Seven Cup Pudding

The first time I went to the USA, to stay with a dear friend in Washington State, I was really interested (of course) in the meals she prepared – many of them basically familiar but made in a completely different way. I’ve written here about the potato salad which revolutionised my appreciation and my own version henceforth. Now i always make it with not just cooked potatoes and mayonnaise, but with hard-boiled eggs, finely sliced onions, finely chopped fried bacon and fresh herbs. There were different methods too – I was used to taking a teaspoon, dessertspoon, tablespoon from the cutlery drawer and using them to measure ingredients, but to have a set of measuring spoons – well, that was really something! Ditto measuring cups!

Thinking back now, I am pretty sure there must have been sets of measuring spoons and cups, but I just hadn’t come across them. Here is a recipe from my 1936 Spry cookery booklet:

Seven Cup Pudding
for 6 people

• 1 teacup flour
• 1 teacup sugar
• 1 teacup currants
• 1 teacup raisins
• 1 teacup SPRY
• 1 teacup breadcrumbs
• 1 small teacup milk
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon mixed spice
• ¾ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 egg
• 1 apple

Method – brush the basin and the paper with melted SPRY . Have ready in a pan  sufficient boiling water to come half-way up the basin. Rub the SPRY into the flour and breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, flavouring, fruit (dried) and bicarbonate of soda, and then the apple, finely chopped. Add the beaten egg and milk, and mix well until the pudding is fairly soft. Then put the mixture in the prepared basin, cover with paper brushed with melted SPRY and steam for 3 hours.

This simple recipe – using cup measures, sounds quite tasty and I imagine it would have been served with custard. If I were making it, I’d have to substitute the cinnamon for something else, as I really can’t abide it – maybe mixed spice or nutmeg, and ditto baking powder  – I would use self-raising flour.