My Pioneer Cookbook Adventure: Traditional English Plum Pudding from 1903

This article is by far my favorite to write. I love old timey recipes and attempting to prepare them. But, alas, I haven’t had time to devote to this favorite past time of mine.

I wanted to share a recipe with you anyway. This recipe is on my list of things to try from the cookbook pictured below. Over the past year, I’ve been trying different recipes from this book, with different degrees of success.

The recipes are difficult to decipher at times. Words and measurements are sometimes different. There are no cooking temperatures. For me, however, that is part of the fun. I love cooking. So, attempting recipes from the days of my great grandmother is awesome. For me, it doesn’t get any better.

The following recipe is traditional to England, and, never really caught on here in the states. Perhaps it’s the dried fruit, or the fact that it’s boiled, for 5 hours, rather than baked for an hour. I really don’t know. It does intrigue me, however. And, if I do attempt this over the holidays, I will certainly let you all know how it went.

English Plum Pudding

For this recipe, you’ll need a pudding mold, such as the one below:

English Plum Pudding

• Servings: 8
• Time: 5-6 hours
• Difficulty: moderate
• Print

This traditional British pudding is from the 1903 version of the Good Housekeeping Everyday Cookbook

Credit: Good Housekeeping Everyday Cookbook 1903

Ingredients

• 6 ounces fine bread crumbs
• 2 ounces each: lemon, orange and citron peel cut into fine shreds
• 1/2 ounce mixed spices (cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg
• 1/4 pound chopped apple
• 1/2 tsp minced lemon rind
• 1/2 pound sugar
• 3/4 pound chopped raisins
• 3/4 pound currants
• 1 pound flour
• 1 pound finely shredded fat (suet, lard, butter, etc)
• 6 eggs
• milk as needed

Directions

1. Mix first 10 ingredients thoroughly in bowl.
2. Then add eggs and milk, if needed, to make a stiff batter
3. Pour into pudding mold.
4. Boil for 5-6 hours

Until next time, namaste my friends!

Tamara