder. Four teaspoons for 2 lb flour is a modest, conservative rate, and much of the powder sold in this period was single-acting — it reacted on wetting. Modern double-acting powder holds part of its lift for the heat, which is if anything an advantage in a long boil.
- Butter instead of lardThe salt is presumably omitted because butter was commonly sold salted; the recipe does not say. If you use unsalted butter, keep the teaspoon of salt. Butter also carries water, so it will feel softer at the same temperature — chill it hard and work quickly.
- Keep the dough slack"The softer the dough can be, to roll well, the better" is not filler. A wet, barely manageable dough steams from within and stays tender through a long boil; a stiff one turns to a dumpling. Use the reserved handful of flour only for dusting the board, not for tightening the dough.
- Boiling itThe recipe covers only the paste. To finish a roll pudding: spread, roll up, wrap loosely in a floured and scalded cloth (or parchment and foil), tie the ends with room to swell, and simmer submerged — commonly something like an hour and a half to two hours depending on size. Top the pot up with boiling water so it never goes off the boil.
- Handle coldCold water, firm cold fat, and a cool surface. If the lard smears into the flour rather than sitting in sheets, the layers are lost and you have a plain short crust.
The traditional dough for boiled roll puddings was suet crust, which needs no lamination because the suet fragments themselves open the crumb; what is happening here is a substitution, lard or butter rolled in layers and lifted with baking powder. The two-pound flour quantity and the brisk, countable procedure suit a large or professional kitchen, and the closing note that "common short paste and biscuit dough can also be used" lists what will do when the good paste is not to hand.