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The Poor Author's Pudding

The Poor Author's Pudding is a traditional British recipe, based on Eliza Acton's recipe of 1845, for her classic very frugal version of a bread and butter pudding that is merely a covering of buttered bread baked on a custard base that is much more frugal than both her publisher's pudding, and her printer's pudding. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic British version of: The Poor Author's Pudding.

prep time

20 minutes

cook time

45 minutes

Total Time:

65 minutes

Serves:

6

Rating: 4.5 star rating

Tags : Vegetarian RecipesSpice RecipesBread RecipesDessert RecipesMilk RecipesBaking 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 POOR AUTHOR'S PUDDING.

     Flavour a quart of new milk by boiling in it for a few minutes half a stick of well-bruised cinnamon, or the thin rind of a lemon ; add a few grains of salt, and three ounces of sugar, and turn the whole into a deep basin : when it is unite cold, stir to it three well-beaten eggs, and strain the mixture into a pie-dish. Cover the top entirely with slices of bread free from crust, and half an inch thick, cut so as to join neatly, and buttered on both sides: bake the pudding in a moderate oven for about half an hour, or in a Dutch oven before the fire.

     New milk, 1 quart; cinnamon, or lemon-rind; sugar, 3 oz.; little salt; eggs, 3; buttered bread: baked 1/2 hour.

Modern Redaction



This pudding, along with her The Publisher's Pudding (which can never bee too rich) and the The Printer'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:

600ml whole milk
1/2 stick of cinnamon
3 thinly-pared strips of lemon zest
70g sugar
pinch of salt
2 large eggs
slices of Breads cut 12mm thick
butter
cinnamon and caster sugar for dusting

Method:

Combine the milk, cinnamon and lemon zest in a saucepan. Gently bring to a boil and continue boiling for 2 minutes then take off the heat and set aside to allow the flavours to infuse into the milk for about 10 minutes.

Strain the milk into a bowl and stir in the sugar and salt until dissolved. Beat the eggs in a bowl then beat in the milk. Pour this custard mixture into a pie dish. Trim the crusts from the Breads slices and butter them on both sides. Cut the bread so that it will cover the entire top of the custard in a single layer (I cut a circle for the centre and surround this with wedges).

Dust a little sugar and cinnamon over the top then transfer to an oven pre-heated to 170°C and bake for about 30 minutes, or until the custard is just set and the top of the bread is golden brown.

Serve hot with cream or custard.

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