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Suet Pudding
The following recipe makes a pudding large enough for ten persons; one-half will usually be sufficient for one dessert. The portion left over will be equally good when warmed again. One cup of chopped suet; one cup of raisins; one cup of molasses; one cup of milk (preferably sour); three cups of sifted flour; one teaspoon of soda; one teaspoon of cinnamon; one teaspoon of cloves; one teaspoon of salt; one-half nutmeg (grated). Chop the suet fine and add to it the spice and salt. Warm the molasses, add it to the soda and when the latter is dissolved turn the molasses over the dry mixture, stir quickly and put in the milk. Add the flour slowly as it may not all be needed. Flour varies so much that it is always difficult to apportion it in any recipe. The pudding should not be too thick; when the track of the mixing-spoon, when turned quickly round in the batter, disappears slowly, the batter is generally thick enough. Butter a tin basin or a pudding-mold, pour the pudding in, set the whole in a steamer and steam for three hours.
A plain steamed molasses pudding of the sort that lived in every American kitchen with a steamer and a spare three hours. The batter is deliberately loose, and the flour is added by feel rather than by measure.
- The hinge: batter consistencyHold back part of the third cup of flour and stop when a spoon dragged quickly through the batter leaves a track that fills in slowly. Too much flour gives a dense, dry pudding that steam cannot lighten.
- SuetBeef suet is the hard fat from around the kidneys; ask a butcher, as it is rarely on display. Chop or grate it while very cold, or use the packaged shredded suet sold for puddings. Butter is not a substitute here, since suet melts later and leaves the crumb open.
- Sour milkThe recipe's "preferably sour" means naturally soured raw milk, which today's pasteurised milk will not reproduce. Use buttermilk, which supplies the acid the teaspoon of soda needs.
- Soda and molassesWarming the molasses only makes the soda dissolve readily. Once combined it begins working immediately, so have the flour and the buttered mould ready before you start.
- MolassesUse unsulphured dark molasses rather than blackstrap, which is bitter and will dominate the spices. Light or "mild" molasses gives a paler, sweeter pudding.
- Mould and steamingA large pudding basin or covered mould of at least three quarts, filled no more than two-thirds, set on a rack over simmering water in a deep covered pot. Cover the top with buttered parchment and foil, tied down, or the condensation will soak the surface. Top up with boiling water so the pot never runs dry over three hours.
- Doneness and yieldA skewer into the centre should come out clean and the pudding should have pulled slightly from the sides. Serves ten as written; half the quantities in a smaller mould will steam faster, so begin testing well before the three hours are up.
- ReheatingThe book is right that it reheats well. Return slices or the whole pudding to the steamer for 20 to 40 minutes rather than using dry heat, which toughens it.
- NutmegHalf a nutmeg grated is roughly a rounded teaspoon. Grate it fresh; pre-ground nutmeg at that quantity tastes flat and dusty.
Steamed suet puddings came to American kitchens straight out of the English tradition, where a boiled or steamed pudding in a cloth or basin was the standard dessert of a house without a reliable oven. This version is the frugal New World variant: molasses instead of sugar, sour milk and soda instead of eggs and long beating, and raisins as the only luxury. Butterick published its cook book late in the nineteenth century as an extension of the company's pattern and magazine business, aimed squarely at middle-class housekeepers, and the tone here is typical of the period's move toward instruction over formula — the long aside about flour varying from sack to sack, and the trick of judging batter by how slowly the spoon's track closes, teach a technique rather than a measurement. Puddings like this also suited a coal range, where a pot could sit on the back of the stove for three hours at no extra cost, and the author's note that the leftover half reheats well reflects a household economy in which nothing was made only once.