Old-Fashioned Pudding Recipes
There were no packaged pudding mixes in the 1800s. Homemade puddings were made from scratch and were either baked, boiled, or steamed. Puddings were made from a variety of foods, served hot or cold, and was a time-consuming process.
“My*T*Fine” was the first packaged pudding introduced to the United States in 1918. Source – FoodTimeline.org .
INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS
ABOUT PUDDINGS
The eggs for all sorts of puddings in which they are used should be well beaten and then strained. If hot milk is used, the eggs should be added after all the other ingredients. Milk for pumpkin, squash, coconut, tapioca, ground rice, sago, arrow-root, and sweet potato puddings should be boiled. Milk should also be boiled for bread and plum puddings unless the bread is soaked in milk over night. When suet is used in puddings, it should be chopped as fine as possible.
DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING PUDDINGS
A bag that is used for boiling puddings should be made of thick, cotton cloth. Before the pudding is turned in*, the bag should be dipped into water, wrung out, and the inside of it floured. When the pudding is turned in, tie the bag tight, leaving plenty of room for the pudding to swell out in. Indian and flour puddings require a great deal of room.
Put them in a pot of boiling water with an old plate at the bottom of the pot to keep the pudding bag from sticking to it. When the pudding has been in a few minutes, turn the bag over or the pudding will settle and be heavy.
There should be water enough in the pot to cover the pudding, and it should not be allowed to stop boiling a minute—if so, the pudding will not be nice. A tea-kettle of boiling water should be kept on the fire to pour in as the water boils away.
When the pudding is done, dip the bag into cold water for a minute—the pudding will then come out easily. When puddings are baked, the fruit should not be put in till the pudding has begun to thicken, otherwise they will sink to the bottom of the pudding.
*turned in – poured in.
BOILED APPLE PUDDING
Pare, core, and quarter as many fine juicy apples as will weigh two pounds when done. Strew among them one-fourth pound of brown sugar, and add a grated nutmeg and the juice and yellow peel of a large lemon. Prepare a paste of suet and flour in the proportion of a pound of chopped suet to two pounds of flour. Roll it out of moderate thickness. Lay the apples in the center and close the paste nicely over them in the form of a large dumpling. Tie it in a cloth and boil it three hours. Send it to table hot, and eat with it cream sauce, or with butter and sugar. Any fruit pudding may be made in a similar manner.
MINCE PUDDING
This pudding is excellent. The mincemeat is the same that is prepared for mince pies. Take a pound and a half of mincemeat, and sift three-fourths pound of flour. Beat six eggs very light and stir into them, alternately, the mincemeat and the flour, a little at a time of each. Stir the whole very hard.
Have ready a pudding cloth dipped into a pot of boiling water, then shook out, and dredged with flour. Spread out the cloth in a large pan and pour the pudding into it. Tie it tightly, but leaving room for the pudding to swell. Stop up the tying-place with a small bit of dough made of flour and water. Put it immediately into a large pot of boiling water, having an old plate at the bottom to keep the pudding from scorching.
Boil it steadily five or six hours, turning it in the pot every hour. As the water boils away, replenish it from a kettle of water that is kept boiling hard. Do not turn out the pudding till immediately before it is sent to table. Eat it with wine-sauce.
THANKSGIVING PUDDING
Beat light the yolks of four eggs with one cup sugar, two tablespoons creamed butter, and one cup of stale cake crumbs, soaked in eight tablespoons of whiskey. Mix well, then add one cup raisins, seeded and floured, and one cup nut meats, cut small. Beat smooth and bake until set, then cover with meringue. Serve with whipped cream or any sauce preferred. Milk can take the place of whiskey, and preserves can replace raisins.
BREAD PUDDING
Take the inside of a stale loaf of baker’s bread. Pour over it one quart of boiling milk. When perfectly cold, add five eggs well beaten, one cup sugar, a small piece of butter, a little brandy, mace, and nutmeg. Bake in buttered pans. A few raisins would be an improvement.
A CHARLOTTE PUDDING
Have ready a sufficiency of dried peaches that have been stewed very soft, and flavored while stewing with the yellow rind of two oranges, pared very thin and cut into small slips. The stewed peaches must be mashed very smooth. Take a deep dish and cover the inside with a layer of brown sugar mixed with powdered cinnamon or nutmeg. Upon this put a layer of thin slices of bread and butter with all the crust pared off, turning the buttered side downward.
Next, put on a thick layer of the stewed peaches. Then more sugar and spice, then more bread and butter, and then another layer of peaches. Proceed thus till the dish is full and cover the top slightly with grated bread-crumbs. Put it into a moderate oven* and bake it brown. It may be eaten either warm or cold.
Instead of peaches, you may make this pudding of stewed apples flavored with lemon or with stewed goose-berries made very sweet with brown sugar. If you use goose-berries, the spice should be nutmeg, not cinnamon.
*moderate oven – about 350-400 degrees Fahrenheit.
RASPBERRY PUDDING
Fill a deep dish with a quart of ripe raspberries, well mixed with four or five heaping tablespoons of powdered sugar. As you put in the raspberries, mash them slightly with the back of a spoon. Beat six eggs as light as possible and mix them with a pint of cream or rich unskimmed milk, four more spoons of sugar, adding some grated nutmeg. Pour this over the raspberries.
Set the dish immediately into a moderate oven, and bake the pudding about half an hour. When done, set the dish on ice, or where it will become quite cold before it goes to table.
A similar pudding may be made with ripe currants, picked from the stalks; or with ripe cherries stoned. A pine-apple pudding made in this way is excellent. There must be as much pine-apple as will measure a quart, after it is pared, sliced, and grated fine. Sweeten it well with sugar.
Pudding image from Deposit Photos
Image credit for woman making pudding
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Do You Have a Favorite Pudding Recipe? Please Leave a Comment Below.
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7 thoughts on “Old-Fashioned Pudding Recipes”
The mince pudding sounds delicious!
My mama used to make rice pudding. I’ll have to check the vintage Searchlight recipe book that I have to see if that’s where she found her recipe.
PS – I have made rice puddings and bread puddings, and my bread pudding is very special if I do say so myself. It is because of the addition of brandy.
Indian people make a very delicious carrot pudding.
I don’t eat puddings often, but if I’m at a picnic or buffet, I’ll have banana pudding. Brandy in a bread pudding sounds good.
I can’t wait for the time that we actually have a Victorian Christmas dinner together! I follow all of your recipes with great interest. My mother used to make puddings but it was only through watching the Great British Baking Show that I thought of them used in the modern era. They definitely have a place now!
I’m sure your own Victorian Chritmas dinner will be a big hit and a memory for years to come. It may even become a Christmas tradition. Was there a big dinner in Victorian times that was special during the summer? Christmas is such a long time off.
Hi great recipes. Looking & asking everywhere for help finding recipe. My mother used to make golden syrup pudding boiled in cloth & hung. Had like a caramely jelly layer on outside if any one can help please do 🙂