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Plum Pudding
One and one-half cups each grated bread, very finely chopped suet, raisins, seeded, currants, washed and picked, and coffee sugar, one-half cupful each of citron, milk and orange marmalade, four eggs, two cups of flour, one teaspoon each of baking powder, cinnamon, Cloves, and Nutmeg. Mix all these well together in large bowl, put in well-buttered mold, set in saucepan with boiling water to reach one-half up its sides; now steam three and a half hours; turn out carefully on dish, and serve with wine sauce.
A straightforward steamed suet pudding, denser and less boozy than the brandy-soaked kind. The measurements are workable as written; the vocabulary and the vessel need translating.
- Coffee sugarA coarse crystal sugar sold for stirring into coffee, no longer a standard grocery item. Use the same volume of granulated sugar, or demerara if you want a faint molasses note.
- Grated breadFresh breadcrumbs grated from a day-old loaf on a box grater, not dry packaged crumbs. Dried crumbs absorb far more liquid and will give a tight, gritty pudding; if that is all you have, use about a cup and add a splash more milk.
- SuetBeef suet from the kidney area, which stays solid until the pudding is well set and then melts to leave an open crumb. Ask a butcher, or use packaged shredded suet. Frozen butter grated coarse is a common substitute, though the texture is heavier.
- CitronCandied citron peel, sold in blocks or diced at holiday time. Chop it fine; the half cup is by volume.
- The mold and the waterA large pudding basin or covered mold; the mixture here is bulky, so allow three quarts or more, buttered and filled no more than two-thirds. Cover the top with buttered parchment and foil tied down, or the steam will condense into the batter. Keep the pan covered, and top up the boiling water from a kettle every 45 minutes or so -- running dry is the one failure that cannot be recovered.
- Steaming timeThree and a half hours at a steady low boil is right for a pudding this size; it is not an overstatement. A skewer to the center should come out clean and the pudding should feel springy, not liquid, under the cover.
- Turning outLet it stand five to ten minutes off the heat before inverting, so the crumb firms enough to hold its shape. Run a thin knife around the rim first.
- Yield and keepingServes 10 to 12. Steamed puddings improve on standing — it can be made days ahead, wrapped, and re-steamed for an hour to reheat.
- Wine sauceNot given here: butter and sugar creamed, thinned with sherry or Madeira and warmed over water without boiling. Hard sauce or a plain custard both serve.
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