How could I resist a recipe that combined the words baked potato and pudding? Plus it called for suet, and I just happened to have some leftover from a previous recipe! Watch the one minute version on Instagram!
Baked Potato Pudding
The Artizan’s Guide and Everybody’s Assistant:
Containing Over Three Thousand New and Valuable Receipts and Tales in Almost Every Branch of Business Connected with Civilized Life, from the Household to the Manufactory.
1873
Step One: “Skim” and mash 12 oz of potatoes. . . I assumed skim meant peel. No indication as to whether it should be seasoned or not, so I went ahead and put some butter and salt in it.
Step Two: Mix in an ounce of suet, an ounce of finely shredded cheese, and a gill of milk – which is equivalent to half a cup. There were further instructions to add water if the consistency wasn’t right, but considering I had no idea what the consistency was supposed to be, I left it as it was.
Step Three: Bake in an earthen pot. Yup. That was it. All the instructions. An earthen pot appears to be a pot made of clay, which I certainly do not have, so I went with cast iron instead. I figured 350 was probably a safe bet, and since there was so little of the. . .dough? Mixture? . . .I thought it would maybe take fifteen minutes to get done – whatever done might look like. Try more like 45 minutes. and even then it didn’t really look done, but a test stick came out clean plus the edges were brown, so I took it out.
Step Four: This isn’t really a step, but in case you were curious, the texture was like almost a gourmet mashed potato mixture. And, yes, I did do a sneak taste of it.
Verdict:
We strongly disagreed on this. I thought it was gross. It just tasted like. . .I don’t even know. Fatty potatoes? Maybe that was the issue. I could taste the suet, and didn’t like it – I generally don’t like the taste of fat. But Daniel loved it, polished off his plate and got more. He, unlike me, likes the taste of fat. Flynn made the best, most disgusted noise ever (hear it on Instagram), but then proceeded to take like five more bites before pushing it away. So apparently he was right between us on the verdict.
Have you ever cooked in an earthen pot? Made a savory pudding? Any idea if I got the texture correct?
Forest Idylls 