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Suet Pudding
1 cup finely chopped suet 1 cup molasses 1 cup milk 3 cups flour 1 teaspoon soda 11½ teaspoons salt Ginger. Clove. Nutmeg } 1/2 teaspoon each. 1 teaspoon cinnamon.
This entry gives the proportions only; the method it assumes — pack into a buttered mould and steam — was so standard in the period that the book often left it to the reader. A few notes on the ingredients and on what the printed text has garbled.
- The salt is a misprint"11½ teaspoons salt" cannot be right for three cups of flour. Period suet puddings of this sort generally call for something in the range of half a teaspoon to a teaspoon and a half; treat the figure as corrupt rather than as an instruction.
- SuetBeef suet is the hard fat from around the kidneys, and it is what makes the pudding light rather than greasy — it melts slowly and leaves the crumb open. Ask a butcher for it. Chop it very fine, or grate it frozen; packaged shredded suet will serve, but it is cut with flour, so allow for that in the measure.
- Molasses and sodaThe soda is here to react with the acid in the molasses, not with any added sour milk. Use unsulphured molasses; blackstrap is more bitter than the period product and will dominate.
- The missing methodButter a two-quart mould or pudding basin, fill it two-thirds full to allow for rise, cover tightly with buttered paper or foil tied down, and set on a rack in a pot of boiling water reaching halfway up the mould. Steam covered for about three hours, topping up with boiling water as it falls.
- Spices are assumedMany published suet puddings of this family carry cinnamon and clove, sometimes mace or nutmeg, and often a cup of raisins or currants floured before mixing. The bare list here will produce a plain, molasses-forward pudding.
- Batter consistencyThree cups of flour to two cups of liquid gives a stiff drop batter rather than a pourable one. If it seems dry to the point of crumbling, the original may have intended slightly less flour; add milk a spoonful at a time until it just drops from the spoon.
- Yield and servingAbout eight servings. Turn out hot and serve with a hard sauce, a foamy sauce, or plain cream; leftovers slice cold and fry in butter.
Steamed suet puddings came to New England directly from English practice, where boiled and steamed puddings in a cloth or basin were the standard sweet course long before ovens were common in ordinary kitchens. The molasses in this version is the American mark: cheap West Indian molasses was the everyday sweetener of the northeastern household well into the nineteenth century, and it turns up in the region's brown breads, Indian puddings and gingerbreads for the same reason it appears here. This kind of pudding belonged to the plain, filling end of the dessert repertoire — cheap fat, cheap sweetener, long unattended cooking on the back of the stove.