Steamed and Batter Puddings: Seasonable at Any Time

When you feel a need for comfort, look no further than a soft and flavoursome steamed pudding.  Mrs Beeton calls them "batter puddings" and provides a recipe for a baked version as well which includes instructions for decorating the finished pudding with "damsons, plums, red currants, gooseberries or apples."  Otherwise, her recipes are spare in detail.  Presumably, one learnt the necessary techniques from observing the more experienced cook.

I have inherited a 1970s pudding basin lid, pictured below in its red anodised glory.  This marvellous contraption clips onto an enamel basin which then needs to fit into a saucepan of boiling water in order to cook.

Mrs Beeton advised those cooking in the nineteenth century to "tie it down very tightly" which is what my mother used to do before a neighbour bequeathed the said 1970s pudding lid. What is tied down after the pudding basin is greased with butter, is a double round of greased foil or greaseproof paper large enough to tie with string over the top and rim of the pudding basin, with 2.5 cm (1") pleat in the middle.  Mrs Beeton doesn't say this, but unless you are making a pudding with jam or syrup as a topping, the bottom of the bowl should be lined with a round of greased greaseproof paper.

 

Marmalade puddings appear to have been popular around 1900.  Mrs Beeton provides a recipe for one large enough for 6 persons where "half a pot" of marmalade is put "all over the top" as soon as the pudding is turned out of the basin.  "It is advisable to warm the marmalade to make it liquid," she says, but the same effect can be achieved by placing some marmalade in the bottom of the pudding basin before steaming.

 

If using fresh fruit as a topping, peel and chop the fruit and place it in the bottom of the pudding basin before pouring in the batter.  According to the redoubtable Mrs B, the finished product "must be sent quickly to table and covered plentifully with sifted sugar."

 

Rather than the "deep, deep pleasure" afforded by contemporary cook Nigella Lawson's rather decadent desserts, the steamed pudding provides a warm and comforting feeling with its light, spongy texture and sweet topping, just like a mother's comforting hug.

 

Batter Pudding, Boiled. - INGREDIENTS for good-sized pudding. - 3 eggs, 1 oz. (28g) of butter, 1 pint (570 ml) of milk, 3 tablespoonfuls of flour, a little salt.

 

Put the flour into a basin, and add sufficient milk to moisten it; carefully rub down all the lumps with a spoon, then pour in the remainder of the milk, and stir in the butter, which should be previously melted; keep beating the mixture, add the eggs and pinch of salt, and, when the batter is quite smooth, put it into a well-buttered basin, tie it down very tightly, and put it into boiling water; move the basin about for a few minutes after it is put into the water, to prevent the flour settling in any part and boil for 1 and a 1/4 hour.  This pudding may also be boiled in a floured cloth that has been wetted in hot water; it will take a few minutes less than when boiled in a basin.  Send batter puddings very quickly to table, and serve with a sweet sauce, wine sauce, stewed fruit, or jam of any kind, when the latter is used, a little of it may be placed round the dish in small quantities, as a garnish.

 

Cook's Tips:

• Fill basin no more than two thirds with pudding mixture, to allow for expansion.
• It's also a good idea to tie a string handle across the top of the basin to make it easy to lift the hot pudding from the steamer.
• Cover saucepan tightly and check water level from time to time, adding more water if necessary.
• At the end of the cooking time, lift out the pudding basin, remove cover and stand on a cake rack for 10 minutes before running a knife around the edge and unmoulding pudding onto a serving platter.

  

Mrs B's baked and steamed batter pudding recipes can be found on page 38 of the 1900 edition of her Family Cookery & Housekeeping Book

 

 

 

 





The Downstairs Cook

There had always been mystery surrounding my maternal grandmother. Born in London, she had arrived in Sydney in 1910 and worked as a governess before marrying a stockman and settling on a cattle property near Warialda in northern New South Wales, or so the family legend held.  She died in 1955, before I was born, so I never knew her - only of her reputation as a rather formidable, matriarchal woman who eventually left her husband and moved to the nearby town of Inverell so their two children could attend school.  Always puzzled by her ownership of a 1900 edition of Mrs Beeton's Household Management (now passed to me) as it was not clear why a governess would need to refer to such a publication, this mystery was finally cleared after I searched the online 1901 UK census records and found "Edith Irwin" aged 19, living in a residence in Streatham, London where she was listed as "Cook, domestic."

My interest piqued, I searched the 1891 census records, but to no avail.  There was no record of her at all.  My mother then gave me the clue, shortly before she died, that unlocked Edith's origins; she was an orphan "who lived with an aunt."  No "aunt" was located by me, but when I typed the word "orphanage" into the search engine, presto! There she was - a resident of the St.Pancras Foundling Hospital, along with many other girls aged from eight to 14.

I had found her, but I needed to know more - what was life like for a young orphan girl in late Victorian London?  When and how did she arrived at the Foundling Hospital?  And were there any records relating to her parents - whose names she knew, as they appeared on her marriage certificate.  The items I inherited from her - an exquisite crystal perfume bottle with an elaborate silver cap, a silver dressing table set with a glorious design of cherubic angels had always fascinated me; she was clearly a woman who loved beauty and who could afford to buy such things, despite her humble station.  The fact she had been born into a situation where she sat on the bottom rung of society, yet managed to acquire items of beauty, apparent self-sufficiency and self-reliance only made me more curious and determined to discover more about her and the eras in which she lived - the late Victorian and the Edwardian, the end of which coincided with her embarking upon the ship which would bring her to her new home, and new era of her own, in Australia.

My hunger led me to commence a fabulous journey of discovery into the period of my grandmother's life which coincided with the elegant and glittering fin de siecle.  Guided also by Mrs Beeton and her household bible full of recipes, this is the story of a culinary journey as well, informed by annotations made by my grandmother herself in that definitive tome.  Please read on to discover a collection of the best tried and tested recipes from Mrs Beeton and other cooks of the time....