Cambridge pudding

Cambridge pudding is apparently the oldest recipe in English of a steamed pudding - see end of page. I have added quantities, and changed a couple of ingredients.

Ingredients
self raising flour
breadcrumbs
suet
sugar
mixed fruit
cinnamon
nutmeg
1 egg
milk
butter

Equipment

bowl for mixing
spoon
food mixer
bowl for steaming
foil
saucepan
knife and plate to turn out (optional)

time cooking: 2 hours

preparation time:
making pudding mix

Cooking process

Make breadcrumbs (that is what the food precessor does!) Mix all the dry ingredients together. Mix in the egg. Add enough milk and mix to include all dry ingredients.
Put half the mix into the bottom of the steaming bowl (which should be heat-proof, obviously). Then the butter on top (I chopped it into cubes). Spoon the rest of the mix on top.Cover the top of the bowl with foil, crumpled round the edge to make sure that steam doesn't enter the bowl while steaming.
Put some water in the saucepan, and careful lower the bowl in. The water should reach more than half-way up the bowl, but not too high, or it will boil over, or get into the bowl and make the contents soggy. Put the saucepan lid on and put the heat on. When boiling, turn down to minimum, to .
For long time boiling like this, there is always the risk that the steam may escape the lid and so the pan can boil dry. Check it from time to time, and top up with more water if necessary. Some people say "Add boiling water", but there's no need - the new water soon gets hot.
When it's cooked, run a knife round the sides of the bowl to loosen the pudding. Put a plate over the top of the bowl. Holding bowl and plate together, turn them both upside down and put on the table, and watch it, hopefully. The pudding should drop onto the plate. If not, then turn it back, and try more cutting with the knife. You can serve it from the bowl that you steamed it in, of course.
Serve hot, with .

Comments

Cambridge pudding

The original recipe above doesn't give the quantities. This is roughly what a normal steamed pudding would use.
Bread crumbs is common in steamed puddings. "Flower" is flour! I've used self raising flour. The original recipe used no raising agent, but suet puddings are heavy enough without using plain flour. I used soft brown sugar rather than the "fine" (presumably white) sugar to add more taste.
I have used mixed fruit (raisins, currants, candied peel) to replace the minced dates and currents. They were left over from making Christmas pudding, and so was the suet. I was generous with the cinnamon and nutmeg, but left out the pepper! Milk was necessary for the mixing. I used a whole egg rather than "take away some of the whites".
The interesting part of this recipe was putting butter in the middle. I'm not convinced it made any difference. You couldn't see where it was. It just got absorbed into the main pudding.
I cooked it in a bowl. Originally it was wrapped in a cloth, possibly floured. The pudding stayed inside the cloth and didn't soak through th holes. I imgine it ended up a messy process! I've never done this, and I think my mother's generation didn't either. We used a pudding bowl. This takes longer as the heat has to get through the walls of the bowl.
I found this a pleasant pudding, on a cold, wet, miserable February evening. It is very like what we used to call "spotted dick", although the spices made it more interesting.