Sussex Pond Pudding

[exchemist]

I've just made my first 1/3 scale test run with this. Much to my surprise it came out fine and was rather good:

This pudding goes back to c.17th England and is agreeably bad for you , being made from suet pastry with a butter and sugar filling. However the modern version has one concession to health in the form of a whole lemon (pricked all over) in the middle, so that the lemon juice mixes with the butter and sugar mixture as it very slowly cooks, and the lemon becomes candied in return (you steam the pudding for 4 hours).

When you cut it open, all the buttery syrup and lemon juice runs out, forming a "pond", hence the name.

Because my test run was 1/3 scale (my full size pudding basins are full of Christmas pudding at present), the filling is 1/3 but the pastry is 1/2 quantity (surface:volume ratio effect), so the "pond" is not as large in relation to the suet pastry as it really ought to be. But still good. This is definitely a dessert for the depths of winter.

 

[Secret Chief]

Just reading this has stopped my heart.

 

[Left Coast]

I've just made my first 1/3 scale test run with this. Much to my surprise it came out fine and was rather good:
View attachment 46098

This pudding goes back to c.17th England and is agreeably bad for you , being made from suet pastry with a butter and sugar filling. However the modern version has one concession to health in the form of a whole lemon (pricked all over) in the middle, so that the lemon juice mixes with the butter and sugar mixture as it very slowly cooks, and the lemon becomes candied in return (you steam the pudding for 4 hours).

When you cut it open, all the buttery syrup and lemon juice runs out, forming a "pond", hence the name.

Because my test run was 1/3 scale (my full size pudding basins are full of Christmas pudding at present), the filling is 1/3 but the pastry is 1/2 quantity (surface:volume ratio effect), so the "pond" is not as large in relation to the suet pastry as it really ought to be. But still good. This is definitely a dessert for the depths of winter.

Is this the thing that has a whole lemon in it? This was just on Bake Off! Good job. (PS suet is gross, I don't support that part )

 

[Secret Chief]

PS suet is gross, I don't support that part

You could use non-hydrogenated vegetable suet. (eg Atora Light)

 

[Subduction Zone]

Is this the thing that has a whole lemon in it? This was just on Bake Off! Good job. (PS suet is gross, I don't support that part )

Yeah suet is gross, use lard next time

 

[exchemist]

Is this the thing that has a whole lemon in it? This was just on Bake Off! Good job. (PS suet is gross, I don't support that part )

Really? You mean I have for once got ahead of the fashion curve? How extraordinary.

The recipe has been kicking around in my recipe cuttings book for about 15 years. It came from a newspaper supplement in which Mark Hix used to do the recipes (Hix was at Bibendum, along with Bruce Poole and Simon Hopkinson, I think - all of them very much my type of cook). I'd never got round to it but my teenage son finally badgered me into making it, now that the weather has turned cold.

 

[exchemist]

Yeah suet is gross, use lard next time

Very funny. (Lard is just as "gross" and won't work, of course).

 

[Subduction Zone]

Very funny. (Lard is just as "gross" and won't work, of course).

Yes, it probably has too low of a melting point. My brother is a Seventh Day Adventist. Pork is a no no for them. He and his family were rather disappointed when they found that the pastries from their favorite Mexican bakery were very traditional. They were made with lard.

 

[exchemist]

You could use non-hydrogenated vegetable suet. (eg Atora Light)

You could but frankly I've read dodgy things about hydrogenated veggie fats. I think you are better off with beef suet, from the health point of view.

Actually, a lot of the suet comes out into the water during cooking, which is why suet pastry is always spongy, i.e. full of holes. So it's not really fatty to eat at all.

I've read up about this: seems the key thing with suet pastry is the fat has a high melting point, so the pastry is already starting to set when the fat melts. Hence it runs out, leaving a porous, flexible structure behind. When you use butter, as in normal pastry, it melts in at the start, making a far greasier final pastry, but which goes crisp. So maybe suet is not as bad for you as it seems.

 

[exchemist]

Yes, it probably has too low of a melting point. My brother is a Seventh Day Adventist. Pork is a no no for them. He and his family were rather disappointed when they found that the pastries from their favorite Mexican bakery were very traditional. They were made with lard.

Bingo! See my post 9. That's it exactly. Melting point is key, apparently. (I only learnt this today.)

 

[Secret Chief]

You could but frankly I've read dodgy things about hydrogenated veggie fats.

Er... I said non-hydrogenated...

 

[amorphous_constellation]

It wouldn't surprise me if the lemon had been a part of the original recipe.. one cooking youtube channel I like to watch is Townsends, and it seems like the early american recipes, with a strong english influence, would use the lemon all over the place

 

[exchemist]

Er... I said non-hydrogenated...

Oh sorry, so you did, indeed.

How do they get non-hydrogenated vegetable fat to have a high enough melting point?

 

[sun rise]

It looks yummy and not what I first thought when I read "Sussex Pond Pudding". I don't think I should note what I visualized.

 

[exchemist]

It wouldn't surprise me if the lemon had been a part of the original recipe.. one cooking youtube channel I like to watch is Townsends, and it seems like the early american recipes, with a strong english influence, would use the lemon all over the place

I think lemons would have been an expensive luxury in c.17th England. They would have to be imported from the South of France or Spain before they went mouldy.

 

[Secret Chief]

Oh sorry, so you did, indeed.

How do they get non-hydrogenated vegetable fat to have a high enough melting point?

I wouldn't have the foggiest dear boy!

 

[exchemist]

I wouldn't have the foggiest dear boy!

View attachment 46099

Yes I know the brand - it's the same as the beef suet. I'll have to look into how they make it. But anyway, good to know it is not hydrogenated. Something else I've learnt out of this whole exercise.....

 

[amorphous_constellation]

I think lemons would have been an expensive luxury in c.17th England. They would have to be imported from the South of France or Spain before they went mouldy.

hm.. maybe that's a bit early then.. did it feature heavily in their tastes a century or so later?

 

[exchemist]

hm.. maybe that's a bit early then.. did it feature heavily in their tastes a century or so later?

Well citrus fruits can be preserved with sugar of course. Candied peel of orange and lemons has been traditional for a long time. There is plenty of that in Christmas puddings, mince pies etc.

 

[Revoltingest]

And I thought haggis was weird.