the winter puddies

Posted: 7/06/2011 10:14:33 p.m.

The term ‘pudding’ has an interesting history and actually relates back to the French passion of sausage making and the Latin word ‘botellus’ to encase like a sausage. Initially puddings were made wrapped in the stomach lining of an animal as in sausage making, with a maize or oatmeal base filled with savoury gravy or meat products. If this sounds a bit like like haggis – you are on the money, as haggis is one of the earliest forms of a steam pudding and actually is traced back to the Romans – not the Scots.
The initial cooking method for any pudding was always to steam, due to the fact that almost everything was cooked over or around a burning fire. Traditional hangi included steamed puddings – one being Raupo bread which used the pollen of the raupo plant and was steamed in the leaves of the same plant. Kaanga pudding used grated maize and water to form the batter with honey or sugar to sweeten, formed into cakes or rolls and steamed in the hangi wrapped in maize leaves.
Over time and with the evolution of techniques and ideas, suet pastry or crusts came into play with the muslin cloth to wrap and also the natural progression to sweet options using rudimentary products such as honey, fruit or spices. Puddings were served daily as the primary meal on Royal Naval ships throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. They provided an ideal solution for a limited cooking facility in the galley whilst at sea, with the daily rations of suet and flour encasing whatever meat or protein was at hand and catered well for the hungry crew.
US Civil War soldiers looking for additonal rations, would finely pound their hard crusted biscuits or crackers, add whatever they could find in the way of raisins or a sweetner with some water and boil themselves up a digestible if not sustaining sweet pudding in their tin cups.
Today of course with our modern technology, we have a gambit of easy solutions to serve a delicious and impressive pudding. A well greased pyrex bowl works just fine. For stove top, ensure you place a stand like an empty tuna tin with the top and bottom cut out as a trivet to raise the bottom of the saucepan and ensure even cooking. Adding a marble or metal tin lid to the water which will rattle as the water reduces, is a good reminder to keep topping up the water while your pudding is cooking. Light folding of dry ingredients and soaking of dried fruits will ensure a soft pudding packed with sustaneance and a proud smile.