St. Agnes Pudding

A plain boiled suet pudding of the mid-Victorian type: breadcrumbs rather than flour, bound with very little egg and enriched with lemon and sugar. The instructions assume a cook who knows how a pudding cloth or basin behaves, so the gaps are worth filling in.

• The hinge: mixingThe note that it "takes a long time to mix" is the whole method. With only one egg and no flour, the suet and crumbs must be worked together until the mass is uniformly damp and holds when squeezed, or the pudding will fall apart when turned out. Work it with a wooden spoon or your hands for several minutes.
• Grated breadStale white bread grated on a box grater, not dried crumbs from a packet. Ten ounces is roughly 5 to 6 cups of loose fresh crumbs; packaged dry crumbs are far denser and would give a leaden pudding.
• SuetBeef suet, shredded fine or grated from a chilled piece. Half a pound is about 225 g. Packaged shredded suet works directly; butcher's suet needs the membrane picked out and should be grated frozen.
• Moist sugarUnrefined soft brown sugar, damp and slightly sticky. Light muscovado is the closest current equivalent; ordinary light brown sugar will do.
• Boiling and timing"Nearly an hour" suits a pudding boiled loose in a floured cloth, where heat reaches the centre quickly. Made in a greased pudding basin covered with pleated parchment and foil, the same mixture will need considerably longer -- allow around two hours of steaming and test before turning out. Keep the water at a bare simmer and topped up throughout.
• LemonZest the lemon before juicing and add both. The juice is the only real liquid in the mixture apart from the egg, so do not omit it; if the mass still seems crumbly, a spoonful or two of milk is in keeping.
• Brandy and currantsBoth are optional in the original and both are worth taking up: about 2 tablespoons of brandy, and, since the original says only "a few", 2 to 3 ounces of currants tossed in a little of the crumb mixture so they do not sink.
• Yield and servingServes six. Turn out hot and serve with a sweet wine sauce, brandy butter or plain cream; the pudding is sweet enough that a sharp lemon sauce suits it better than more sugar.