General Observations.
HAVE ready a sweet clean cloth and the water boiling; dip the cloth into the boiling water, wring it out and dredge it well, shake off the loose flour, put it over a basin, then pour in the pudding. If it is made of bread tie it loose that it may have room to swell; if of batter, tie it tight, give it a few turns in the boiling water to keep the fruit from falling to one side, and continue to give it a turn occasionally till ready. If boiled in a shape, or bowl, butter the inside first; do not let the water cease boiling while the pudding is in it; and keep the pot covered. When the pudding is ready, if it is done in a shape let it cool a few minutes, then untie the cloth; place the dish over the mouth of the shape, turn it over and lift up the shape carefully; if boiled in a cloth dip it immediately in cold water, which makes the cloth slip easily off.
When in want of eggs, a spoonful of yeast, or some ale or beer, may supply their place. In that case the pudding must have a less quantity of milk, and requires longer boiling. It is said, that snow is an excellent substitute for eggs, either in puddings or pancakes, two large spoonfuls being allowed for one egg.
Batter Pudding.
Beat five eggs very light, mix two or three gills new milk, pass half a pound flour through a search [thin muslin], and whip eggs, milk, and flour, as smooth as can be; then, by degrees, add other six gills of milk, with a tea spoonful of salt and spices, if you incline; put it into a well floured cloth and boil it an hour and a quarter, pour melted butter and sugar over; or serve a sauce in a tureen of melted butter, sugar, spices, a few glasses of ginger, currant, gooseberry, sherry, port wine, or shrub [a fruit liqueur]. For instruction in this department see observations on puddings.
A Light Pudding.
Beat ten eggs light, stir in a pound of flour, reduce it with a quart (choppin) of milk, sweeten to your taste, and add any spiceries you please, with a little salt, a glass of rum or brandy; butter a basin or bowl, fill it, lay over it the prepared cloth, turn it over and tie it tight; boil it three quarters of an hour, and serve it with melted butter or sweet sauce.
Suet Pudding.
Shred a pound of suet very small, beat seven eggs and stir in a pound of flour, reduce it to a proper consistence with milk, season with salt, ginger, &c. If you mean to bake it add a quart (choppin) of milk; to make it richer, raisins or currants, orange peel, &c. may be added. A marrow pudding is made the same way, using it in place of the suet.
Bread Pudding.
Cut the crumb of a penny loaf into thin slices and lay them into a dish; boil a quart (choppin) of milk and pour over the bread, cover it close; when the bread has soaked up the milk, put in two ounces butter and mix it well; when cold, mix in ten eggs beat light, adding salt, sugar, and spiceries to your taste; mix well together, tie it in a cloth loose to give it room to swell, and boil it an hour; turn it out, strew pounded sugar over it; serve with melted butter and wine. To make it rich, you may add half a pound currants, four ounces suet, and the grate of a lemon; giving it a longer time to boil.
Quaking Pudding.
Boil a quart (choppin) of cream, when cold add four eggs cast light, and four ounces flour; mix well with the cream, season it with sugar and spiceries, tie it close up in a bowl with a cloth buttered and dredged with flour. Boil it an hour, and turn it into a dish; serve it with pudding sauce as above.
Sago, or Millet Pudding.
Stew two ounces of sago or millet, in a pint and a half (three half mutchkins) milk; when cold add five eggs beat light, three Naples biscuits pounded, a glass of brandy, and sugar to your taste; butter a bowl and fill it, tie it over with a cloth as formerly directed, and put it in boiling water; when ready turn it out on a dish and serve it with melted butter, wine, and sugar.
Biscuit Pudding.
Pour a pint (mutchkin) of boiling milk or cream over three large Naples biscuits, grated or pounded, cover it close; when cold, stir in five eggs after being beat very light, two ounces flour, four ounces crumbs of bread, adding sugar and spiceries to your taste; mix all well together, and boil it half an hour.
Rice Puddings.
Take six ounces ground rice, put it on the fire with a quart (choppin) of milk and two ounces fresh butter, continue stirring till it boils, if not thick enough add more rice to make it thick as hasty pudding, and let it cool; beat six eggs very light and mix with the rice, add a little salt, nutmeg, cinnamon or lemon grate, sweeten to your taste add a glass of brandy; tie it close up and boil it an hour; serve it with melted butter, wine, and sugar.
Or,
Take half a pound of whole rice, wash and stew it gently in a quart (choppin) of milk till almost dry; stir in six ounces fresh butter, beat six eggs with a gill of sweet cream, which stir into the rice when it has cooled, and season it as ordered above; add four ounces currants well cleaned and washed, and four ounces raisins stoned; either boil or bake it, reducing to a proper thickness with good milk.
Grateful Pudding.
Grate a pound of loaf bread, mix with it a pound flour, beat eight eggs light; take a quart (choppin) new milk, then stir in the bread and flour, a pound raisins, a pound currants, eight ounces sugar, with ginger and other spiceries as you chuse; mix them well together, and proceed as already ordered; boil it an hour and a half.
Rice Puddings in Skins.
To a pound ground rice, take eight ounces beef suet very finely shred, eight ounces currants washed and picked, six ounces pounded or raw sugar, a table spoonful lemon grate, and four ounces orange peel shred, with spiceries to your taste; mix all together and put it in the skins leaving plenty of room for the rice, &c. to swell; boil them half an hour, and as you see them fill with air pierce them with a bodkin; when cold, pack them up in seeds of oatmeal. When they are to be used; boil them till thoroughly heated and soft, then broil them a little on a clear fire. Do not tie both ends of the puddings together, as they break when laid on the gridiron to broil.
Another way.
Take whole rice, wash it clean, set it on the fire with milk to swell, keep stirring all the time, as it is apt to burn, or rub the pot or stewpan well with butter, which prevents it; when all the milk is soaked up let it cool; mix some currants with it, and eight ounces beef suet shred small; add sugar and spiceries, or lemon grate, to your taste; mix all well together, fill the skins, and proceed as ordered above.
Oatmeal Puddings in Skins.
The first preparation is the skins; when you have got them from the butcher wash and rinse them well in large quantities of water, when every thing disagreeable is taken away rinse them in salt and water, but do not strip too often, as that may occasion holes, which renders them useless; cut them in lengths of half a yard each, lay them into a dry cloth, and then prepare the stuffing, thus: One pound oatmeal free from any seeds, one pound beef suet shred very small, with a good quantity of onions shred fine and parboiled; mix a pretty large quantity of pepper and salt, try if it is properly seasoned by frying a little in a pan; if too fat, some grated calf’s liver is an improvement, but they will not keep so long; in filling the skins, leave room for the meal to swell, throw them in a large pot of boiling water, and when they appear to be blown up with air, let it out with a pin, else they burst; boil them half an hour; when taken out lay them in riddles, and when cold pack them amongst oatmeal. When they are to be used, boil them ten or fifteen minutes, then broil them.
Rice and oatmeal puddings keep long good, and must prove a great convenience to families in the country, at a distance from market.
Boiled Puddings.
Plum Pudding.
Pick and stone a pound of bloom, or muscatel raisins, wash a pound of currants, shred a pound fresh beef suet, blanch and pound two ounces almonds; mix in a pound of flour, two spoonfuls of grated bread, and four ounces orange and lemon peel, eight ounces pounded sugar, with a small nutmeg and a few cloves pounded; mix all these ingredients, beat up a dozen eggs light, add two gills cream, two glasses of wine, and a glass brandy, make the whole into a stiff batter, otherwise the fruit will sink to the bottom. It requires four hours to boil; serve it with melted butter, wine and sugar.
It may be made much less expensive, by taking half the quantity of fruit, milk in place of cream, only four eggs, and no wine.
Prune Pudding.
Beat up six eggs light, stir in six ounces flour, a little salt and pounded ginger, then stir in two pints (a choppin) milk, add à pound of prunes stoned and minced, tie it up in a cloth and boil it an hour; serve it with melted butter and sugar.
Damson Pudding,
Is made in like manner.
Hasty Pudding.
Set two pints (a choppin) milk on the fire to boil, put a few bay leaves to flavour and colour it, if you chuse; beat the yolks of two eggs with some milk, a little salt, and as much flour as will make it of a proper thickness, then let it boil a few minutes, stirring all the time, take out the leaves and pour it into a dish; a little bit of butter put into it while boiling, makes it eat short; serve it with cream or milk, sugar, &c.
Scottish Hasty Pudding.
Set a quart of water to boil, season with a little salt; when it thoroughly boils, stir in, by degrees, a few handfuls of good oatmeal; stir very frequently till it has boiled five minutes, then add a little more, see it is seasoned to taste, give it another boil and pour it out; let it cool a little, and serve with milk. When oatmeal is properly boiled, much of the heating quality is destroyed. Amongst the poorer classes in Scotland, the above is very generally used for breakfast.
Another Hasty Pudding, or Milk Pottage.
Take two quarts (a pint) of milk, and three handfuls of oatmeal, stir both together, rub the bottom of a Dutch pot with butter, pour it in and keep stirring till it has boiled four or five minutes; add a little salt, pour it out, and set it to cool a little; serve with milk. It will be found a palatable and nourishing diet.
Ornamental Puddings.
Boil two pints (mutchkins) rich milk or cream, have ready crumbs of bread as much as you think will soak up the milk, but not to be too stiff, pour the boiling milk over and cover it close; when cold, beat it smooth with a spoon, add pounded nutmeg, a few cloves, and a little cinnamon; beat the yolks of eight, and the whites of four eggs very light, with eight ounces sugar, and mix all together; take five cups, or shapes, butter the insides well, colour a part of the pudding yellow, with gamboge or safron, and fill one of the dishes; fill and colour another red with cochineal extract, one green with juice of spinage, another blue, with syrup of violets; into the other part, being the largest, mix two ounces almonds, blanched and pounded with cream or rosewater, and four ounces orange marmalade; tie covers on each very close, and put them in boiling water; they will take an hour to boil; when ready turn them out, place the white one in the middle of the dish and the others round it; sift sugar over, and serve with sauce of melted butter, wine, and sugar.
Duke of Cumberland’s Pudding.
Grate eight ounces stale loaf bread, shred eight ounces beef suet, eight ounces apples, pared, cored and minced; pound a small nutmeg, or other spiceries to your taste, a little salt, the grate of a lemon, three ounces orange and lemon peel, cut small; then beat up eight eggs very light with eight ounces pounded sugar and mix in the other ingredients; butter a basin or shape, fill, and tie it over with a cloth; boil it about three hours and serve it with melted butter, lemon juice, sugar, and wine.
Eve’s Pudding
Is almost the same; in place of the orange and lemon peel take eight ounces currants.
Rice Puddings with Fruits.
First swell the rice with a little water or milk, over the fire; take it off and my in any preserved fruit, such as raisins, gooseberries, currants, cherries, &c. or gooseberries scalded, apples pared, cored, and cut small; add the proportion of eight eggs beaten light to one pound of rice, put it into a dish, tie a cloth over and boil it well; serve it with sugar and cream.
Pease Pudding.
Soak a pound of split pease an hour or two in cold water, then tie them into a cloth, allowing room for swelling; when they have boiled an hour, take and season the pudding with salt, pepper, and four ounces butter; mix it well, tie up the cloth again tight, and let it boil near an hour longer.
Luke’s Pudding.
Grate the crumb of a twopenny loaf, shred three ounces beef suet or marrow very fine, two ounces orange and two ounces lemon peel, a teaspoonful pounded cinnamon, half a pound currants, and any other fruit or spiceries you chuse; stir all into a quart (choppin) new milk, add three eggs beat light, a glass of rum or sherry, and a little lemon grate or essence, with sugar to taste; it may either be boiled, or baked in a Dutch oven. When baked, the bread and milk should be scalded and cooled, then add the eggs, &c.
Apple Dumplings.
Make a rich paste, then pare and core the apples with an apple scoop, fill them with orange marmalade, or any preserved fruit or jelly; roll out the paste into pieces large enough to enclose every apple, tie them in separate cloths and throw them into boiling water; three quarters of an hour will do them.
Or,
Make a good rich paste, roll it out half an inch thick, pare and core apples, cut them small, add raw sugar, pounded cinnamon, and a little red currant jelly; make a cloth ready, put it in a bowl, lay the paste upon it, then the fruit upon the paste, bring up the paste and close it well, tie the cloth and boil it. A large one will take more than two hours to boil.
Rich Suet Dumplings.
Take equal quantities of beef suet shred small, stale loaf grated, currants cleaned and washed, say a pound each; six ounces orange peel, a tea spoonful pounded cinnamon, four ounces sugar; beat up eight eggs and mix all together with a glass of brandy or rum, roll and make a paste; make one large, or divide it into several small dumplings.
Norfolk Dumplings
Is a thick batter made with two gills milk, three eggs, a little salt and flour; they are dropped in spoonfuls in boiling water, boiled a few minutes, drained, and served with melted butter poured over them.
