Roll poly pudding

[tenngun]

Just found a you tube video from the with this on it from the English Heritage cooking site. She has contracted with Townsend’s to exchange some cooking vids. Her foods are upper crust late nineteenth century style foods and I’ve made or nearly made several of her recipes, but just found this one the other day and gave it a try.
While I don’t know how old it is it certainly sounds like it could fit to eighteenth century and even before.
Simple paste dough of flour salt and suet( I used butter) and enough water to make a frim dough rolled out flat. Topped with bacon mushrooms and onions rolled up placed inbag and boiled. I went 2 hours she went an hour and a half in the vid. You get a log that of course have some course English names as one can imagine. It can be eaten as is or sliced and fried. That’s what I did with it frying in bacon grease until lightly browned.
It would be a great haversack filler to fry up on a trek or use in camp.

 

[Pukka Bundook]

Tenngun,
It's the sort of grub that "sticks to your ribs" as we used to say back home.
I'd prefer the suet, as I was brung up on it! Makes a grand dessert too.
"Jam Roly-Poly' was my dad's favourite.
Also any steamed pudding. Same make-up, but without savoury additions. Made in a bowl and boiled. Very good with Lyle's golden syrup!...and custard of course!
The one with currants was good as well!

 

[tenngun]

Suet is not real easy to get here. And pricey when you find it. I’ve only used it a few times over the past ten years or so. Butter is not as good but readily available and cheaper.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Ah boiled pudding...., make for a wonderful dessert...

Well I wonder why proper suet is "expensive" or hard to find. Find local butcher and ask for the fat from around a kidney on a cow. Folks that make their own sausages from venison or their own salami use the stuff. I can get it for under $2 a pound, and I'm in suburbia where folks overprice "odd" food ingredients all the time. Fat from elsewhere on the cow is a "no go" and pig fat is too soft.

Butter or any other fat for a boiled pudding? <barf> The results really are worth the effort to get the ingredient. When I was first going to try one of these, I was thinking of using a substitute, but I found a British website that said in no uncertain terms, nothing works as a substitute. I was quite happy I paid attention.

Below is what was later called Spotted Dick or Spotted Dog......though other recipes use several different types, sizes and colors, of raisins...


A good boiled Pudding

TAKE a pound and a quarter of beef-suet, after it is skin’d, and shred very fine; then stone three quarters of a pound of raisins, and mix with it, as also a grated nutmeg, a quarter of a pound of sugar, a little salt, a little sack , four eggs, four spoonfuls of cream, and about half a pound of fine flour; mix these well together pretty stiff, tie it in a cloth, and let it boil four hours; melt butter thick for sauce.
The compleat housewife; or, Accomplish’d gentlewoman’s companion
By E. Smith, 1753


You don't have to "stone" store-bought raisins,

Sack is sweet sherry

Sugar was probably close to Turbinado, or light brown sugar

The eggs should be grade A medium size these days

The spoonfuls would be table spoons

The fine flour would be whole wheat flour

The cloth is a linen pudding cloth, about 24” x 24”, and you rub butter onto the side where you will place the pudding-doughball, then you gather in the sides and corners, and tie it all up with strong twine, so that no water can reach the pudding except by going through the cloth. You place this into a pot of boiling water, and keep it boiling, normally a covered pot, for four hours. Remove and let drain for a few minutes, then open gently, and transfer to a plate.

This is better with “hard sauce” which is butter, rum, and sugar, creamed.

LD

 

[Pukka Bundook]

Very good, Dave.

Some folk use flour on the outside of the pudding cloth, to keep pudding 'dry'.
Very important to drop it in Boiling water, (As you say above) as this sets the cloth and stops water soaking into the pudding.
Brandy sauce also Good!

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Well..., you CAN also do it 19th century version, a la A Christmas Carol, and have it in pudding mold "hissing in the copper" (double boiler)...as it was described by Dickens when he wrote of the Figgy Pudding being made by Mrs. Cratchett. The basic pudding dough is the same, you just change the fruit, or the filling.

I've done it both ways, steamed and boiled, and I served both to tourists at a hearth cooking event....they all liked the boiled version better....

Spotted Dog ....a variety of raisins
Figgy Pudding....figs, diced and molasses..., some modern recipes use dates and cocoa and maybe walnuts
Apricot....diced up dried apricots
Plum Duff...., diced up prunes (Royal Navy favorite, see Master and Commander series of books by Patrick O'Brian)
Apple ..., diced dried apples OR partially cooked apples, diced...want an "apple pie" flavor, cook fresh diced apples with cinnamon and brown sugar, then add that to the dough.
Queen Elizabeth pudding...slice dried cherries, and craisins.... substitute cherry brandy for the sack.... a modern variation that I made in honor of my late friend, Elizabeth (Gabi) Shoppe.

LD

 

[tenngun]

When you make your pudding base, flour salt suet, you can fold in meat mushrooms onions root vegetables and make a savory pudding. Served hot or cold is pretty tasty, or sliced and fried makes for a fine texture and a shuttle change in flavor. Don’t just think dessert.
The hunters pudding is sweet enough to make a dessert or savory enough to be a substitute bread in the main corse. Good breakfast on a trek.

 

[fleener]

you guys are making me hungry. Been on a low carb diet for 7 weeks or so and all this talk of carbs is causing me to want some.

Good thing whiskey does not have carbs.

Fleener

 

[Loyalist Dave]

you guys are making me hungry. Been on a low carb diet for 7 weeks or so and all this talk of carbs is causing me to want some.
Good thing whiskey does not have carbs.
Fleener

You doing that **** diet? I found that a 16:8 fast really really helps along with that diet (i'm doing the same thing). So I don't have anything but black coffee (or tea) or water until 11:00, then I can eat my starch-free meals until 19:00, following my calorie recommendations. Then it's back to water and decaf (if I want a hot bev) or something like whiskey or gin if I want. Most of the 16 hours of fasting is done sleeping. You have to be careful too on the caffeine as too much of that mimics insulin.

Anyway back to odd dishes of the 18th century....
,
Tenngun is right about the savory puddings. They can be a bit different than what we'd call a dessert pudding. Seems that a lot of what they ate were different ways of eating a limited variety of food (depending on the time of year of course) prepared in different manners...

Steak Pudding
MAKE a good crust with flour and suet shred fine, and mix it up with cold water; season it with a little salt, and make it pretty stiff. Take either beef or mutton steaks, well season them with pepper and salt, and make it up as you would an apple pudding; tie it in a cloth, and put it in when the water boils. If a small pudding it will take three hours; if a large one five hours.
The Housekeeper's Instructor, by W.A. Henderson 1799

So further in the cookbook when making an apple pudding it's basically an apple sauce pudding, since after you pre-cook the apples you "beat them well"...so I suppose that one is to pre-cook the steak and mince it, OR simply mince it up and then add it to the pudding for the above. I can't see this very easy to serve if it was a soft pudding containing "beef steaks" that were whole. Oft times original cookbooks are unclear in exactly what is to be done..., the authors either expecting some culinary skill by the reader, OR..., the author is making a buck, and not really an accomplished cook.

LD

 

[Pukka Bundook]

Dave,
We used to make "pigeon pie", as the woodpigeon is good eating. We cut the breast meat into squares, and yes, the steak is also chopped unto squares (not too small, maybe1/2" to 3/4" ) chucked in with some veggies, they Are good solid eating! Really fill up a gap!
If made up in a pudding basin, the basin is lined with the crust and middle filled with the meat and veggies, then crust closed over the top.
You likely figured that though!


Now I've got to go and make one soon!
Used to like them with a little kidney in as well. Very distinctive flavour, so not Too much.

 

[Black Hand]

Good thing whiskey does not have carbs.

https://www.mydietmealplanner.com/calorie-counter/beverages/alcohol/total-carbs-in-whiskey.html
Total net Carbs 0.04gm/shot
Sorry to burst your bubble...

 

[RAEDWALD]

The boiled pudding was/is long lasting after the 18th century. My father began his working life at 14 as the 'boy' on fishing boats out of Lowestoft in East Anglia. One task was to make boiled 'puddings' (refers to the method) both savoury and sweet. Ideal for the fishing trade as they could both be left untended to cook for a long time and also left neglected if a shoal was found and all hands worked on the fishing. The puddings could be retrieved from the boiler hours later and still provide a filling meal. Many years later, when I was still a young lad, he made excellent apple puddings thus when my mother was in hospital. So we can see how it was an ideal method for a working family who could leave the puddings cooking over the only fire whilst out working. The cheap flour and suet made a filling bulk and a meat pudding would flavour the water. Thus I quote an encouragement to use everything up and fill up before the expensive meat: 'No broth, no ball. No ball no beef'. You do need the water boiling hard when the floured cloth goes in and a large volume of water so that the pudding volume does not cool the water when it goes in. After that it can drop to a low simmer. Pukka will understand a 'snake and pygmy pudding'.

These days it is easier to make them up covered in a bowl and steamed. Works in a pressure cooker and it can be done in a microwave but not as well. Put some golden syrup in the bowl before pouring in the mix, steam and turn out and serve with custard. Food of the gods (god not specified). Almost pure carbohydrate bar the fat.........

Having emigrated to France my 18th century peasant house still has the fittings for the same issue. They dealt with it by a suspended cauldron into which was thrown whatever was available and continuously slow cooked as a stew. Allegedly begun by great, great, great granny and never allowed to empty. Still her original stew; just topped up. You got different flavours as the seasons changed.

 

[tenngun]

My mother, God rest her soul, could not cook to save her life. She had grown up with out a mother who had died when she was eight, a father that was a foundry worker who was gone much of the time. This was the depression. And she learned to boil everything.
She could make a few things well, and boston brown bread was a special treat she made.
My dad grew up on a farm in Wisconsin and my grandfather had been a professional hunter in Montana and Idaho. He lived rough in the woods and expected his children to know how th take care of them selfs. He made sure his two sons could cook well.
My dad was exposed to lots of German, Polish and Scandinavia cooking growing up. He liked sting flavor fried baked or grilled.
He used to tease my mother that New England food was all boiled.... even the bread. Boston brown bread just an America pudding

 

[Pukka Bundook]

John,

Good post and Yes to the "Snake and Pygmy " pudding!
Re. stews;
I remember a comic Irish bloke saying that his mother made good stews, well, One stew really.
He said she'd chuck an onion in, in March, and it "wouldn't surfass till May"!

 

[Loyalist Dave]

The boiled pudding was/is long lasting after the 18th century. ..., You do need the water boiling hard when the floured cloth goes in and a large volume of water so that the pudding volume does not cool the water when it goes in. After that it can drop to a low simmer. Pukka will understand a 'snake and pygmy pudding'.....These days it is easier to make them up covered in a bowl and steamed.

Ah I like them boiled, and ... make mine Baby's yed....,

Basically here is a video on a 1788 Steak Pudding, as this is round when done, instead of from a steamed mold, this is very close to Baby's Yed [head]..., you add mushrooms, and a little red wine for Baby's Yed/Baby's Head pudding, and some folks do a steak & kidney filling with added mushrooms for Baby's Yed.

LD

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Here is a good Colonial cook book, Mrs. Mason's Cookery, or The Lady's Assistant (1787) https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433078975475;view=1up;seq=15

LOTS of pudding recipes both savory and dessert! Here's another video


LD

 

[tenngun]

I make that plumb pudding to take on treks, some what smaller. With sauce it’s a good dessert, sliced and fried it’s a more savory breakfast

 

[RAEDWALD]

Thank you for those two Dave. I am reminded that the cooking water contained the vegetables and this was served first as a broth. Good to see the cloth properly floured. It wouldn't have been steak in the ball. Salt meat and cheap tough cuts and wobbly bits were all tender and delicious after a few hours cooking. Handy too on naval vessels when each mess could cook their victuals together in one large ball in a huge pot with all the other messes cloths. Each individually marked so that the correct ball was retrieved by the duty messman.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Blueberry roly poly is a very old southern Delaware recipe. Sort of like a brownie but of blueberries without the cocoa. Years ago, a customer would drop off a plum pudding every year the Tuesday of the week before Christmas. Each small bite was about 80 proof. She said she added a shot of rum every week for 12 or 14 weeks. It was more like a molasses sponge cake saturated with rum to the point of dripping. Of course she was from Jamaica.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Alcohol in the actual pudding is really as a result of the far flung British empire of the 19th century, Victorian England, and the most excellent British postal system. The alcohol was to preserve the cake in shipping. Which is why Christmas cake in England is made with fruit that is rehydrated with brandy, but not the cake itself.

LD