Boiled Puddings

Pumpkin Pie and Sausage are about as far apart in a culinary sense as the earth from the sun.  However, there is one unifying fact historically that draws them closer together.  That fact is that both Sausage and Pumpkin Pie were once considered puddings.  Today if I were to say pudding, what would you think of?  You might think of your grandmother’s banana pudding or the thick, rich pudding in a cup in your lunchbox.  However in the 18^th century, pudding could have been one of four possible dishes.  It could have been a baked pudding, much like the previously mentioned pumpkin pie.  You also had a sausage like pudding called ‘pudding in skin’ made from grain, meat, sugar and spices.  Then there was a dripping pudding which was a batter like mixture put under roasting meat to cook along with the lovely juices dripping from that meat.  Finally a boiled pudding which is a mixture of ingredients tied in a cloth and boiled.  I will devote future blogs for both dripping and baked puddings, but today I will be shedding a little light on the very traditional English boiled pudding.   

The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy

Hannah Glasse

1774

 

Boiled puddings and ‘puddings in skin’ have a close history.  Being the oldest form, puddings in skin have their origin in sausage.  People in Medieval England created meat-like sausages with grain in them to ‘stretch’ the meat amount so it would feed more people.  The French word for these puddings or sausages is Boudin, and Boudin is the word most etymologists believe is the word pudding comes from. (The Boudin sausage can still be found today in France.  It is also found in the area around and including the state of Louisiana).  These puddings were very popular.  However the intestines or skins they were cooked in were difficult to work with.  That combined with the amount of cleaning involved with these intestines and how hard it was to fill them made the cloth a much easier version of pudding for everyone to enjoy.  By the 17^th century, boiling in a cloth was the more popular way of cooking a pudding.

Hannah Glasse

The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy 

Almond Pudding

Hannah Glasse

The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy

Pear Pudding  

                Though the change in method from intestines to cloth was due to ease of use, boiling in a cloth has its problems as well.  When you boil in a cloth, there is a strong possibility of watering down your pudding. However if you follow some simple steps, you can avoid this problem and have a very enjoyable pudding to boast about.  First you want a thick, tightly woven cloth.  This prevents a great majority of the water from getting through.  The rest of the water is kept out by applying a thick layer of butter to the cloth and another layer of flour.  This melts together and the gluten in the flour creates a waterproof barrier.  These barriers are no good unless you seal them up properly.  So to seal it, you want to pull everything up together and twist it.  (Leaving a little room is good, but not so much that it floats in the water.)  Once you have twisted it, tie it as tight as you possibly can, leaving a little extra twine or fabric to attach to a spoon to keep the pudding from touching the bottom of the pot.  In the 18^th century, most recipes told you how long to boil it, but you can know that it is done when you tap the pudding and it thumps.

The Steps of Pudding Making

This particular pudding is a pear pudding.  If it is a lose pudding you can put the cloth in a bowl to create the bulb shape.

You can get excellent pudding cloths at Dobyns and Martin

http://www.dobynsandmartin.com/everythingelse.htm 

                Everyone in the 18^th century could have afforded a pudding, but what made your pudding a rich man or a poor man version was the ingredients that were in them.  For a poor man’s pudding, you could simply use flour, water and some salt.  The more ingredients you add, the more refined and upper class your pudding would become.  The rich could afford heavily spiced puddings with candied and dried fruits.  In the 19^th century, it became popular to make these in October and November.  They were soaked in Brandy and lit on fire at the Christmas Table.  This is practice is still used in England today. 

 

 

The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy

Hannah Glasse

1774

These are the recipes for the shown puddings above.

                It’s a shame that boiled puddings are no longer popular in America.  Wouldn’t it be fun to surprise your holiday guests by serving ‘figgy pudding’ at the dinner table after caroling about it next to the fire?   Next time you are struggling for a new culinary twist at the table with your Christmas ham, why not try a boiled pudding?  With its rich, sweet flavor, it is sure to be the next big thing.  At the very least, it will be a great conversation piece and what a great nod to the traditions of holidays past!!