No. 3103

Plum Pudding, St. George

Plum Pouding St. George

Place in a vessel one pound of beef kidney suet, very dry, free of fibers and chopped up very finely; one pound of seeded Malaga raisins; one pound of currants, cleaned and washed in plenty of water; one pound of bread-crumbs, sifted through a sieve; a quarter of a pound of candied lemon peel chopped up very fine; one pound of powdered sugar; four tablespoonfuls of flour; a quarter of an ounce of ground cinnamon; a quarter of an ounce of nutmeg and allspice; a pint of brandy and six eggs. Mix the whole well together. Dip a strong cloth, in cold water and wring it out to extract all its moisture; spread it open on a table and butter it liberally with butter softened to the consistency of cream; dredge over with sifted flour and shake the cloth to remove the excess of flour that has failed to adhere to the butter. Lay in the center of this cloth the above prepared mixture, form it in the shape of a ball, raise up the edges of the cloth bringing the four ends together and all around so as to enclose the preparation well, then tighten and tie firmly. Have on the fire a high saucepan filled to three-quarters of its height with water; when this boils plunge in the plum pudding and let cook for three hours, then remove it from the water. Have it stand for five minutes before cutting the string; undo the cloth carefully and invert the pudding on a hot dish; besprinkle it with sugar, pour over some brandy or rum and set it on the fire; serve immediately. Have a separate sauce-boat of frothy vanilla and rum sauce to be made as follows:

Frothy Vanilla and Rum Sauce.—Chop up half a pound of beef marrow, melt it in a bainmarie, then strain through a napkin into a bowl and whip it until it begins to froth, then add four ounces of fresh butter broken in small parts, four ounces of vanilla sugar (No. 3165) and lastly, half a gill of rum; serve.

← No. 3102 Peach Pudding a la Cleveland Hot Entremets — Puddings, Fritters & Soufflés No. 3104 Plumery Pudding →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's plum pudding is a full-scale Victorian boiled pudding: roughly five pounds of batter before the fruit is counted, and no yield given. A few points of translation make it workable.

YieldThe mixture weighs nearer seven pounds once the brandy and eggs are counted, and will serve 16 to 20 as a dessert portion. It can be divided into two smaller cloths or basins, in which case the boiling can be shortened — perhaps two hours each — though the recipe gives no guidance on this.
The hinge: keep the water at a steady boilA cloth pudding must stay fully submerged in continuously boiling water for the whole three hours. Top up with boiling water from a kettle, never cold, or the pudding stops cooking and the outside turns sodden.
SuetBeef kidney suet is the fat from around the kidneys, drier and harder than ordinary trimmings. Ask a butcher, or use packaged shredded suet. Chill it hard before chopping so it grates rather than smears; vegetable suet works but gives a softer crumb.
Currants and Malaga raisins"Currants" here means dried Zante currants, not fresh berries. Malaga raisins were large seeded muscatels; seedless muscat raisins or a good jumbo raisin are the nearest thing, and no seeding is needed.
Ambiguous spice measure"A quarter of an ounce of nutmeg and allspice" may mean a quarter ounce of each or a quarter ounce combined. A quarter ounce is roughly two to three teaspoons ground; splitting the difference — a teaspoon of each — suits modern palates.
Liquid measuresA pint is 16 fluid ounces in Ranhofer's New York usage, so a full two cups of brandy. Half a gill in the sauce is a quarter cup of rum.
The clothScald the cloth rather than merely wetting it if you want a firmer skin, and butter and flour it as directed — the flour is what seals the surface. A buttered pudding basin covered with pleated parchment and foil, tied down and steamed, gives a similar result with less anxiety.
FlamingWarm the brandy or rum before lighting it; cold spirit will not catch. Light it away from the extractor hood and pour it over the pudding already burning rather than lighting a full pan at the table.
The marrow sauceMelted, strained beef marrow whipped with butter and sugar sets firm as it cools, so it must be made at the last minute; the recipe says only 'serve', without specifying a temperature. Marrow bones are still sold by many butchers; a hard brandy or rum butter made with ordinary butter is the usual modern substitute.
KeepingPuddings of this composition, heavy with sugar, fat and spirit, keep for weeks wrapped and refrigerated and are traditionally made well ahead. Reheat by steaming for an hour, not in the microwave, which toughens the crumb.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a compendium of everything a first-class American kitchen might be asked to produce, and an English plum pudding was firmly on that list, among the other great national dishes of Europe alongside the French repertoire. The name is a nod to the patron saint of England, the sort of dedication Ranhofer applied elsewhere in the book (he also gives a peach pudding à la Cleveland). "Plum" is the older English word for any dried fruit, raisins especially, which is why a plum pudding contains none of the fresh fruit; the dish descends from the spiced, suet-thickened meat pottages of the seventeenth century, which gradually shed their meat and kept their suet. Boiling in a floured cloth rather than a basin is the older of the two methods and produces the characteristic round cannonball shape that gave the Victorian Christmas pudding its familiar silhouette.