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Fig Pudding
One-quarter pound of figs, chopped fine, one-quarter pound of bread crumbs, one-quarter pound of brown sugar, onequarter pound of suet, one-quarter pound of candied citron and lemon peel and five eggs. Mix thoroughly; steam or boil One ounce of gelatin; pour on it a pint and a half of boiling water; add four hours.
A classic English-style steamed suet pudding scaled small — a quarter pound of each main element, bound with eggs. The whole thing hinges on long, gentle, uninterrupted steaming.
- Quantities in plain termsA quarter pound is 4 oz, or about 115 g, of each: figs, breadcrumbs, brown sugar, suet, and mixed candied citron and lemon peel. Five eggs is generous for that volume; expect a soft, custardy batter rather than a stiff one.
- Steaming timeThe text as printed is garbled (a stray gelatin instruction has been spliced into the sentence), but it reads as four hours of steaming or boiling; the recipe gives no vessel or method beyond that. In practice, use a covered, greased pudding basin or mould filled no more than three-quarters. Top up the pan with boiling water as it evaporates and never let it go dry or come off the boil, or the pudding sinks.
- SuetBeef suet, grated or shredded, is what is meant. Packaged shredded suet (beef or vegetarian) works directly; if using a lump from a butcher, chill it hard and grate it coarsely. Butter is not a substitute — the point of suet is that it melts late and leaves the crumb open.
- BreadcrumbsDry, fine crumbs from stale white bread, not the toasted commercial kind, which are too hard and absorb badly. Fresh soft crumbs will also work and give a lighter pudding.
- Candied peelCandied citron is now hard to find outside baking-supply shops; candied orange and lemon peel is the usual stand-in. Chop it small so it distributes rather than sitting in sweet lumps.
- FigsDried figs, stems removed, chopped fine. If they are leathery, steep them in hot water or a little sherry for fifteen minutes and drain before chopping.
- Yield and servingEnough for six to eight small portions. Serve hot, turned out of the basin, with a hard sauce or a custard. It reheats well by steaming for half an hour.
Fig pudding belongs to the long line of English boiled and steamed puddings that ran from the seventeenth century well into the twentieth, and the 'figgy pudding' of the carol is often taken to mean a pudding of this kind, though the name was also used loosely for plum and other Christmas puddings. The formula here — dried fruit, breadcrumbs, sugar, suet and eggs in roughly equal weights — is the standard bones of the type, with plum pudding as the richest and best-known relative. Puddings like this were popular because the dry ingredients kept in a pantry through the winter, the mixing took minutes, and the four hours of steaming needed nothing but a watchful eye on the water level.