My friend Abigail is going to be disappointed, because this was her suggestion…only she suggested a more recent variation, and I like to start at the beginning.
She told me she had a vague memory of a steamed pudding that has a whole lemon in it, so when you cut into it, there’s a falling apart almost marmalade inside. “It’s like…Frog Pond pudding? That’s not right.” (We live in Boston. The Frog Pond is our most famous pond.)
A google of “steamed pudding with lemon?” got me the real thing: a Sussex Pond Pudding.
Of course, the original version is quite different.
The very first version of a Sussex Pond Pudding is in a 1670 cookery book called The Queen Like Closet by Hannah Woolley. (According to Wikipedia, Wooley was the first person to actually earn a living publishing books on household management.)
Over the centuries, it evolved into putting a whole lemon into the center, which showed up in the British season 2 of The Great British Bake Off as a technical challenge. Someday, I’ll do that. Not today. (Also I’m out of suet, and the butcher I get my suet from is a pain to get to, and it’s been a BUSY MONTH.)
181. To make a Sussex Pudding.
Take a little cold Cream, Butter and Flower, with some beaten Spice, Eggs, and a little Salt, make them into a stiff Paste, then make it up in a round Ball, and as you mold it, put in a great piece of Butter in the middle; and so tye it hard up in a buttered Cloth, and put it into boiling water, and let it boil apace till it be enough, then serve it in, and garnish your dish with Barberries; when it is at the Table cut it open at the top, and there will be as it were a Pound of Butter, then put Rosewater and Sugar into it, and so eat it.
So, how much of what? I don’t know.
Some years ago, I made a Spotted Dog, which is a similar concept, but with suet. I also have a 1860 cookbook by Eliza Acton (Modern Cookery in All Its Branches) and she suggests that your butter and flour for such a thing should be in a 2 parts flour, 1 part butter ratio. That makes sense! I also cheated in with the “spices” because I got a “Scandinavian Sugar mixture” (cane sugar, vanilla, and cardamom) for Christmas, and I just wanted to use that. It should probably be something along the lines of cinnamon, mace, cloves, but…I made a choice.
I cut the butter in (four ounces of butter, 8 ounces of flour), then added an egg, maybe a tablespoon of the “Scandinavian Sugar mixture,” a generous pinch of salt, and enough cream to make it function like a dough (…somewhere between a quarter and half a cup. I think. I don’t really know). The dough came together like scones, which is about the same consistency as the Spotted Dog.
The cloth is one of those 79 cent Ikea kitchen towels that’s been washed. Under the advice of various Christmas pudding recipes, I got the towel wet, then rubbed butter on it (as Wooley directs) and then sprinkled flour on it, because that helps seal it up or something? It seemed to make sense.
Then the dough goes in, with a piece of butter in the middle.
Tie it up, and in to the pot it goes. I didn’t have any cooking twine, but I had some jute cord left over from a costuming project I just finished.
So “let it boil apace till it be enough” isn’t THAT useful a time stamp, especially when you can’t open anything to see how it’s progressing. After some consultation with modern Sussex Pond Pudding recipes, I shrugged and went “Two hours? Two hours sounds good.”
Two hours was good! It’s, perhaps unsurprisingly, like a boiled scone.
I didn’t have anything like barberries (you can get them from Amazon), and I don’t particularly like rosewater, so I don’t keep it on hand, but I sprinkled it with sugar and it’s quite tasty. I’d put a bigger pat of butter in the middle next time.
But let’s be real. Next time I’m boiling a lemon.
I love this! When you cut it open, was there a little butter pond inside?
Redheadedgirl,
Have you watched Fannie’s Last Supper on Netflix (https://www.netflix.com/title/80148271). A Chris Kimball thingiebobber but I found the some of the details and “modern accomodations” to be utterly fascinating. Had no idea the Bostonians had access to so many ingredients in the last 1800s. Of course, I never actually thought about it either, which I guess is interesting in itself. Well, for me anyway.
They used Fannie Farmer cookbook to recreate a 12-course meal from 1896.
PS. Your let it boil comment reminded me of Paul Hollywood’s Dampfnudel technical challenge.
PS. PS. Where’s the final result pictures. I wanna’ see the outside and the inside once you’ve cut into it.
You could probably substitute cranberries for the barberries.
Did your pudding end up with a skin? Flouring the cloth seems to have been about producing a skin that protects the rest of the pudding from absorbing too much water. I was on holiday in Wales recently and the cottage had a copy of Lady Llanover’s book, somewhat strange as a cookery book as the most part is the discourse between a hermit and a traveller about the correct way of cooking various foods and of managing a kitchen, still fascinating stuff. Anyway there is discussion of boiling puddings in that book.
The version of Sussex Pond Pudding with a lemon is a wonderful comforting cold day pudding. In my opinion best made with dark brown soft sugar or muscavado sugar which provide a spiciness of their own. And if you slash the lemon almost through in a couple of places the final sauce will be more lemony rather than just having a sweet sauce and bits of sharp lemon.
Here’s a version with the lemon and delicious (but disgusting) real suet:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jan/25/the-perfect-sussex-pond-pudding-felicity-cloake
As a regular maker of steamed puddings, I heartily approve! I’ve not made a sussex pond pudding yet so this is going to the top of my list of things to try.
Redheadedgirl, have you looked through the cookbook “Pride and Pudding”? It’s by Regula Ysewijn, it’s freaking gorgeous, and it combines a detailed history of the many kinds of pudding with recipes, including recipes as they were originally written in the 1600’s and upwards.
http://amzn.to/2s2rLiJ
RHG, have you tried using Atora Suet? Looks like you can get it through Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Atora-Shredded-Beef-Suet-200g/dp/B0170DGC06/ref=sr_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1517677837&sr=8-1&keywords=atora+suet&dpID=517HvoGbzfL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch. It’s what every English person uses in these situations. Also used in pastry when making meat pies. No dealing with ‘real’ suet and it’s already nicely shredded for you!
Dear RHG — It sounds like a relative of the Suffolk Pond pudding is alive and kicking in the UK under the name “Hidden Orange Christmas Pudding”. It’s sold by Waitrose (a supermarket chain, I think) and they seem to sell out of them every year. Here’s a link to an article and video on how to make your own: https://christmas.wonderhowto.com/how-to/replicate-famous-hidden-orange-christmas-pudding-by-heston-0123083/ You candy the orange separately,, put in the pudding batter, and then steam the whole thing. I’ve never done it, but it does sound intriguing.
As to suet, if you have a hispanic grocery store or butcher shop near you, you might try there. It’s called sebo (pronounced SAY-bo).
Germaine the version of Sussex pond pudding with a lemon in was alive and kicking in the UK well before Heston Blumenthal nicked the idea for his christmas pudding, it neer really went away. If you have a look at the comments below the recipe Janet links to you will see argument about the best way of making it, people have strong opinions. They also make versions with limes and with oranges although I’m not convinced the latter would work as I think you need an acid fruit to balance all the sugar and butter.
If anyone’s curious, “The Queen-Like Closet” is available through the Gutenberg Project:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14377
Chiming in to say that it has been a long time since I thought of Hannah Woolley’s “The Queen-Like Closet” and I was interested to see you have a print copy of it. Back when I thought I wanted to get a PhD. in history, I read lots of 17th century English cookbooks and books of household management, but I read them all on microfilm, printing out anything I wanted to save. I was never brave enough to try any of the recipes.
I agree with Herberta. I had barberries at a restaurant recently, and when cooked, they were indistinguishable from cranberries.
looks like a great success!
Lucky you to have a butcher who carries suet! I have been reduced to using a vegetable substitute from a local health store. But since suet and the vegetable version both have a high melting point, the result is also the same. This year, I’m going to try the Atora brand from Amazon.
Thank you to @Germaine for suggesting a Hispanic butcher for sebo. One thing we have in Tucson is plenty of carnicerias. Maybe I’ll have better luck there.
The thought of making anything without a hard and fast recipe gives me so much anxiety. Would have loved to see a picture of the actual finished dish?
The final result is the very first picture. I started putting them there so you could see were we were going with it.
Some online scrabbling for Hannah Woolley–a name I confess I’d never heard of–leads to:
http://mdc.cbuc.cat/cdm/singleitem/collection/fonsgrewe/id/33
I do not, ahem, read Catalan, but that tiny little link labeled “28.pdf” will get you a downloadable PDF file (about 29MB, not especially good quality, but we’ll take what we can get).
In the alternative, Google has an ebook for $3.06 (huh?).
In any case, let us all pose for a moment of gratitude to Eliza Acton, whose contributions to English cookery included
Thank you, Eliza. (Full disclosure: I’m working on her book as we speak, but have got many months to go.)
Urk. I meant “pause for a moment”. Is it too much to ask that the brain and fingers maintain some tenuous contact?
But anyone who feels like posing is welcome to do so.