So today was the day. Kally, Alicia(my sister-in-law), and I were gonna meet up with my Grandmother-in-law to learn how to make Suet Pudding. Oh? You've never heard of it? Probably because it's more of an old time recipe, back when people would butcher their own cows, and then use the beef fat to make a sweet pudding cake for the hard workers. Yep, today you'll get a recipe handed down from my husband's great grandmother, a sweet dish with an ingredient you need to pick up from a butcher. And that's where we began our journey.
"So, you ladies going to feed some hummingbirds?" the nice butcher behind the meat case asked as he handed me a package of suet, a finely ground mix of beef fats.
"No." Kally and I smiled at him.
"You going bear huntin' then?"
"No....we're gonna cook suet pudding...it's a sweet pudding." I added that last part quickly as the butcher made an attempt at an "ah" face, probably trying to cover up the real face he wanted to show, one which other butchers had made at me when I told them that- a face of horror. ;)
So, with our suet and whipping cream we had to pick up in hand, we stopped by Alicia's house then headed to my Grandma's.
It was pretty cool. I asked my Grandma if it was alright if I share her recipe with ya'll, and at first she hesitated. After I talked to her a little more, she decided she was okay with it. "It would be a shame to let a recipe like this disappear," she said. I couldn't agree more. :)
Suet Pudding
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup finely ground suet*
1 cup molasses
1 cup milk
Raisins and nuts to taste(even grandma says, "you just put in how much you want". I think she suggested 1/2 cup of each? Don't you just love recipes that ya, "just kinda put a little of this in..." ;) )
*Ask your local grocery store meat section for this and if they make a funny face or don't know what it is, if they can finely ground beef fat, which is what we had, that works too. Suet technically is the bubbly fat surrounding the kidney, but the butcher said there's not much of that and they don't really keep it.
Suet Pudding Icing
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup whipping cream
1 Tbs flour
1 pinch salt
Suet Pudding Instructions
Note: If you are going to be putting raisins in, you must first reconstitute them to avoid little hard rocks in your pudding. ;) To do this, just boil them in some water until they're plump, like this:
1.Mix together dry ingredients.
2.Mix in all wet ingredients except suet.
3.Mix in the suet.
4. Add in raisins and nuts if you'd like.
5. Put batter in a steamer pan, and steam on medium high heat for approximately two hours. Don't forget to check about every thirty minutes that the water hasn't boiled out, or it may ruin your pan my Grandma said.
And about 20 minutes before the pudding's ready....
1.Time to make the icing! Mix all the ingredients together in a pot(we found this out after we made it. When we cooked the suet pudding and did the icing, we were at Alicia's, and Grandma didn't call us back until after the icing was done...lol)
2. Bring icing to a boil, and cook until it thickens.
After two hours of letting the pudding steam, get some pudding and top it with icing and dig in! :D For those a little worried to try it due to flavor, or confused about the texture of a "pudding" which looks like a cake, here's the low down. It tastes like a spice/gingerbread-ish(minus the crazy spicey bit) flavored moist cake. Like Kally mentioned, she thought it would be more like a pudding since that's what it's called. But when it's complete, it should be springy.
For the record, though it may have a weird ingredient, you don't taste meat flavor at all, so the next time you wanna cook something sweet for your family, why not try this? Do something different, I dare ya. ;) Well, though Kally and I are sitting here writing this, she has to leave, and I have some Olympics to watch, so the information about our Ichigo Daifuku experience will have to wait 'till later! Signing out!
-Angela and Kally
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