Barford Pudding

A plain boiled suet pudding of the mid-nineteenth century, rich in fruit and eggs but with almost no flour to bind it. The instructions assume a pudding basin covered and lowered into a pot of boiling water, which is how it should still be cooked.

• The hinge: keep the water boilingThe pudding sets by steady heat over four hours; if the pan goes off the boil or runs dry the centre stays raw and greasy. Top up with boiling water from a kettle, never cold, and keep the level about two-thirds up the basin.
• Covering the basinGrease the basin well, fill it no more than three-quarters, and cover with pleated baking parchment and foil tied under the rim, or a floured cloth as the period cook would have used. The pleat gives the pudding room to rise. The quantities here make a large pudding -- close to 3 lb of mixture -- so allow a basin of about 3 pints or more, or divide between two smaller ones.
• SuetBeef suet meant the hard fat from around the kidneys, bought in a lump and shredded at home. Packaged shredded suet, beef or vegetable, works directly; a pound is a great deal of fat by modern taste and can be cut to 8-12 oz if preferred.
• Loaf sugarRefined sugar came as a hard cone to be broken up and crushed. Six ounces of ordinary granulated or caster sugar is the equivalent, a scant cup.
• "Four spoonfuls of flour"The spoon is unspecified and the intended amount is genuinely uncertain; if a heaped tablespoon is meant, that is about 2-3 oz in total. Either way this is a very lightly bound pudding by design, closer to a rich fruit mixture than a sponge.
• Raisins and nutmegNineteenth-century raisins came with seeds and had to be stoned; modern seedless raisins go in as they are. Half a nutmeg grated is roughly a rounded teaspoon, which is assertive but correct for this style.
• Yield and servingMakes about eight servings. Turn out onto a warmed dish and serve hot with a sweet wine sauce, brandy butter or plain cream; leftovers slice cold and fry well in butter.