THE ORIGINAL ‘RECEIPT’

1310.  – CANARY PUDDING.

INGREDIENTS. – The weight of 3 eggs in sugar and butter, the weight of 2 eggs in flour, the rind of 1 small lemon, 3 eggs.

Mode. – Melt the butter to a liquid state, but do not allow it to oil; stir to this the sugar and finely-minced lemon-peel, and gradually dredge in the flour, keeping the mixture well stirred;  whisk the eggs; add these to the pudding;  beat all the ingredients until thoroughly blended, and put them into a buttered mould or basin; boil for 2 hours, and serve with sweet sauce.

~Beeton, Isabella.  The Book of Household Management (Entirely New Edition, Revised and Corrected, With New Coloured Engravings). London: Ward, Lock, and Tyler, 1869.

THE UPDATED RECIPE

• 4 ½ oz. butter, melted (approx. ½ cup)
• 4 ½ oz. granulated sugar (approx. ⅝ cup)
• grated zest of 1 lemon
• 3 oz. sifted all-purpose flour (approx. ⅔ cup)
• 3 eggs, beaten (medium size).

Prepare a kettle in which to steam the pudding;  set a shallow metal grate in the bottom, and fill the pan with about a ¾-inch depth of water.  Cover with a lid, and set over medium-low heat, so that the water will be steaming hot before the pudding is set into the kettle.

Grease an oven-proof, 4-cup capacity pudding bowl with butter (If you don’t have a pudding bowl, a glass pyrex bowl or other type of oven-proof bowl will work well too). 

Weigh the butter, sugar and flour. (Be sure to use medium-size eggs, as the other ingredients are in proportion, by weight, to the size of the eggs.)

Sift the flour.

Wash and dry the lemon, and then grate the zest from it.

In a small pan, melt the butter over very low heat;  as soon as all the solid pieces disappear, remove it immediately from the heat.

In a mixing bowl, combine the melted butter with the sugar and lemon zest;  beat together thoroughly with a wooden spoon.

Gradually add the sifted flour to the butter and sugar mixture, beating it in with the spoon continuously until all the flour has been incorporated, and the mixture is smooth.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk until they are light, frothy and lemon-coloured.

Then add the beaten eggs to the batter mixture, and beat all together until well combined and very smooth.

Pour the batter into the buttered pudding bowl.

Set the bowl on the rack in the kettle, over simmering water;  cover with the lid, and steam the pudding for 2 to 2 ¼ hours, over medium low heat.

Replenish the water in the pan with additional boiling water, as required.

When the pudding is cooked, remove it from the kettle;  loosen the edges of the pudding from the bowl with a sharp knife, and invert the pudding onto a heated serving plate.

Serve the pudding piping hot;  slice it into wedges, and accompany it with a sweet sauce of your choice. Try a Fruit Sauce or a Lemon Sauce – both are lovely!

Yield:  4 to 5 servings.

Canary Pudding is pale and delicate, with a fine texture and faint lemon flavour.  It is versatile, since it is suitable to serve with a variety of pudding sauces.

A note from Patricia: I decided a few months back that I’m in love with the idea of puddings with their luscious sauces, and so I purchased a Mason & Cash pudding bowl from Indigo so that I could feel professional, and was eager to try it out. I had also read somewhere that you can steam a pudding in a crock pot, so I decided to give that a try. I covered the top of the filled pudding bowl with a piece of buttered parchment and then a piece of tin foil, tied a string around it to secure it, and then placed it in an inch or so of water in the bottom of the crock pot – so easy! I used 1:1 gluten free flour in this recipe to make it gluten-free, and decided to pair it with a Fruit Sauce (although the Lemon Sauce was also really tempting). My pudding steamed in the crock pot for about 2.5 hours, and let me tell you, it was really delicious. The lemon flavour was light and lovely, and the Fruit Sauce made this absolutely delightful. It was moist and sweet and sumptuous. Cake + Sauce = Heaven.

Puddings are much lighter and nicer steamed than boiled.

~Warren, Jane.  The Economical Cook Book.  New York: Hurst and Company, 1890.