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914. Grate the crumb of a twopenny loaf, shred eight ounces of suet, and mix with eight ounces of currants, one of citron minced fine, one of orange, a handful of sugar, half a nutmeg, three eggs beaten, yolk and white separately, and a glass of brandy. Mix, and make into the size and shape of a goose-egg. Put half a pound of butter into a fryingpan, and, when melted and quite hot, fry them gently in it over a stove; turn them two or three times till of a fine light brown. Serve with pudding sauce.
This is a fried plum-pudding mixture rather than a boiled or baked pudding, and it behaves like a rich fritter: the crumb-and-suet paste must be firm enough to hold its shape in hot butter. Weighing the breadcrumbs is the difference between neat browned ovals and a panful of debris.
- A twopenny loafA loaf of the period whose weight varied with the price of grain under the Assize of Bread, so the yield can only be estimated: perhaps around 8 oz of grated crumb, or about 4 loosely packed cups of fresh white breadcrumbs. Use day-old bread with the crust removed; dried packaged crumbs absorb the eggs differently and make the paste sandy.
- SuetShredded beef suet, which modern shops sell as fresh suet from a butcher or as shredded packet suet. Keep it very cold and grate or shred it fine so it disperses; vegetarian shredded suet works, though the flavour is blander.
- Citron and orangeBoth are candied peel, not fresh fruit: 1 oz candied citron and 1 oz candied orange peel, both chopped fine. Candied citron is now a specialist item and mixed candied peel is an acceptable substitute.
- Vague measures"A handful of sugar" is about 2 oz (a scant third of a cup); "a glass of brandy" in Victorian cookery books is around 2 fl oz. Half a nutmeg, freshly grated, comes to roughly a rounded teaspoon, which is assertive but correct for this mixture.
- Size and yieldA goose egg is a good deal larger than a hen's egg, so each pudding is around 4 oz of mixture. The quantities here give about eight puddings, enough for six to eight people served with sauce.
- FryingHalf a pound of butter in a frying pan is a shallow fry, not a deep one. Keep the heat moderate: butter over about 350F browns and burns, and these need six to ten minutes to cook through to the centre, so clarified butter or a butter-and-oil mix is more forgiving.
- Turning themLet the first side set to a firm crust before moving them, then turn with two spoons or a fish slice. Turning too early is what breaks them; the recipe's "two or three times" assumes they have already formed a skin.
- Pudding sauceThe book means a sweet pouring sauce of the period: melted butter thickened and flavoured with sugar and wine or brandy, or a hard sauce softening over the hot pudding. Any brandy butter or custard serves the same purpose.