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Six-Hour Pudding
893. Mix together one pound of suet cut large as dice, threequarters of a pound of raisins when stoned, six ounces each of flour and moist sugar, the rind of a lemon grated, the yolks of four eggs and whites of two; butter the mould and boil six hours; serve with brandy-sauce,
A Victorian boiled suet pudding of the richest sort: nearly half its weight is suet, and it is bound with egg rather than milk. The points below cover the vessel, the long boil and the ingredients that have changed names.
- Keep the water at a bare simmer, and never let it dropThe pudding cooks for six hours in a covered mould set in boiling water; the water must stay at least halfway up the mould the whole time. Top it up from a kettle of boiling water, never cold, or the pudding will sink and go heavy.
- Moist sugarThis is unrefined soft brown sugar, still damp from the syrup. Light or dark soft brown sugar is the direct equivalent; granulated brown is drier and will not blend into the mixture as well.
- SuetBeef suet from a butcher, cut in dice as directed rather than shredded, is what gives this pudding its open, gravy-like texture. Packaged shredded suet works but melts faster and yields a closer crumb; vegetable suet gives a drier result.
- The mouldA 1.5-2 litre (1.5-2 quart) pudding basin or lidded metal mould, well buttered. Cover with buttered parchment and foil, pleated to allow rise, and tie down; a clamped tin lid is better still. Stand it on a trivet or folded cloth so the base is off the pan bottom.
- Boiling versus steaming"Boil" here means immersing the sealed mould in boiling water, not steaming above it. If you steam instead, allow a little longer, and expect a lighter, less dense pudding.
- The mixture will look stiffWith only four yolks and two whites for liquid, this is a very firm batter rather than a pourable one. That is correct for the recipe as written; if it will not come together at all, a spoonful of milk will bring it together.
- YieldRich enough to serve eight to ten in small slices. Leftovers slice cold and fry well in butter.
- Brandy sauceThe period sauce is butter, sugar and brandy beaten warm, or a thin custard flavoured with brandy. Either wants to be poured hot over a hot pudding.
Boiled puddings tied in a cloth or sealed in a buttered mould were the backbone of English dinners well into the nineteenth century, and their long cooking times reflect a kitchen where a pot sat over the fire all afternoon regardless. This one belongs to the plum-pudding family without the spice and candied peel: suet, raisins, sugar, a little flour to bind and lemon rind for lift, which puts it nearer the plainer boiled raisin puddings of ship and farmhouse cooking than a Christmas pudding. Puddings were sometimes named for their cooking time in recipe books of the period, the number of hours being among the most useful things a cook could be told. Brandy sauce, served here, was a common accompaniment for rich boiled puddings.