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Liver Pudding
1184. Stew a pound and a half of liver in a very small quantity of water for an hour and a half, then cut it up into small squares, season with pepper and salt, and add either some pieces of bacon-fat, beef-fat, or mutton-fat. Make a crust of dripping and flour, as directed at page 199, and line a quart basin; put in the liver and fat, well mixed together, pour in the gravy remaining in the stew-pan, and cover with crust; then boil in a cloth for two hours. This, with three pounds of potatoes, will go as far as (1182) or (1183). The prices being- ... ... 1 lb. of liver... 4 oz. of bacon, or fat ... ... ... 60. ... ... ... s. d. 08 ... ... ... 20. ... ... ** ... ... 02 08 Spice 3 lb. of potatoes ... ... ... *** ... ... ... 专 800 ... 000 600 ०२० 0 of 902 000 ... 02 0111 Flour and dripping... ... ese ...
A boiled suet-style pudding built on a dripping crust, written as a costed dish for a frugal household. The main thing a modern cook must decide is how much of the stated cooking time to keep.
- The liver is cooked twiceStewing for an hour and a half and then boiling for two more will leave the filling dry and grainy. Fifteen to twenty minutes of gentle stewing is enough to firm the liver and produce the gravy the recipe wants; the pudding's own two hours in the pot finishes it.
- Quart basinAn imperial quart is about 1.1 litres, so a standard 1-litre pudding basin is the right size. Line it with the crust, fill, cover with a crust lid, and seal well before it goes into the water.
- The crust"A crust of dripping and flour" is a suet-pastry substitute: roughly half the weight of fat to flour, rubbed or grated in cold, bound with cold water and a good pinch of salt. Beef dripping gives the firmest crust; solid vegetable fat behaves similarly.
- Boiling in a clothThe traditional method is a floured pudding cloth tied over the basin. A double layer of pleated foil over baking parchment, tied with string and a string handle, does the same job. Keep the water at a bare simmer and no more than two-thirds up the basin, and top up with boiling water so it never goes off the boil.
- The fatFour ounces of bacon fat, beef fat or mutton fat is what makes the filling succulent, since liver has almost none of its own. Chopped streaky bacon or diced beef suet both work; without some added fat the pudding will be dry whatever you do.
- SeasoningThe costing lists spice, which the instructions do not. Mace, allspice or a little nutmeg alongside the pepper and salt would suit, and a chopped onion softened in the fat is a reasonable addition.
- Liver to useThe recipe does not say which liver; ox or lamb's would both suit. Trim out the tougher tubes before stewing, and taste for bitterness: ox liver is often soaked in milk beforehand.
- YieldA quart basin will serve about four, and the original states that the pudding with three pounds of potatoes goes as far as the two neighbouring dishes it is costed against.