Bread pudding

“ As for cheese-cakes, custards, tansies, &c., they are manifest puddings, and all of Sir John's own contrivance; custard being as old, if not older, than Magna Charta. In short, pudding is of the greatest dignity and antiquity; bread itself, which is the very staff of life, being, properly speaking, a bak'd wheat pudding.
To the satchel, which is the pudding-bag of ingenuity, we are indebted for the greatest men in church and state. All arts and sciences owe their original to pudding or dumpling. What is a bagpipe, the mother of all music, but a pudding of harmony? ”

“ To make a Brown-bread Pudding:—Take half a pound of brown bread, and double the weight of it in beef-suet; a quarter of a pint of cream, the blood of a fowl, a whole nutmeg, some cinnamon, a spoonful of sugar, six yolks of eggs, three whites: mix it all well together, and boil it in a wooden dish two hours. Serve it with sack and sugar, and butter melted. ”

“ Lemon Bread Pudding.
1 quart milk, 2 coffee cups bread crumbs, 1 of white sugar, 1/2 cup butter, 4 eggs, the juice and 1/2 the grated rind of 1 lemon. Soak the bread in the milk, then add the beaten yolks with the butter and sugar, rubbed to a cream; also the lemon. Bake in a buttered dish until firm and slightly browned. Beat the whites to a stiff froth, with 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar, and flavor with lemon. Spread over the pudding when baked, and brown slightly; then sift sugar over it. Eat cold. Orange pudding may be made in the same way. ”

“ Bread Pudding.—One quart fine bread crumbs, one cup of sugar, two table-spoonfuls of molasses, half-pound suet chopped fine, one coffee-cup raisins, half a rind of preserved orange peel or citron cut thin and fine, a very little nutmeg and cinnamon, two teaspoonfuls cream of tartar, one small teaspoonful soda, one teaspoonful of salt. Stir in milk enough to make it thick as pound-cake, beating all thoroughly together; put it into a buttered pudding-mold, and boil three hours. Be careful to keep the water boiling all the time. ”

“ Add a pint of cold new milk, and pour the pudding into a well buttered dish. Slice some stale bread, something more than a quarter of an inch thick, and with a very small cake-cutter cut sufficient rounds from it to cover the top of the pudding; butter them thickly with good butter; lay them, with the dry side undermost, upon the pudding, sift sugar thickly on them, and set the dish gently into a Dutch or American oven, which should be placed at the distance of a foot or more from a moderate fire. An hour of very slow baking will be just sufficient to render the pudding firm throughout ”

“ A bag made of two thicknesses of cheese-cloth, stitched together, will do. Always leave room in mold or bag for pudding to rise, using a smaller or larger mold according to quantity of pudding. If not boiled steadily, and emptied as soon as done, puddings will fall and stick.
ALMOND PUDDING Beat the yolks of four eggs very light with one-half cup of sugar; then add one-half cup of grated walnuts or almonds, one-half cup of grated white bread crumbs, then the stiffly-beaten whites of four eggs. Put in pudding form and steam from one and one-half to two hours. Serve with wine or fruit sauce. ”

“ Wheaten bread, which is by no means so palatable, and certainly not half so nutritive, now costs something more than three pence the pound: and to this may be added, that dry bread can hardly be eaten alone; but of suet pudding a very comfortable meal may be made without any thing else.
A pudding in great repute in all parts of North America, is what is called an apple pudding. This is an Indian pudding, sometimes with, and sometimes without suet, with dried cuttings of sweet apples mixed with it; and when eaten with butter, it is most delicious Food. ”

“ It is better to stew these dried fruits for a pudding of this kind, for all the boiling the pudding proper requires is 15-20 minutes, or long enough to set the custard. A pudding made of similar materials, in a flat pan and baked in a slow oven, is equally good, and affords another agreeable variation. In seasons when eggs are scarce, a large tablespoonful of [416] cornflour may be put to 1⁄4 pint milk, or rather less, according to the quantity of bread used; and if this be whipped up with one egg, it will be sufficient to stiffen a pint pudding, so that it will stand firmly on the dish. ”

“ Put all scraps of bread into the oven until they become a nice brown, roll them while hot quite fine. For a good-sized pudding take 1⁄2 lb. crumbs 1⁄4 lb. brown sugar or golden syrup, 1⁄4 lb. currants or raisins, 1 pint milk, 1 teaspoonful allspice, and 1 pint boiling water. Pour the boiling water over the crumbs, stir them well, and let them soak until soft; then add all the ingredients, mix well, rub the pie-dish with dripping, fill it, put some more dripping on the top of the pudding, and bake 1⁄2 hour. ”

“ Put a layer of quartered apples, sugar and a trifle of salt in the bottom of a pudding dish, then a sprinkling of dry bread crumbs; continue layers to fill the dish, leave crumbs on top, pour over all water to cook slowly for several hours until apples are a rich red color. Serve with or without cream or other sauce. If preferred the pudding may be baked with less water for a shorter time. Use cracker crumbs instead of bread and you have a different pudding. ”

“ Boil any fruit, such as currants, blackberries, etc., and while hot pour over the bread till the basin is quite full. Place a saucer or small plate on the top, stand a heavy weight on it, and leave till the following day. To be turned out and eaten cold.
Half-pay Pudding.—1⁄4 lb. suet, 1⁄4 lb. currants, 1⁄4 lb. raisins, 1⁄4 lb. flour, 1⁄4 lb. breadcrumbs, 2 tablespoonfuls dark treacle, 1⁄2 pint milk. Boil for three or four hours. The longer this pudding boils the better it is. Apple charlotte, rhubarb charlotte, and Manchester pudding also used up our stale bread. ”

“ Cottage Pudding.—Break some bread into very small pieces, sufficient to fill the pudding basin you wish to boil it in; then turn it out into a larger basin, and measure the milk in the same basin 1⁄4 full; put on to boil, with enough sugar to sweeten. When taken off the fire, put a lump of butter in the hot milk, and, when melted, stir it well [403] and pour over the bread; cover closely with a plate for 20 minutes; then beat it with a fork, and mix in some currants, raisins, candied peel, and some mixed spice; beat 2 eggs well, and add them last, stirring the whole vigorously with a fork. ”

“ A pudding in which there is much bread should be tied up loosely, to allow it to swell. A batter pudding tied tight. Batter requires long beating; mix the milk and eggs by degrees into the flour, to avoid making it lumpy; this will be the case sometimes, and then the batter may be strained; but such waste may be avoided, by care in mixing at first. Tie meat puddings up tight.
More care is necessary in baking than in boiling puddings. They should not be scorched in a too hot, nor made sodden, in a too cool oven. ”

“ When the pudding is hard, it can be rolled in the egg and bread crumbs. The moment the egg touches the hot lard it hardens and secures the pudding which softens to a creamy substance very delicious. Ingredients, one pint of milk, five ounces of sugar (little more than half a cupful,) butter the size of a hickory nut, yolks of three eggs, two tablespoonfuls of corn starch, and one tablespoonful of flour, (a generous half cupful altogether) , stick of cinnamon one inch long, one half teaspoonful of vanilla. ”

“ Cut some slices of home-made bread about half an inch thick, butter and lay in a pudding dish, sprinkle with currants, put another layer of buttered bread and currants. Beat three eggs light and stir into a pint of milk, sweeten to taste, flavor with a little grated lemon peel or cinnamon, pour over the bread and butter and bake in a moderate oven until the custard is set. Test with a knife; if it comes out clean it is done. If baked too long the pudding will be watery. ”

“ In a quart pudding-dish arrange alternate layers of sliced apples and bread-crumbs; season each layer with bits of butter, a little sugar, and a pinch each of ground cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. When the dish is full pour over it a half cupful each of molasses and water mixed; cover the top with crumbs. Place the dish in a pan containing hot water, and bake for three quarters of an hour, or until the apples are soft. Serve with cream or with any sauce. Raisins or chopped almonds improve the pudding. ”

“ Scotch Pudding Take 2 quart of black cherries; remove the stones and mix with 1/2 pound of fine bread-crumbs, some chopped nuts, the beaten yolks of 4 eggs and 1/2 cup of sugar. Add the whites beaten stiff. Bake in a well-buttered pudding-dish and serve cold. ”

“ When cold, slice and toast, or rather dry it, and eat it as you would oat cake itself.
This may be the proper place to say, that all coarse meal puddings are healthiest when twelve or twenty hours old; but are all improved—and so is brown bread—by drying, or almost toasting on the stove.
Receipt 7.—Rice pudding: To one quart of new milk add a teacup full of rice, sweetened a little. No dressings are necessary without you choose them. Bake it well.
Receipt 8.—Wheat meal pudding may be made by wetting the coarse meal with milk, and sweetening it a little with molasses. Bake in a moderate heat. ”

“ If she saves them for purposes of charity, let her give fresh bread, which will be more acceptable, and save the scraps, which are equally useful to her. Yet if the bread-crumbs when pounded and sifted are not very fine, they are not as good as the cracker-dust.
To Cook Puddings in Boiling Water.
Wet and flour the cloth before adding the pudding. In tying in the pudding, leave room enough for it to swell. If cooked in a mold, do not fill the mold quite full. Never let the water stop boiling. As it wastes away in boiling, replenish the kettle from another containing boiling water. ”

“ Dissolve the dripping in the water, pour in and make into a dough; leave it to stand all night. Dip a cloth in boiling water and tie the pudding up tightly. Plunge into plenty of boiling water, and keep it boiling steadily for three hours; turn into a hot dish. A little custard sauce served with this pudding is a great improvement.
YANKEE PUDDING * 1 Egg, and its Weight in Flour—1 1/2d. * * Sugar—1/2d. * * Bread Crumbs—1/2d. * * 1 tablespoonful Marmalade—1d. * * 1/2 teaspoonful Carbonate of Soda * * 1/2 gill Milk—1/2d. ”

“ Take three cups breadcrumbs, one cup flour, one cup chopped suet or dripping, one teaspoonful baking powder; rub these well together, and a cup of sugar. A cupful of currants washed and picked, the same of raisins, sultanas or pudding raisins, stoned and chopped, candied peel—if you like it—and, if you have them to spare, mix with a couple or three eggs, if not, use plain milk, or even water. Tie in a cloth and boil two hours. Never put the pudding into the water until it boils. It is a mistake that dripping cannot be used in a boiled pudding. ”

“ Boiled puddings should be served as soon as they are done, as they soon become heavy.
Many of the baked puddings I have described are quite as good boiled. As a safe rule, double the time of baking if you boil.
Berry Pudding. 1 pint of milk. 2 eggs. 1 saltspoonful salt. 1⁄4 teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water. 1⁄2 teaspoonful cream-tartar, sifted through a cup of flour, and added to enough flour to make a thick batter. 1 pint blackberries, raspberries, currants, or huckleberries, well dredged with flour—stirred in at the last. Huckleberry Pudding. ✠ 1 pint milk. 2 eggs. ”

“ Garnish the pudding with sifted white sugar, and with candied or preserved orange or lemon peel.
In boiling a pudding, cold water should never be added. Keep a kettle of hot water to replenish the water in the pot as it boils away. As soon as the pudding is done, remove it from the boiling water. A decrease in heat whilst cooking, makes boiled pudding sodden, and makes baked pudding fall. The best sauce for a boiled pudding is cold sauce made of the frothed whites of eggs, butter, sugar, nutmeg, and a little French brandy, while for a baked pudding, a rich, boiled wine sauce is best. ”

“ Then add the remainder of the milk, and the salt, and when well stirred together, pour it into a buttered dish, and bake it half an hour. When it is done, the whole top will have risen up. So long as there is a little sunken spot in the centre, it is not baked enough. Make a cold or melted sauce as you prefer. This makes an ample pudding for a family of four. A flour pudding will not be light unless it is put into the oven immediately on being made.
Boiled Batter.
Use the very same proportions; butter a tin pudding-pan having a close cover, and put in the mixture ”

“ Mix in just sufficient water to wet it well. Some think it is improved by the addition of a tablespoonful of baking powder stirred into the flour before mixing. Boil in a bag, as in the case of the plain flour pudding. The pudding will come out of the bag easier, if it is plunged into cold water for an instant, as soon as it is taken out of the kettle. Do not let it set in the bag. All bag-puddings must be kept covered with water and kept boiling violently all the time they are on the fire. ”

“ When the pudding has boiled a long enough time, dip the bag quickly in cold water, and the pudding will turn out easily. Allow five large eggs to 1 quart of milk usually to make custard solid enough to keep its shape when turned from the mold. One teaspoonful of extract will flavor one quart. Always stand individual cups in a pan partly filled with hot water. Place pan containing custard cups in a moderate oven and bake slowly forty minutes. Always sift flour over beef suet when chopping it to be used in puddings. ”