I GOT A PUDDING BASIN.
I also got a copy of Lobscouse and Spotted Dog, Which It’s a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels by Anne Chotzinoff Grossman and Lisa Grossman Thomas.
In the realm of British dishes with silly names, Spotted Dog is up there. When I was planning Christmas dinner with my family, I threw out there “Hey, should I make some Spotted Dog?” My dad is a huuuuuge Patrick O’Brian fan (like, has collected first editions of every book in the Aubrey-Maturin series and all the companion books), and was stoked at the idea of eating Jack Aubrey’s favorite food. I was stoked at having an excuse to buy a pudding basin, and my mom just likes it when I make historical food, so it was a win for EVERYONE.
Spotted Dog is a suet-based pudding that’s steamed in a basin. It’s got currants in it – those are the spots – and according to Lobscouse and Spotted Dog, the “Dog” refers to “dough.” Also, sorry, O’Brian, but most sources indicate that it was “invented” in 1849, and Jack Aubrey was
Also, sorry, Patrick O’Brian, but most sources indicate that it was “invented” in 1849, and Jack Aubrey was Aubreying across the seven seas during the Napoleonic Wars, so…. well, don’t let reality get in the way of your story, right?
Anyway, it steams up into a nice, moist, dense British pudding (not like an American Jello pudding that your mom gives you when you have strep throat for the upteenth time). It’s not exactly the same as Spotted Dick, either. Dog is a spherical (kind of ) idea, while the Dick is rolled into a log (according to The Oxford Companion to Food). However, when you Google Spotted Dog, you also get returns for Spotted Dick, and they are very very similar.
When I made this for Christmas, I used shortening instead of suet. I was doing my grocery shopping on Christmas Eve and I didn’t want to have to say, “so you’re gonna be eating a thing made with the fat around a beef kidney AND YOU’RE GONNA LIKE IT” and ALSO try to find suet on Christmas Eve. I would have had to fight both fights, and I didn’t want to. So I used shortening, and it was pretty good, but I’ll give a spoiler right now: the version I made last week with suet? WAY BETTER. More taste, more balance. (To be honest, I have no idea if I got the conversion right on the shortening to suet; I just guessed. I don’t think I was far off.)
Oh and in addition to the pudding basin? I got another new toy because I was tired of making weight-to-volume conversions. ISN’T IT PRETTY.
The recipe from Lobscouse and Spotted Dog is already interpreted, and they don’t give their original sources, which is a shame, but it’s a fairly standard recipe:
INGREDIENTS
- 4 cups flour
- ¼ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 ¾ cups dried currants
- ½ pound suet, finely grated
- 1 cup milk
PREPARATION
- In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Stir in the currants, breaking them apart (the flour will coat them and keep them from clumping together). Mix in the suet.
- Add the milk and eggs, and work the mixture thoroughly with your hands.
- Scrape the batter into a greased six-cup pudding basin. Tie a well-floured cloth over the pudding. Put the pudding in a pot of boiling water, cover, and steam for two hours. Unmold and serve hot, accompanied by custard sauce.
First, the basin I got is only a 4 cup, so I cut this in half, and unless you have 12 people whom you want to stuff full of pudding, you don’t need to make this whole recipe.
Okay, so: suet. I got it at Savenors, the fancy-pants butcher shop outside of Harvard Square. It’s uh… kinda yucky.
It has membranes that need to be removed (kind of like how garlic cloves have peels?) and I ended up just crumbling it with my fingers rather than trying to grate what was already little tiny bits. The real weakness in using suet is that I’m a lot less comfortable risking eating the raw dough. Raw eggs? Whatever. Raw beef fat? Not really willing to risk it. (Yes, of course, I tried a tiny bit and didn’t die. It was delicious?)
The fun part is packing it in the basin (Message from Elyse: that cookie dough looks really good and I want to shove it in my face. Me: It’s not cookie dough) and tying up the cover. I went with the BBC’s instructions. They seemed to know what they’re talking about.
Since I cut the amount in half, I wasn’t too sure how long to steam it for. Both times I went for an hour and change.
It’s very dense and kinda chewy, and it really is best when hot. Girl!Roommate refused to try it, but my mom liked it very much heated up with a little milk for breakfast.
Yes, I will be making this in the future, and yes, I will inflict it on the unsuspecting (no I will not represent it as vegetarian. It is so not). I can’t wait to play with other steamed puddings!
My pudding basin came from England with my parents when they emigrated in 1955 along with my pan that is used only for Yorkshire pudding. Whenever my grandmother came over, she would make suet-based puddings, especially steak and kidney.
I don’t make suet puddings, but my family loves my apple molasses pudding and I steam mine (in above-mentioned basin) in my slow cooker. That way I can just turn it on in the morning and forget about it, but I don’t know if it would work for a suet pudding.
When I lived in Tanzania, I hung out with the British volunteers and was introduced to steamed puddings. They were a convenient dessert to make when I was having company over and the electricity went out (not an uncommon occurrence) making anything requiring the oven out of the question. I could set up a pudding on my kerosine stove and let it go while I made the rest of supper on a charcoal stove. I have to confess that I have never used suet though… I probably wouldn’t have trusted the Tanzanian butchers on that one…
If you have the correct amount of pudding for the size of bowl put a pleat in the foil so there is room for the pudding to expand above the rim of the bowl.
I would recommend trying Sussex Pond Pudding – it is wonderful. Also trying the lighter sponge puddings with something like marmalade or syrup put in the bowl first to make a sauce when turned out (you still need custard!).
I love suet. And lard. And schmaltz. And…basically, I don’t care what form fat comes in, I will eat it.
A lot of people do not share this joy, and I am often tempted to misrepresent the fat in baked goods so that people will just try it. But that would mean more people eating my dessert, so less dessert for me.
Ethics, schmethics. Sloth and/or selfishness are inevitably what make me behave appropriately.
Love the new toys!
You might be able to get vegetable suet through mail order, it’s the only kind I ever use (but I am in England!)
Further comment to say Amazon sell the stuff I remember from my family pantry growing up
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000T9BJHU/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1454777450&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=vegetable+suet&dpPl=1&dpID=51S6FOw96wL&ref=plSrch
Thanks for the hint about Savenor’s. I want to try to make haggis from scratch for Burns Night next year, and I was wondering where I might find the requisite sheepy bits – certainly not at my local grocery (though Whole Foods might be just wild enough).
And the lifting handle on the pudding basin – what a concept!
I might have to try this – anything with raisins/currants is a win in my book. But not with my kids. I thought all kids liked raisins – go figure.
Jazzlet beat me to it, but you really do need to make Sussex Pond Pudding (use Delia Smith’s recipe ) it’s utterly divine on a cold winters night .And as for suet, try to get your hands on Atora …its ready shredded suet & it’s brilliant.Also St Clements pudding ( it has a mixture of orange & lemon in it, hence St Clement ) is scrummy . And don’t forget the custard !
Love steamed puddings and have always wondered about the difference between spotted dog and spotted dick since the recipes are so similar.
I’m a Patrick O’Brian fan, too, and am working my way through the canon again.
I have been searching for suet for years. Never thought to check Amazon. D’oh! They have everything. I used a mold, but want a reason to buy this wonderful bowl, which comes in different colors:
http://www.amazon.com/Mason-Cash-Forest-Steam-British/dp/B00LB9I0RY/ref=pd_sim_79_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=41lkEbpUx9L&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=0HCXNS1FQZH1BHV7JQ5S
Curious about something. You used aluminum foil to cover your basin. What would Victorians have used? A tea towel?
I have a Brit friend who always used the slow cooker to steam her Christmas pudding.
Surprised that you were not able to find suet on Christmas eve in MA. When I lived there the Boston Globe always ran an article around Christmas “Don’t forget our feathered friends” or something like that on how to make a suet-based treat for the birds and even the grocery store in my village carried suet.
Also what with Paleo being popular, I’d have thought they would have it.
As the recipe says, they said to use a floured cloth, but I went with the parchment paper and tin foil as suggested by the BBC.
Second, I was not in Massachusetts, I was in Minnesota, which is where my family is. And as I was doing grocery shopping for Christmas dinner on Christmas eve, I wasn’t going to go to more than one grocery store (last year I went to THREE on Christmas Eve. It was horrible and I will NOT be doing that again). And, as I said, 1) finding the suet and 2) convincing my family to eat it would have been TWO fights I would have had to get anyone to eat it, and given that I was cooking Christmas dinner for 12, I really did not have the energy for both of those things. So, again, as I said, I chose to do neither, and instead went with the path of least resistance.
And that’s a good thing, because I was able to say “yes this works” so if people want to try making it on their own, but are feeling a bit wary of the suet, they know that shortening is a viable alternative.
@Gloriamaria Amalfitano .The Victorians used greased proofed paper & cheesecloth or muslin to cover the pudding bowl .Tied tightly with string, as Red Headed Girl did… following the BBC’s instructions.
@Gloriamaria Amalfitano I don’t think bird suet is meant for human consumption. The suet we want for cooking is the leaf suet from the kidneys and food grade. Bird suet can be any fat and may or may not be kept at the right temp.
@Redheadedgirl You can use shortening or butter as a substitute but the resulting pudding will be denser and heavier. It will still taste good, but the texture won’t be ideal. Suet has a higher melting point, so it holds its shape longer into the cooking process instead of melting sooner the way butter or shortening does. Both melt too soon and allow the cake to collapse on itself.
Jas. Townsend & Sons has Atora vegetable suet on sale right now, 7 oz for $2.00:
http://jas-townsend.com/vegetable-suet-p-1439.html?osCsid=a6f5bc5a6eb7dd8dec64eb23fb21edc4
Thanks for the link. Of course to get free shipping I looked for something else, they had a dvd series on 18th Century Cooking. So of course had to get that. I did buy a pudding basing off amazon.
@ Michelle: check out YouTube. Jas. Townsend has dozens of videos on 18th-century cooking techniques.
Mason Cash do wonderful basins and bowls. I just wish they’d do the ones I have a set of again with a pouring lip, a beautiful matt blue glaze in three sizes handy for all sorts of preparation.
Atora is really handy to have around, it lasts forever (whatever it says about ‘use by’) so if you are into making suet puddings you can buy several packets at once. And if you do you should try suet dumplings, perhaps thyme or tarragon with a chicken stew or cinnamon with stewed apple. Hmmmm …
1. A kitchen scale is invaluable. This is an investment, and totally worth it.
2. “well, don’t let reality get in the way of your story, right?” This is also invaluable advice for reading any historical fiction. ANY.
3. I didn’t know any kids liked raisins, or currants, or anything small and shriveled and non-chocolate. Even if the raisins or currant-things were in cookies. That was a big NOPE for my kids!