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Currant Dumplings
Take half a pound of beef-suet and chop fine; put in a basin with four tablespoonfuls of flour, one pound of breadcrumbs, half a pound of sugar, and half a pound of cleaned currants. Mix all these well together, and stir in three-quarters of a pint of milk. Dip the center of a pudding-cloth into boiling water, wring it out, dredge a little flour over, and spread the floured cloth over the top of a basin, pour the dumpling into it, tie the cloth tightly with a piece of strong twine, and put the dumpling into a large saucepan of boiling water; add to the water half a tablespoonful of salt, and boil fast for three hours, being careful not to allow the boil to slacken; should the water waste much, replenish it from a kettle kept boiling for the purpose. When the dumpling is done, remove with care from the cloth, and turn onto a hot dish.
This is a single large boiled pudding rather than the individual dumplings the title suggests, and it depends entirely on a cloth and a pot of water that never stops boiling.
- The hinge: keep the water at a hard boilIf the boil slackens, water soaks into the cloth instead of being held off by steam, and the outer half-inch turns to sodden paste. Keep a kettle on and top up with boiling water only, never cold.
- Measures in modern termsHalf a pound of suet is about 1 1/2 to 2 cups shredded; half a pound of sugar is a generous cup; half a pound of currants is about 1 1/2 cups. Three-quarters of a pint is 1 1/2 cups of milk by the American pint, nearer 2 cups if an imperial pint is intended. A pound of breadcrumbs is roughly 8 to 9 cups of soft fresh crumbs, and dry packaged crumbs will absorb far more milk than the recipe allows.
- CurrantsThese are dried Zante currants, small dried grapes, not fresh red or black currants. Fresh currants would make an entirely different and much wetter pudding.
- SuetShredded beef suet is still sold by butchers and in packets, including a vegetable version. Frozen grated butter is the usual substitute but melts sooner, giving a denser crumb.
- The pudding clothUse unbleached cotton or a thin linen towel, scalded, wrung out and floured as directed. The flour forms a skin that keeps water out. Tie with room for slight swelling; there is no leavening here, so the pudding will not rise much.
- A basin insteadThe same mixture cooks in a buttered pudding basin large enough to hold it -- the quantity comes to well over two quarts -- covered with pleated parchment and foil, steamed three hours in a covered pot with water halfway up the sides.
- Turning outLift the pudding by the twine, dip it briefly in cold water to loosen the cloth, then untie and invert onto a hot dish. Cut the string rather than fighting the knot.
- Yield and servingServes eight to ten. It is sweet but plain, and expects a sauce: hard sauce, brandy butter, or a thin pouring custard.
Boiled cloth puddings were a mainstay of English domestic cookery from the seventeenth century onward, made possible by the simple trick of a floured cloth that keeps the water off while the pudding cooks in the heat within, and this currant version is the plainest of the family, the everyday cousin of the fruit-heavy Christmas pudding. The currants are Zante currants, tiny dried grapes whose name descends from Corinth, their medieval trading origin, and which were imported to American kitchens from Greece. Oscar Tschirky's book, drawn from the Waldorf kitchens of the 1890s, carries a good deal of this British nursery and boarding-house repertoire alongside its French service dishes.