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Potato Pudding
888. Take a pound of fine meally potatoes, boil them till very dry and floury, and mash them till perfectly smooth, taking care to avoid destroying their light texture by too heavy a pressure; then mix with them, while hot, four ounces of butter, five and a half of sugar, five or six eggs, a very little salt, and a liberal allowance of grated lemonpeel. Pour these ingredients into a well-buttered dish, and bake the pudding in a moderate oven for about forty minutes. It should be turned out, and served with a layer of sifted sugar over it, or preserve round it. Or, it may be boiled, omitting the butter. When cold, this pudding eats like cake, and may be served as such.
Another-Mash together three-quarters of a pound of potatoes when boiled and peeled, two ounces of powdered sugar, a quarter of a pound of suet or butter (if butter, beat it with the potatoes), and stir in two spoonsful of rose water, then stir in the sugar with nine eggs well beaten, one spoonful of flour, a little mace, a pint of cream or good milk, and a little salt. Put a paste round the dish, and, if you like, a thin paste at the bottom; three-quarters of an hour in a quick oven will bake it, or without paste it may be turned out, and served with preserves round, or sifted sugar over it.
Another. To half a pound of potatoes, when boiled and mashed through a sieve, add six ounces of butter and six ounces of sifted sugar, while hot; when cold, add four eggs and the rind and juice of a lemon. Put a light paste round the dish and bake it.
Three versions of the same eighteenth-century sweet pudding, given in descending order of richness. All hinge on the potato being dry and light, so the technique in the first sentence matters more than any of the quantities.
- The hinge: dry, floury potatoUse a floury baking type (russet, Maris Piper, King Edward) and cook it until genuinely dry, then rice or sieve it while hot rather than beating it. Overworked potato turns gluey and the pudding sets heavy instead of light.
- Weights carried overThe sugar in the first version is five and a half ounces, the unit being understood from the butter above it. Roughly: 1 lb potato, 4 oz (1 stick) butter, 5.5 oz sugar, 5-6 eggs.
- Oven temperatures"Moderate" is usually taken as around 350F/175C for the first pudding's forty minutes. "Quick" for the second is generally reckoned around 400-425F/200-220C, which suits the pastry but will likely need a foil cover or a drop to 375F once the crust has set, since three-quarters of an hour at that heat risks scorching an egg-and-cream custard.
- Paste means pastry"Put a paste round the dish" is a shortcrust or puff border laid around the rim of a buttered dish, with an optional thin sheet lining the base. It is structural and decorative; the versions without it are simply turned out of the dish.
- SpoonsfulAn unqualified spoonful in books of this kind is usually read as a tablespoon, though the text does not say so. Two tablespoons of rose water is a fair amount of perfume by modern taste; start with one and judge, as today's rose waters vary widely in strength.
- SuetBeef suet gives the second version a firmer, more traditional pudding texture. Packet shredded suet, beef or vegetable, works; butter is the stated alternative and is better creamed with the potato as directed.
- Nine eggs and a pint of creamThe second version is a large custard pudding and will need a deep dish; it serves considerably more than the first and third, whose quantities are much smaller.
- Boiled versionTo boil the first pudding, omit the butter, put the mixture in a buttered basin covered with pleated foil or a floured cloth, and steam over water rather than boiling it hard, which would waterlog it.
- ServingTurned out and dusted with sifted sugar it is a hot pudding; the book adds that when cold it eats like cake and may be served as such.
Potato puddings belong to a long British line of sweet root and vegetable puddings — carrot, parsnip, potato — that treated a starchy vegetable much as a cook would treat ground almonds or breadcrumbs, as a body for eggs, butter, sugar and perfume. Such puddings appear in English cookery books from the eighteenth century onward, as the potato became steadily more familiar in English kitchens. Rose water and mace, as in the second version, are the older sort of seasoning, while the grated lemon peel and juice of the first and third reflect a later taste for citrus. Printing three variants in a row with no preference stated is common in compiled cookery books of this kind.