White Pot- December 2015 Recipe of the Month

White Pot: A Traditional Christmas Pudding

I’m always excited to try vintage recipes for the first time during one of our Hearth

White Pot, a traditional Christmas pudding

Cooking sessions in our Phoenix Mill House. I’ve probably never been more excited about the finished product of one of these recipes than the first time I unmolded this delicious steamed pudding. When my counterpart John Patterson carmelized the sugar on the top of the pudding using a red-hot iron tool, it just sent this dessert over the edge. And as it would have been in in the early 1800s, the visitors who sampled the warm pudding in the Mill House, also poured rich, sweet cream over the pudding before they dug in.

This is such a good recipe. Even if you don’t have an open hearth, I hope you’ll consider cooking this pudding using modern methods. I’ve cooked it at home, steaming it in a large lidded pot on the stove. Just put a trivet (If you don’t have a metal trivet, use an 8” cake pan turned upside down.) in the bottom of the pot so the bottom of the pudding doesn’t burn.

Enjoy!

-Lorraine Walker

Browning the White Pot using a heated hearth tool

White Pot

1 pt. heavy cream

¼ tsp. ground cinnamon

¼ tsp. ground mace

¼ tsp. grated nutmeg

Dash of salt

2 large eggs

1 large egg yolk

3 T. sugar

1 loaf white bread (crusts removed)

½ c. softened butter

1 c. raisins

1 c. dates, pitted and sliced

Additional sugar for sprinkling on to

1. Liberally butter the inside of a slope-sided cooking mold or vessel.
2. Mix cream and spices. Set over medium to low heat and bring to a simmer, occasionally stirring to present a skin from forming. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
3. Beat eggs, yolk, and sugar together. When cream mixture has cooled slightly, remove cinnamon stick, and pour 2-3 T. of cream mixture into the egg mixture, whisking as you pour. This will temper the eggs so they don’t curdle. Continue to slowly add remaining cream, whisking as you pour. This is the custard liquid. Set it aside.
4. Liberally butter bread slices with the softened butter.
5. Place a layer of bread, buttered-side down, into the bottom of your buttered baking pan. Push bread down a bit but take care not to compress it. Fill in any gaps with smaller pieces of bread. Sprinkle a layer of raisins and dates on bread. Repeat these two layers until pan is full. Finish with a bread layer, buttered-side up.
6. Add custard liquid to fill pan just above last layer of bread.
7. Place pot on a trivet inside a Dutch oven filled with boiling water about two thirds up the mold side. Baking time will vary based on size of pot but check after 30 minutes. Top should be browned.
8. Remove from Dutch oven and cool 10 minutes. Use knife to loosen sides and turn onto a plate. Additional sugar may be added to the top and browned with a Salamander or a crème brulee torch. Serve warm with cream.

Recipe adapted from savoringthepast.net.