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The Publisher's Pudding

The Publisher's Pudding is a traditional British recipe, based on Eliza Acton's recipe of 1845, for her classic and very rich boiled custard pudding thickened with macaroons, breadcrumbs, beef suet and beef marrow and plain flour and flavoured with cognac, lemon zest and nutmeg and which also has fruit incorporated into it which is much richer than both her publisher's pudding, and her poor author's pudding. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic British version of: The Publisher's Pudding.

prep time

20 minutes

cook time

290 minutes

Total Time:

310 minutes

Additional Time:

(+cooling)

Serves:

8

Rating:

Tags : Vegetarian RecipesSpice RecipesDessert RecipesMilk RecipesBritish Recipes

This is a traditional British recipe redacted from Eliza Acton's 1845 volume Modern Cookery, the first classic Victorian cookbook.

Original Recipe

THE PUBLISHER'S PUDDING.

     This pudding can scarcely be made too rich. First blanch, and then beat to the smoothest possible paste, six ounces of fresh Jordan almonds, and a dozen bitter ones; pour very gradually to them, in the mortar, three quarters of a pint of boiling cream; then turn them into a cloth, and wring it from them again with strong expression. Heat a full half pint of it afresh, and pour it, as soon as it boils, upon four ounces of fine bread-crumbs, set a plate over, and leave them to become nearly cold; then mix thoroughly with them four ounces of macaroons, crushed tolerably small; five of finely minced beef-suet, five of marrow, cleared very carefully from fibre, and from the splinters of bone which are sometimes found in it, and shred not very small, two ounces of flour, six of pounded sugar, four of dried cherries, four of the best Muscatel raisins, weighed after they are stoned, half a pound of candied citron, or of citron and orange rind mixed, a quarter saltspoonful of salt half a nutmeg, the yolks only of seven full-sized, eggs, the grated rind of a large lemon, and last of all, a glass of the best Cognac brandy, which must be stirred briskly in by slow degrees. Pour the mixture into a thickly buttered mould or basin, which contains a full quart, fill it to the brim, lay a sheet of buttered writing paper over, then a well-floured cloth, tie them securely, and boil the pudding for four hours and a quarter; let it stand for two minutes before it is turned out; dish it carefully, and serve it with the German pudding-sauce of page 403.

     Jordan almonds, 6 oz.; bitter almonds, 12; cream, 3/4 pint; bread-crumbs, 4 oz.; cream wrung from almonds, 1/2 pint; crushed macaroons, 4 oz.; flour 2 oz.; beef-suet 5 oz.; marrow, 5 oz.; dried cherries, 4 oz.; stoned Muscatel raisins, 4 oz.; pounded sugar, 6 oz.; candied citron (or citron and orange-rind mixed), 1/2 lb.; pinch of salt; 1/2 nutmeg; gated rind, 1 lemon; yolks of eggs, 7; best cognac, 1 wineglassful ; boiled in mould or basin, 4 1/2 hours.

     Obs.—This pudding, which, if well made, is very light as well as rich, will be sufficiently good for most tastes without the almonds : when they are omitted, the boiling cream must be poured at once to the bread-crumbs.

Modern Redaction

This pudding, along with her The Printer's Pudding (which can never bee too rich) and the The Poor Author's Pudding forms the trinity of author, printer and publisher and also shows the relative positions of the three, and Acton's sly wit, as the publisher's pudding is the most extravagant and rich, the printer's pudding falls in the middle and the poor author's pudding is a very frugal version of a bread and butter pudding.

Ingredients:

200g blanched almonds
12 blanched bitter almonds (apricot kernels) or 12 more almonds and a few drops of bitter almond essence
450ml single cream
125g breadcrumbs
120g macaroons, crushed
60g plain flour
150g minced beef suet
150g beef marrow, finely chopped (or substitute 75g more suet)
120g dried cherries
120g seedless raisins
180g caster sugar
225g candied peel, chopped
pinch of salt
1/2 nutmeg, freshly-grated
finely-grated zest of 1 lemon
7 egg yolks
75ml Cognac

Method:

Finely chop the almonds and bitter almonds in a coffee grinder. Turn into a heat-proof bowl and set aside.

Place the cream in a saucepan, bring just to a boil then take off the heat and pour over the ground almonds. Stir to combine and set aside to cool slightly then pour into a fine-meshed sieve lined with muslin and allow to drain. Take up the drained almonds and their cloth and wring them to extract as much of any remaining cream as possible.

Measure 300ml of the drained almond cream and return to the pan. Bring just to a boil then add the bread crumbs to a heat-proof bowl, pour over the cream and set a plate over the top. Set this mixture aside until almost cold.

At this point, stir in the crushed macaroons, beef suet and beef marrow. Take some of the liquid and beat this with the flour until smooth then whisk this slurry into the bowl with the other ingredients. Now stir in the sugar, cherries, raisins, candied peel, salt, nutmeg and lemon zest.

Beat the egg yolks in another bowl then stir into the milk mixture with the cognac. Turn the resultant mixture into a well-buttered pudding bowl. Secure the lid on top then cover with a double layer of foil and tie securely with string. Sit on a trivet or upturned plate in a large pan. Pour in boiling water until it comes half-way up the side of the pudding basin then place over the heat and continue boiling for 4 1/2 hours, until the pudding is cooked through. Check on the pudding every now and then and top-up the liquid with more boiling water as needed.

When cooked, remove the pudding from the pan and allow to cool a little. Uncover the bowl and remove the lid. Sit a serving plate on top and invert the pudding onto this. Serve hot, accompanied by German pudding sauce.

Find more Eliza Acton Recipes Here and more Traditional Victorian Recipes Here.