Elisabeth Ayrton

Quaking Pudding

Preparation info

  • Difficulty

    Easy

Appears in

The Cookery of England

The Cookery of England

By Elisabeth Ayrton

Published 1975

This is the lightest and most delicious of all boiled puddings. When it is turned out it is almost solid, but quakes and shakes like a jelly when moved. Cracks appear on the surface, and it must be moved gently to prevent its cracking into several parts. From the sixteenth century onwards, recipes appear in the majority of cook books. Mrs Rundle in 1803 and Richard Dolby in 1830 give the same traditional recipe, using only flour. The earlier recipe of Mrs Anne Blencowe (1680), which uses flour and breadcrumbs, seems to me to give the best results.

Ingredients

‘A Quakin Puding’

  • 1 pint (6 dl.) double cream
  • 3 eggs plus one extra white
  • a pinch of mace and of nutmeg
  • ¼ lb. (120 g.) caster sugar
  • 1½ oz. (45 g.) flour
  • 2–3 tablespoons very fine white breadcrumbs

For the sauce

  • 2 glasses white wine or claret
  • 3 oz. (90 g.) butter
  • 1 oz. (30 g.) sugar

Method

Bring the cream slowly to the boil and boil for half a minute; allow to cool a little. Well beat the eggs and stir them into the cream, beating well. Allow to get quite cold. It will be fairly thick. Beat in the flour, nutmeg, mace, sugar and breadcrumbs. Use only the amount of breadcrumbs required to bring the cream to the consistency of butter; this may be less than 2 tablespoonfuls or a little more. Flour the whole pudding lightly, tie it in a greased and floured cloth and boil it for an hour and a half. Never let it go off the boil, and fill up with boiling water if necessary.

If preferred, a large pudding basin can be buttered and the pudding steamed, well covered with foil, for an hour and a half.

For the traditional sauce, stir 2 glasses of white wine or claret and a tablespoon of caster sugar into 3 oz. (90 g.) of melted butter.

©1975 The Estate of Elizabeth Ayrton

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