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Cooking: Puddings

Puddings were more commonly used than cake or pie in the pioneer home because they were more easily made and as a rule did not require as many ingredients. However, the Christmas plum pudding, made from cherished recipes brought by their parents or grandparents from their native lands, always added a festive touch to the holiday dinner.

Roly Pudding. 2 cups sifted flour; 1/2 tsp. salt; 4 tsp. baking powder; 4 tbs. shortening; 3/4 cup milk. Mix dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add shortening, mixing in with fingers. Add milk to make a soft dough, handling lightly, roll or pat out dough to make oblong shapes 1/2 inch thick. Spread generously with jam of any kind. Roll as for jelly roll. Place in a steamer over boiling water, cover tightly and steam 30 minutes or more. Cut in serving slices and serve with cream or favorite sauce. Place a cloth in the bottom of the steamer to prevent the pudding from becoming water-soaked.

Plum Roly-Poly Pudding. 3 cups flour, 2 heaping tsp. baking powder; 1 cup suet, pinch salt. Mix with sweet cream, pat out flat and cover with stoneless pottawatamie plums, roll up and place in a buttered double boiler and cook 3 hours. Serve with this sauce: 8 tbs. sugar, 2 tbs. flour, boiling water, nutmeg, butter and lemon if desired. Other fruits, apricot, dried apple, etc., may also be used.

Poor Man's Suet Pudding. 11/2 cups suet; pinch salt; 4 cups flour; 1 cup raisins; cold water enough to make a thick batter. Tie in cloth bag and boil in water for 3 hours. Serve hot with the following dip: 3 tbs. sugar; lump of butter melted together; 1 tbs. flour; stir like gravy. Add water to desired thickness. Flavor to taste and add a little nutmeg.

Rice Pudding. In a double boiler cook 2 cups rice, kept covered with water until kernels are softened. Drain, beat three eggs, add fresh milk on which cream has set, enough to make it rather liquid, add about a cup of sugar; add lemon flavor and nutmeg, put in currants, stir together and dot with fresh butter. Set in slow oven till browned. Serve warm with more cream.

Rice Custard Pudding. 1/4 cup rice cooked in 1 cup water. 1 qt. milk; 1/2 cup sugar; 1 tsp. flavoring; 3 eggs; 1/2 cup raisins. To the rice add beaten eggs, sugar, milk and raisins. Add flavoring. Mix and bake in oven till custard forms.

Mina Wignal's Rice Pudding. 2/3 cup rice; 31/2 cups milk; 1 cup sugar; 1/2 tsp. salt and flavoring to taste. If using canned milk, use 1/2 water. Do not stir. Bake 3 hours in low oven.

Buttermilk Suet Pudding. 1 lb. suet chopped fine; 1 lb. seedless raisins; 1 cup sugar; cup molasses; 1 egg; 1/2 tsp. each cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice; 1 cup buttermilk; 2 cups flour; 1/2 tsp. salt; 1 tsp. soda; 2 tsp. baking powder and flavoring. Steam and serve with the following sauce; 1 cup boiling water; 1 lump butter; 2 tsp. vinegar; thickened with 4 tbs. flour. Add flavoring.

Suet Pudding. 1 qt. flour; 11/2 pkgs. raisins; 2 tsp. baking powder; 4 eggs; 2/3 qt. suet; 1/2 cup molasses; 1 cup sugar; 1 tsp. salt; 1 tsp. cinnamon; 1/2 tsp. soda. Boil three hours in sacks. Keep the bags covered with water at all times and keep the water boiling. Serve with the following sauce: 1 cup sugar, 1 tbs. flour. Place sugar, butter and flour in dish over hot water until the sugar and butter are melted; mix well with the flour making a soft paste. Pour over this mixture 2 cups boiling water. Serve over hot pudding.

Pioneer Suet Pudding. 1 cup bread crumbs; 1 cup ground suet; 1 cup flour; 1/2 tsp. salt. About 3/4 cup milk to mix. Mix milk with other ingredients to make a stiff batter. Put in a sack and tie tightly. Cook covered in boiling water for three hours. Cut and serve with brown gravy.

Lucy Barkdull's Apple Dumplings. Make a rich biscuit dough or short cake dough. Roll out to about 1/2 inch thick. Heap sliced and spiced apples in the middle, gather the edges of the dough up to the top and pinch together. Put in a cloth bag large enough to allow expanding and drop into boiling water. Cook until the apples are tender, about 45 minutes. These can be made into one large dumpling or small for individual servings. Serve with favorite sauce or cream.

Cornelia S. Lund's Apple Dumplings. Make a rich, stiff biscuit dough. Cut apples in quarters and wrap dough around, pinching the ends together. Put one pint of water in baking dish and one cup of sugar and small piece of butter. Boil on top of stove making a thin syrup. Put in the dumplings and bake in hot oven until apples are done. Serve hot with sauce made as follows: Warm 2 cups milk; 1/2 cup sugar, flavoring and dash of nutmeg.

Josephine Carwin's Apple Strudel. 11/2 cups flour; 1 egg; 1/4 tsp. salt; 1 tbs. (heaping) lard; 1/3 cup lukewarm water; 4 lbs. apples; 1/4 cup butter; 1 cup bread crumbs; 1/2 tsp. grated lemon rind; raisins. Combine flour, egg, salt and lard in bowl and add enough water to make a soft dough. Beat until dough blisters. Cover with warm bowl and set in warm place for 30 minutes or until apples are peeled. Peel and slice apples as for pie. Melt butter and lightly brown bread crumbs in it.

Spread a tablecloth on the table and sprinkle lightly with flour. Roll dough lightly with rolling pin on tablecloth until dough is about 1/2 inch thick. Starting in center, put hands under dough, pull and stretch gently, being careful not to poke holes in it with fingers. Keep working round and round the table until dough is paper thin. The thinner the dough, the better the strudel.

Spread buttered and browned crumbs on the dough, then put a thin layer of apples on. Sprinkle on sugar to taste, dot with butter, sprinkle with raisins and lemon rind. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Take one end of tablecloth, hold it up and dough starts rolling until the end. With tablecloth, form into horseshoe, put hand underneath and flip onto greased pan, 8 x 12 inches. Bake at 350F for 50 to 60 minutes. Serve in slices sprinkled with powdered sugar.

Apple Fritters. 2 cups flour; 3/4 tsp. soda; 1/2 tsp. salt; 2 tbs. sugar; 1/4 tsp. nutmeg; 2 eggs; 11/3 a cups sour milk; 2 tbs. shortening; 2 cups diced apples. Sift and measure flour. Sift again with soda, salt, sugar and nutmeg. Combine well beaten eggs, milk and melted shortening. Turn wet ingredients and beat until smooth. Fold in apples last. Drop by spoonsful into deep fat and cook to rich brown, turning frequently. The fat when ready for frying fritters should be 375F. or it should brown a cube of bread in 60 seconds. Makes 8 servings.

Ableskiver. 5 eggs, separated. Beat whites until stiff; 3 cups milk; 3 tbs. shortening melted. Sift together 2 cups flour; 1 tsp. baking powder; 1 tsp., sugar; 1/2 tsp. salt. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites last. Heat pan with 1 tbs. shortening in each cup. Four 2 tbs. butter in each cup. Cook until light brown then turn. Serve hot with jam or jelly. Ableskivers are Danish fried cakes that come out as round as apples, hollow in the middle. No apple in it, the name comes from the shape rather than the content. A skiver pan is required for the making. It is a seven hole affair, the holes nicely rounded.

Mrs. Babcock's Carrot Pudding. 1 cup grated carrots; 1 cup bread crumbs; 1 cup flour; 2 cups raisins; 1 cup currants; 11/2 cups brown sugar; 3/4 cup butter milk or sour milk; 1 cup fine suet; 3 eggs, well beaten; 1 tsp. soda; 3 tsp. baking powder; 1 tsp. cinnamon; 1/2 tsp. nutmeg; 1/4 tsp. cloves; 1/2 tsp. salt. Combine all ingredients thoroughly and place in top of double boiler which has been rubbed with butter. Do not fill pan too full as the pudding will rise. Cook for 31/2 hours. Serve warm, topped with whipped cream.

Mrs. Walter Moore's Bachelor Pudding. 2 cup chopped apples; 2 cup soft bread crumbs; 1 cup dried currants or raisins; 1/2 cup sugar; 1/2 cup candied lemon peel, cut very fine; 1 egg; 11/2 tbs. butter; dash nutmeg. Combine apples, bread crumbs, currants or raisins, sugar, nutmeg, and lemon peel. Add beaten egg, melted butter and nutmeg. Stir until blended. Put into greased mold and steam for 2 hours. Cover with cream or simple sauce. Makes 8 to 10 servings.

Mrs. Webb's English Plum Pudding, Into a large bowl put the following, 3 c. flour sifted with 3 tsp, baking powder; 1 tsp. cinnamon and 1 tsp. nutmeg; 1 egg, 1 cup ground suet (rub a little flour into the suet), 1 cup sugar; 1 pkg. raisins, (rub a little flour on the raisins). Use milk to make a batter a little stiffer than for fruit cake. Put the batter in a damp cloth, gather the doth together and tie real tight. It needs no room to swell. It will do it. Have a large kettle of boiling water and put in the pudding. Water must boil at all times and when more water is needed it should be boiling water. Boil for three hours. Remove from the cloth immediately. Serve with any good pudding sauce.

Peach Cobbler. 1 qt. fresh peaches or cooked, sprinkle with cinnamon; 2 c flour; 2 tbs. butter; 2 tsp. baking powder; 2 tbs. sugar; sweet milk. Place peaches in baking pan. If uncooked peaches are used use a cup of water and 1/2 cup sugar. Cover peaches with a soft dough made by sifting flour, sugar, baking powder. Mix in butter and enough milk to make a soft dough. Drop in spoonsful on top of peaches, sprinkle with cinnamon and put in medium hot oven and bake from 20 to 30 minutes. Serve with cream and sugar if desired.

Grandma Taylor's Milton Pudding or Bread Pudding. 1 pint stale bread crumbs; 2 eggs beaten; 1 pint milk; 31/2 tsp. cocoa; 1 tbs. butter; mix and let stand 2 or 3 hours if convenient. Cook in a moderate oven until set, then serve with thin cream with a little sugar added.

Indian Boiled Pudding. 2 eggs well beaten; 1/2 cups sour milk; 1 small tsp. saleratus dissolved in the milk; sift in dry corn meal until consistency for griddle cakes (perhaps a little thicker). Stir in cup of dried fruit are best. Put in bag and boil for one hour. For sauce, sweetened cream flavored with nutmeg.

Indian Crumb Pudding. 1 egg; 1/2 cup soft bread crumbs; 11/4 cups milk; 1/4 tsp. mixed ground spices; 1 tbs. molasses; 1 tbs. sugar; few grains of salt; 1 tsp. butter. Beat the eggs light and combine with the other ingredients. Let stand a few minutes; then transfer to a shallow greased pudding dish or to custard cups. Set in a pan of hot water and bake in a slow oven until the pudding is firm and brown twenty minutes. Serve with favorite sauce or whipped cream.

Lumpy Dick. To boiling water slowly add white flour until it reaches the consistency of mush; add a pinch of salt, and serve either hot or cold with milk and sugar.

Jennie Keetch's Pudding Sauce. Melt white sugar in a heavy pan, 1 c. sugar to 3 c. water. When sugar is melted put the cold water in and when it comes to a boil and the sugar is all melted thicken with flour paste to which has been added salt, vanilla, cinnamon and a lump of butter. Lemon or nutmeg may also be added. In England brandy was also used in this sauce. Some people use brown sugar and corn starch but I prefer the old style.

Donna Fairbourn's Vinegar Dip. To be used at Christmas time. 1 c. sugar; 2 c. hot water; 3 tbs. cornstarch; 1/2 c. cold water; 1/2 tsp. salt; 1 to 2 tbs. vinegar; 1 tsp. vanilla. Melt sugar in a heavy kettle over low heat being careful not to burn. When melted add hot water and stir until sugar is dissolved. Combine cornstarch and cold water and stir until smooth, add to hot mixture and stir until thick and dear. Add salt, vinegar, and vanilla. Serve hot on mince pie, steamed puddings or fruit cobblers. Any sauce left over may be saved if put in a covered jar and kept cold.

Source: Our Pioneer Heritage © Carter, Kate B., ed. 20 vols. Salt Lake City: International Society, Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1958-1977. All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. Documents and images are exerpted by permission from the LDS Family History Suite CDROM from Ancestry.