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Suet Pudding (II)
Mrs. Banks.
Three cups flour, one cup suet, one cup molasses, one cup sweet milk, one cup raisins, one and a half teaspoons soda; three hours hard boiling in a bag or pudding dish.
A plain boiled suet pudding of the sort that carried a nineteenth-century dinner to its close. The recipe is only a list, so the technique is where the work lies: the pudding must stay under boiling water for the full three hours, without interruption.
- Keep the water boiling and the pudding coveredWater at a rolling boil the whole three hours, topped up from a kettle of already-boiling water as it evaporates. If the level drops below the pudding or the pot goes off the boil, the batter sets unevenly and the centre stays raw and gummy.
- SuetBeef suet, the hard fat from around the kidneys, asked from a butcher. It should be chopped or grated fine, not melted. Packaged shredded suet (including vegetable suet) works; regular ground beef fat or lard does not give the same set.
- Sweet milkSimply fresh, unsoured milk. The word distinguishes it from the sour milk or buttermilk that other recipes in the book call for, which would change how the soda behaves.
- SodaThe soda is here to react with the acid in the molasses rather than with an added acid. A full-flavoured unsulphured molasses is the safest choice; a mild syrup gives the soda less acid to work on and can leave a soapy taste.
- CupsThe book's cup is probably close to a modern 8 oz cup for a batter like this; three cups of flour is roughly 13 oz. With a cup each of molasses and milk, expect a thick batter rather than a pourable one.
- Boiling in a bagA close-woven cotton cloth or a pudding bag, scalded, then floured on the inside so a skin forms and water cannot seep in. Tie it loosely to leave room for swelling, and set the bundle on a trivet, plate or folded cloth so it does not touch the pot bottom.
- Boiling in a pudding dishA greased metal or ceramic basin, filled two-thirds, covered with pleated foil or a tied cloth, in a covered pot with water to two-thirds up the sides. This is the easier route and gives a neater shape.
- RaisinsToss them in a spoonful of the measured flour before mixing so they suspend through the batter instead of sinking to what will be the bottom of the pudding.
- Yield and servingServes six to eight. Turn out hot and serve with a hard sauce, a lemon or vanilla pudding sauce, or plain cream. Leftovers slice cold and fry in butter, or steam again for twenty minutes.
The Home Cook Book (Chicago, generally dated to the mid-1870s, with several editions) was one of the earliest American charity cookbooks, compiled from recipes donated by local women and sold for the benefit of a charitable home for the friendless, which is why so many entries carry a contributor's name and almost no instruction: Mrs. Banks was writing for readers who already knew how to tie a pudding cloth. Boiled suet puddings came to American kitchens straight from English practice, and they survived here because they suited the equipment: a pot of water over the fire needed no oven, no even heat, and no attention beyond topping up. The molasses is the American mark on the dish. It was the cheap sweetener of the period, and paired with soda it did double duty, sweetening the pudding and supplying the acid the soda needed to raise it.