Home › Baked Ripe Gooseberry Pudding › Baked Ripe Gooseberry Pudding (Sugar covering it)
Baked Ripe Gooseberry Pudding (Sugar covering it)
of sugar, covering it with the paste, and then boiling it from one to two hours, according to the size of the pudding and the ripeness of the apples. It is a bad plan to cut the apples up into small pieces, as the exposure to the air renders the cut surface hard and tough. GOOSEBERRY AND CURRANT PUDDINGS, &c. 825. All other fresh fruit puddings, such as gooseberry, currant, raspberry, &c., are made in the same way as that given for apples (see par. 824).
What survives here is the finish of a boiled fruit pudding in suet paste: whole fruit and sugar sealed in pastry and boiled in a cloth or basin. The instructions for gooseberries and currants simply point back to the apple method.
- The pasteThe book does not say what the paste is; for a boiled fruit pudding of this period it would normally be a suet crust, and about 8 oz flour to 4 oz shredded beef suet, a pinch of salt, and cold water to a firm dough will answer. Shredded vegetable suet or frozen grated butter behaves much the same, though butter crusts are softer and need a basin rather than a bare cloth.
- Basin or clothThe text does not say how the pudding is enclosed. A 1.5-pint pudding basin, buttered and lined with paste, then lidded with a paste round and covered with pleated parchment and foil, is more reliable than a floured cloth. Tie it down and stand it on a trivet or folded cloth in the pan.
- Boiling timeOne to two hours means a steady simmer with water reaching at least halfway up the basin, topped up from a kettle so it never goes off the boil. The book puts the range down to the size of the pudding and the ripeness of the fruit, so judge accordingly rather than by the clock alone.
- Sugar for gooseberriesGreen gooseberries need considerably more sugar than apples, roughly 4-6 oz per pound of fruit as a modern working figure; ripe gooseberries need less, nearer 3 oz. Currants, especially redcurrants, fall at the sharper end. The book gives no quantity.
- Leave the fruit wholeThe book objects to cutting the apples because the cut surfaces harden on exposure to the air. Whole fruit suits soft fruit too: gooseberries need only topping and tailing, and currants are best stripped from the strigs and left intact, which also keeps the base of the crust from going sodden.
- Juice and headspaceGooseberries and currants throw far more liquid than apples. Fill the paste generously but leave a little space at the top, and seal the lid firmly with water or beaten egg so the seam does not burst mid-boil.
- Turning out and yieldRest the pudding five minutes before inverting, or the crust tears. A 1.5-pint pudding serves four to six, with cream, custard or plain caster sugar.