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Fig Pudding (II)
E. M. Walker.
One-half pound figs, one-quarter pound grated bread, two and a-half ounces powdered sugar, three ounces butter, two eggs, one teacup of milk. Chop the figs small and mix first with the butter, then all the other ingredients by degrees; butter a mould, sprinkle with bread crumbs, cover it tight and boil for three hours.
A plain Victorian boiled pudding: fig, bread and butter, steamed in a covered mould. The instructions are terse but complete; most of what needs saying is about weights, the mould and the water.
- Weights in modern termsHalf a pound of figs is about 225 g of dried figs, stems removed. A quarter pound of grated bread is roughly 115 g, which is about two cups of fresh crumbs, loosely packed. Two and a half ounces of sugar is about a third of a cup, three ounces of butter about six tablespoons.
- A teacup of milkTeacup measures vary from book to book, anywhere from about 4 to 8 fluid ounces, so roughly three-quarters of a cup is a fair reading. The recipe adds the remaining ingredients by degrees; since crumbs vary in dryness, hold back some of the milk so the batter is thick and droppable, not pourable.
- Grated bread, not packaged crumbs"Grated bread" means stale but not dried-out loaf rubbed on a grater. Commercial dry breadcrumbs absorb far more liquid and give a dense, sandy pudding; if that is all you have, use less and hold back some milk.
- The figs are the workChop the dried figs finely and rub them into the butter first, as written. Left in large pieces they sink and weld into a solid layer at the bottom of the mould. Very hard figs can be softened in warm water for ten minutes and patted dry first.
- Boiling means steamingThe buttered, crumbed mould goes into a pot with a tight lid or a tied cloth over it, standing on a trivet or folded towel, with boiling water reaching halfway to two-thirds up the sides. Keep it at a bare simmer and top up with boiling water; if the pot runs dry the mould cracks or scorches. Fill the mould no more than three-quarters full.
- Three hours is rightThree hours -- the timing is plausible for a steamed bread pudding of this size, though a mould this small may be set before the full three hours are up. It is done when a skewer comes out clean and the pudding has shrunk slightly from the mould.
- Turning out and servingRest ten minutes before unmoulding, or it slumps. This makes six to eight servings and expects a sauce -- a hard sauce, a thin custard or a lemon sauce is the period accompaniment.
Fig pudding belongs to the long English line of boiled puddings that moved from cloth to metal mould over the nineteenth century, and it is the pudding usually associated with the "figgy pudding" of the carol -- though there the word is more likely a general term for a rich boiled sweet than a recipe. Dried figs, largely shipped from the eastern Mediterranean, were a familiar item in a North American pantry of the 1870s, which is why they turn up beside raisins and currants in so many dessert chapters. The Home Cook Book was assembled from contributions by named local women, and this entry is typical of the format: a signed list of weights, a single sentence of method, and the assumption that the reader already knows how to set a mould in a pot of water. That two versions of fig pudding appear in the same book is a sign of the collection method rather than editorial indecision.