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Preserve

Suet-crust, for Meat or Fruit Puddings

A suet crust used for meat or fruit puddings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Suet-crust, for Meat or Fruit Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the suet

  1. Clear off the skin from some fresh beef kidney-suet.

  2. Hold the suet firmly with a fork and slice it thin with a sharp knife.

  3. Free the suet entirely from fibre.

  4. Mince the suet very fine.

  5. Weigh the minced suet.

Make the crust

  1. Mix the minced suet with flour.

  2. Add half a teaspoonful of salt for meat puddings, or a third as much for fruit ones.

  3. Add sufficient cold water to make the mixture into a very firm paste.

  4. Work the paste smooth.

  5. Roll the crust out to equal thickness when it is used.

  6. Some cooks slice the suet in thin shavings, mix it with flour, and beat the crust with a paste-roller until the flour and suet are perfectly incorporated; but it is better minced.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

455Calories
13 gProtein
1 gFat
95 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Eliza Acton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Suet (in the method)
Provides fat that keeps the crust short and tender as it cooks.
Flour
Forms the structure of the crust once mixed with water.

The step that matters

Mince the suet very fine and keep the water cold. Finely minced suet coats the flour evenly, so the fat stays in small pieces that give a short, tender crust. Cold water keeps the fat from softening before the paste is rolled.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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