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Carrot Pudding (Boil some carrots till they)
886. Boil some carrots till they are quite soft; when cold, beat half a pound in a mortar with six ounces of butter; when these are well mixed beat in six ounces of sugar, two eggs (do not beat them first), half a nutmeg, a little brandy, and one spoonful of cream; mix these well together in a dish lined with paste, and put it in just before baking. An hour will bake it.
Another Carrot Pudding. - Weigh eight ounces of carrots; when boiled chop very fine, and mix with six ounces of currants, four ounces of flour, two ounces of suet chopped, six ounces of sugar, and half a nutmeg grated. Then stir in two eggs, and a table-spoonful of milk. This sized pudding requires two hours' boiling. To be served up with a sauce made with brandy, sugar, and butter, with the yolk of a raw egg beaten in it.
Another.-Mix half a pound of raw carrots grated finely, half a pound of suet, half a pound of flour, half a pound of currants, a quarter of a pound of raisins, two table-spoonsful of sugar, and a wineglassful of sherry. Boil the whole in a cloth for three hours: if desired plainer, the currants and suet may be reduced half, and the wine omitted.
Three carrot puddings in one entry: a baked custard-like pudding in a pastry case, and two boiled puddings in the plum-pudding line. All are sweet, and all rely on carrot for body and moisture rather than for flavour.
- The hinge: cook and cool the carrots firstThe first recipe is explicit: boil the carrots till quite soft, then let them go cold before they meet the butter and eggs. The second says only to boil them and chop them very fine. Warm carrot will melt butter into oil and begin to set egg, and the pudding turns greasy and grainy.
- "Do not beat them first"The recipe is explicit on this point, though it gives no reason. Whole unbeaten eggs worked into the sweetened carrot and butter would plausibly give a denser, less aerated set than a pre-beaten egg foam.
- Mortar workHalf a pound of soft carrot with six ounces of butter goes through a food processor in under a minute, or a potato ricer followed by a bowl and spatula. Aim for smooth, not aerated.
- Oven for the baked pudding"Just before baking" means the filling goes into the lined dish at the last moment so the pastry does not sog. The recipe gives no oven temperature; a moderate oven, in the region of 350F, for the hour specified, with the centre just set and a slight wobble. A pastry-lined dish of about 8-9 inches suits the quantity.
- Suet and currantsSuet means beef suet, shredded fine; packet shredded suet, beef or vegetable, works directly. Currants are dried Zante currants, not fresh redcurrants or blackcurrants.
- Boiling in a clothThe floured pudding cloth of the third recipe can be replaced with a buttered pudding basin of about two pints, covered with pleated parchment and foil and tied down, steamed rather than immersed. Keep the water topped up for the full two or three hours or the pudding stalls.
- MeasuresA wineglassful of sherry is roughly 2 fl oz. "Half a nutmeg grated" is about a teaspoon, which is assertive; a spoonful of cream or milk here means a tablespoon.
- The brandy sauceBrandy, sugar and butter beaten with a raw yolk is never heated. If you make it, use a pasteurised egg, or serve plain brandy butter instead.