Week 4 - A Tale of 2 Puddings
A.K.A. The day Elizabeth accidentally traumatized her family by disguising blood pudding as chocolate cake.
It’s Week 4, which means we’re officially past the mid-way mark of this year’s cook off. This week’s recipes have us putting away the frying pan and pulling out the pudding bag. What? You don’t own a pudding cloth …. or bag …. or basin. As always, we’ve got plenty of options and work arounds for you.
But before we dig in….
A quick reminder that modern interpretations of this week’s recipes can be found at the bottom of this post. Just cook the dish, snap a photo of the results, and add your pic to the comments section of the week 4 recipe post on the Colony of Avalon’s Facebook page. You’ll automatically be entered into this week’s prize draw. Up for grabs? A $50 gift certificate for Alder Cottage Newfoundland Online Cookery School. But that’s not all, you’ll also be entered into our grand prize draw for a Snowpeak Takibi portable outdoor Fire and Grill. WOWZA! Deadline for this week’s entries are 11:59 pm, Sunday, August 1, 2021.
Ready to get started?
A Tale of Two Puddings
This week’s recipes come to us from Robert May’s classic The Accomplisht Cook. The art & mystery of cookery. Wherein the whole art is revealed in a more easie and perfect method, than hath been publisht in any language.
May was born in 1588 and came from a family of distinguished chefs. At the age of ten he was sent to Paris to continue learning his trade. He then spent seven years as an apprentice in London. Throughout his long career, he cooked for many members of the British aristocracy. The Accomplisht Cook, written in 1660 when May was already 72 years old, is full of tips, tricks and trade secrets.
The Accomplisht Cook includes many extravagant dishes, and some that are downright bonkers, like an exploding pastry ship with flags, streamers and guns, and a pie containing live frogs and birds guaranteed to make dinner guests “skip and shreek”.
While we would LOVE to see your versions of an exploding pastry ship (maybe next year’s cook off?), we’ve chosen something a little less elaborate for this week’s challenge: two very (VERY!) different versions of a steamed oatmeal pudding, one sweet and the other savoury. The original recipes go like this:
To make an Oatmeal Pudding
Pick a quart of whole oatmeal, being finly picked and cleansed, steep it in warm milk all night, next morning drain it, and boil it in three pints of cream; being boil'd and cold put to it six yolks of eggs and but three whites, cloves, mace, saffron, salt, dates slic't, and sugar, boil it in a napkin, and boil it as the bread-pudding, serve it with beaten butter, and stick it with slic't dates, and scrape sugar; or you may bake these foresaid materials in dish, pye, &c.
Sometimes add to this pudding raisins of the sun, and all manner of sweet herbs, chopped small, being seasoned as before.
To make Oatmeal Pudding-pies
Steep oatmeal in warm milk three or four hours, then strain some blood into it of flesh or fish, mix it with cream, and add to it suet minced small, sweet herbs chopped fine, as tyme, parsley, spinage, succory, endive, strawberry leaves, violet leaves, pepper, cloves mace, fat beef-suet, and four eggs; mingle all together, and so bake them.
Directions for making our oatmeal puddings are provided by the amazing Elizabeth “I think I’ll make a three-tiered sleeve of Hippocrates in my spare time” Slucas, who is joining us all the way from 1770s Indianna. I’ll hand things over to Elizabeth to explain:
Just back from a small 1770s event at the Old Fort, in Ft. Wayne, Indianna. The Old Fort was constructed using 1814 drawings from Major John Whistler. Funding began in 1964, and the fort was completed in 1976. It has been used through the years as an educational tool, and host to a variety of events.
Old Fort, Ft. Wayne, Indianna
I was joined by my favorite kitchen buddy, Kristen Smanksi. She and I have been historic reenacting friends since 2014, historic foodies, and 2020 first time Colony of Avalon cook off participants. With a pile of supplies and a handful of recipes, we took over the Officer's Kitchen for the weekend.
Elizabeth in the Officers’ Kitchen at Old Fort
Saturday morning, we tackled Oatmeal Puddings. Having worked on the test recipes, this time I made some small tweaks. I switched to rolled oats for both of them, ridding us of the need to presoak and precook the oats. Drastically reducing the liquid used and cooking time needed. We mixed all of our oats with enough milk to dampen them, then split the batch in two.
Puddings (savoury and sweet) in progress
To the sweet bowl, we added 1.5 cups of almond milk, and the remaining ingredients from the test recipe (we used golden raisins and zante currants). To the savory, we used 10 oz of pork blood (freezer section at my Asian market), and the remaining ingredients from the test recipe. We poured them into buttered reproduction tin pudding molds and put them in a large pot of water over the fire, to steam for a few hours.
Kristen with a sweet looking sweet pudding.
Kristen did a beautiful job making up our sweet pudding. It came out of the mold fairly clean, and we topped it with a sauce made of butter, brown sugar, and orange flower water. Those who tried it, liked the dense texture and subtle flavors. The butter sauced added a distinct, but not overwhelming flavour. Once cool, slices traveled well with a few of our fellow reenactors out and about.
Sweet pudding sliced.
The savoury pudding is another story. The mold did not seal as well, and took on some extra water. With some extra cook time, it did finally cook though, but then got stuck in the mold. It was my major disaster of the weekend. A few people did try it, and compared the flavour to liver or liver sausage.
As Elizabeth notes, this was not her first time cooking these recipes. Last winter, she bravely attempted the savoury version in her role as a Cook Off Insider. Here’s how she described the results:
It’s not the prettiest thing while mixing, but it bakes up nicely. It’s very reminiscent of black pudding, presenting an earthy sausage flavour. I served mine sliced and fried up with penny loaves and yolky eggs. It did make a lot, so I’ve sliced the extra and frozen it for future breakfast use.
The savoury (blood) pudding in progress.
Modern Recipe Interpretation - Sweet Oatmeal Pudding
Ingredients
1 c steel cut (pinhead) oats, soaked in milk or water for 2 hours OR 1 cup of rolled oats
2 cups milk or cream
2 eggs, plus 1 yolk, beaten
½ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp ground mace
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp salt
Pinch of saffron, soaked in 1 tbsp hot water (optional)
¾ c dried fruit (currants, raisins, chopped dates, cranberries)
Flour, for dusting pudding cloth
Butter and sugar, to serve
Method
For steel cut (pinhead) oats - Soak the oats for 2 hours in milk or water, drain. Place oats in a pot, add 2 cups milk or cream, cook until liquid is absorbed. Leave oats to cool. While oats are cooling, put a large pot of water on to boil. Skip down to “Add eggs, spices and fruit”
For rolled oats - Mix the oats with 1/2 cup of milk/cream and let sit for 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, put a large pot of water on to boil.
For rolled oats, add the remaining 1.5 cups milk and mix.
To the oats, add eggs, spices, and fruit. Mix thoroughly.
Dip a clean cotton or linen dish towel in boiling water. Let it boil for one minute. Remove cloth, and CAREFULLY wring out excess water, flour one side of cloth.
Pour the oat mixture into the middle of the floured cloth. Pull the edges up, forming a ball, and tie the cloth tightly.
NOTE: You can also stem your pudding in a heat proof bowl, pudding basin or pudding mould. You can find detailed directions here. Skip ahead to the 0.50 second mark.
Put the pudding in the boiling water. Cover with tight lid; boil 3 hours, replenishing water as necessary to maintain water level.
As long as there is a gentle simmer and steam is being created in your pan then your water is hot enough to cook your pudding.
Resist lifting the lid of the steaming pot for the first 30 minutes; the drop in temperature could cause the pudding to collapse. However after this time, definitely check on the pudding regularly to make sure that the pot does not boil dry.
Remove the pudding from water, allow to cool for 10 minutes, remove the pudding cloth/bowl/basin, and plate. Serve topped with butter and sprinkle of sugar.
Modern Recipe Interpretation - Savoury Oatmeal Pudding
Ingredients:
1.5 cups steelcut (pinhead) oats OR 1.5 cups of rolled oats.
2 cups milk or cream
1 small onion, diced small
10 oz blood (pork or beef)
4 eggs, beaten
2-3 Tbsp dried Italian herb blend 2 tsp ground mace
1 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
Method
For steel cut oats - Cover the oats with milk, and soak for 3-4 hours. Drain the oats, then place oats in a pot and cover with cream (or milk), cook until liquid is absorbed and oats are al dente. Leave to cool.
For rolled oats - Mix the oats with 1/2 cup of milk/cream and let sit for 10-15 minutes. Then add the remaining 1.5 cups of milk/cream and mix.
Preheat oven to 350* F
To room temperature oats, add seasonings, eggs, and blood. Mix well.
Pour into greased pan or baking dish, bake until a toothpick or skewer comes out clean. About 50-80 minutes depending on the pan used.