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Dessert

Roly-poly Pudding

A boiled pudding made with flour, suet, jam, baking powder, salt, and water, rolled and steamed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Roly-poly Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the paste

  1. In a bowl, mix the flour, salt, and baking powder.

  2. Finely chop the suet and mix it with the flour.

  3. Add water to form a light, firm paste.

  4. On a floured surface, roll the paste into a long, thin rectangle.

Fill and wrap

  1. Spread the jam over the paste, leaving space at the edges.

  2. Wet the edges, roll up the paste, and press the ends together.

  3. Flour the pudding and place it seam-side down in a dry pudding cloth.

  4. Roll the cloth around the pudding and tie each end with string.

Boil and serve

  1. Boil in a saucepan of water for 1½ hours, ensuring it is well covered.

  2. Once done, remove from water, let it steam, then turn onto a hot dish and serve.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the bulk of the paste that holds the pudding together.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the crumb tender and rich during boiling.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the paste to lighten its texture as it cooks.
Jam
Provides sweetness and fruity flavour spread through the rolled pastry.

The step that matters

Keeping the pudding well covered in water while boiling. If the pudding is not fully submerged, the exposed paste dries and cooks unevenly. Keeping it covered and the water steadily boiling gives even heat and a moist, cohesive result.

“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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