I was looking for an easy pud and came across this recipe for Aunt Nelly's Pudding. The name sold it to me, so did the simple ingredients.
The recipe was in the big black volume with 1840 embossed on the spine which you can see in the header photograph.
The ingredients:
- 3 oz bread crumbs
- 3 oz suet
- 3 flour
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoonful syrup
- Treakle (sic)
- little sugar
- One tea spoonful essence of lemons
(Boiling milk is also required but that is not listed.)
Method:
Pour boiling milk on breadcrumbs (?how much), mix well together, a mould well-buttered, pour all in and steam for two hours and a bit.
I decided to put the syrup in the bottom of the buttered basin, then pour the mix on top. I covered the pudding bowl, tied it up and lowered it into a pan of boiling water. This is where having the Rayburn comes in handy, it is always on anyway, so it doesn't feel as though it is costing a fortune in fuel bills.
The texture was definitely a little doughier than the steamed puddings I am used to, I assume that is down to the use of breadcrumbs in the mix.
Once I had made a large jug of custard to go with it, the pudding was soon demolished by the family.
Thank you Aunt Nelly, whoever you were!
So from a rather homely pudding to something quite different.
Stuck in a back page of the book is a list of the food served for a meal at Croxton Hall around 1850.
Colds
- Round of Beef
- 4 pheasants
- Cold Beef Pie
- Pigeon Pie
- Other Pies
- Stewed Beef
- Boar's Head
- Ham
Hot
- Kedgeree
- 4 pt Grouse
- 4 pt Pheasants
- Broiled Chicken & Pheasants
- 1 dish Potatoes
- Sausages on Potatoes
- Hot Cakes
- Cutlets
That was above stairs.
The servants were given a round of beef and a shoulder of mutton!
