A point of great importance in preparing an Indian pudding, is to
boil it PROPERLY and SUFFICIENTLY. The water must be actually
boiling when the pudding is put into it; and it never must be
suffered to cease boiling for a moment, till it is done; and if
the pudding is not boiled full six hours, it will not be
sufficiently cooked.--Its hardness, when done, will depend on the
space left in the bag its expansion. The consistency of the
pudding ought to be such, that it can be taken out of the bag
without falling to pieces;--but it is always better, on many
accounts, to make it too hard than too soft. The form of the
pudding may be that of a cylinder; of rather of a truncated cone,
the largest end being towards the mouth of the bag, in order
that it may be got out of the bag with greater facility; or it
may be made of a globular form, by tying it up in a napkin.--But
whatever is the form of the pudding, the bag, or napkin in which
it is to be boiled, must be wet in boiling water before the
pudding, (which is quite liquid before it is boiled,) is poured
into it; otherwise it will be apt to run through the cloth.
Though this pudding is so good, perfectly plain, when made
according to the directions here given, that I do not thing it
capable of any real improvement; yet there are various additions
that may be made to it, and that frequently are made to it, which
may perhaps be thought by some to render it more palatable, or
otherwise to improve it. Suet may, for instance, be added, and
there is no suet pudding whatever superior to it; and as no sauce
is necessary with a suet pudding, the expence for the suet will
be nearly balanced by the saving of butter. To a pudding of the
size of that just described, in the composition of which three
pounds of Indian meal were used, one pound of suet will be
sufficient; and this, in general, will not cost more than from
five pence to six pence, even in London;--and the butter for
sauce to a plain pudding of the same size would cost nearly as
much. The suet pudding will indeed be rather the cheapest of the
two, for the pound of suet will add a pound in weight to the
pudding;--whereas the butter will only add five ounces.
As the pudding, made plain, weighing 10 1/16 lb. cost 5 3/8 pence,
the same pudding, with the addition of one pound of suet, would
weigh 11 1/16 lb. and would cost 11 1/8 pence,--reckoning the
suet at six pence the pound.--Hence it appears that Indian suet
pudding may be made in London for about one penny a pound.
Wheaten bread, which is by no means so palatable, and certainly
not half so nutritive, now costs something more than three pence
the pound: and to this may be added, that dry bread can hardly be
eaten alone; but of suet pudding a very comfortable meal may be
made without any thing else.
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