To that end she has written a cookbook covering the history of British puddings as well as recipes for all sorts of, sometimes long-forgotten puddings — Sack Posset or Quaking pudding anyone?
"It’s a joyously eccentric, visually extraordinary ode to the British pudding," she says of her recipe book, Pride and Pudding.
Ysewijn, who is from Belgium, gave up her day job to do the historical research, something she has not regretted.
"There are plenty of books with exciting new recipes, but I think it is important to revive historical cookery, which is equally — if not more — special because it was lovingly prepared and refined so long ago."
Each recipe, from the more common haggis and toad in the hole to bakewell pudding and Queen pudding, comes with an explanation of its history and quotes from original texts.
She ploughed through about 200 books, some historical and some written about history or people. She bought antique cookbooks she could not find in libraries or online and collected original moulds in which many of the puddings have been made in through the ages.
"They enabled me to translate the historical recipes into workable recipes for today’s cook."
While some of the recipes feature bone marrow, suet or offal, she says, not to be deterred.
"Be adventurous and savour with an open mind."
Her work as a Belgian author writing about British pudding made for a good story, not only in Britain but in Europe, Australia and America.
"When Downton Abby needed someone to write about British sweet treats for a book inspired by the show, I accepted and put pen to paper."
The book
This is an extract from Pride & Pudding by Regula Ysewijn, photography by Regula Ysewijn. Murdoch Books. RRP $60.
True origins of this dessert classic unknown
Trinity burnt cream is a pudding that, according to legend, first appeared in 1617 at Trinity College in Cambridge; however, even the college can’t trace the pudding as far back as 1617. The first recipe for a burnt cream — or creme brulee, as it is known in France — appeared in the French book Nouveau Cuisinier Royal et Bourgeois (Francoise Massialot) in 1691. Yet by the 1731 edition of this book the name had changed to Creme Anglaise. Maybe this dish was most popular in England, or maybe it originated in England after all. The earliest recipe for a burnt cream in an English cookery book I have found is from The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary written in 1723 by John Nott. However, Jane Grigson, in English Food (1974) tells us that she had found a recipe for a burnt cream in a 17th-century manuscript, but unfortunately she doesn’t name the recipe book.
It is unclear where the dish originated, as recipes for Crema Catalana go back centuries as well. We will perhaps never know, or we can assume that it is only natural for any cook to try out burning some sugar on top of the custard with a red hot salamander — a shovel-like instrument made hot in the fire and used to give dishes a fried top.
Although we associate a creme brulee or burnt cream with vanilla, these early recipes never use it. In these recipes the cream is flavoured with candied peel and sometimes orange flower water.
Historic recipe
BURNT CREAM
Take yolks of four or five eggs, beat them well in a stew-pan with a little flour; pouring on milk by degrees to the quantity of a quart; then put in a small stick of cinnamon, some candy’d and green lemon-peel cut small. Set the cream on the furnace, stir it continually, that it does not stick to the bottom. When it is boil’d, set a dish upon the furnace, and pour the cream into it, and let it boil again, ’till it sticks to the side of the dish; then set it aside, and sugar it well on the top; heat the fire-shovel red hot, and brown the cream with it to give it a fine golden colour.
— John Nott, The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary, 1723
Trinity burnt cream
Makes enough for six 150ml ramekins
6 egg yolks
1tsp plain (all-purpose) flour or rice flour
800mlmilk
1 cinnamon stick
1tsp chopped candied lemon peel
Method
Preheat the oven to 180degC.
Whisk the egg yolks thoroughly in a large bowl and stir in the flour. Boil water in a kettle or saucepan so you have hot water at hand.
Put the milk in a saucepan over low heat with the cinnamon and chopped lemon peel. Bring to a simmer, then when the milk starts to bubble, remove the saucepan from the heat.
Take out the cinnamon stick. You can strain out the candied peel too, if you like, but I never do and quite enjoy a bit of peel here and there.
Pour a small amount of warm milk into the egg yolks and whisk thoroughly. This prepares the yolk for the hot liquid and will prevent it from curdling. Gradually add the rest of the milk, whisking constantly until it is all incorporated.
Place the ramekins in a large baking dish and pour in enough hot water to come about 1.5cm up the sides. Now pour or spoon the warm custard mixture into the ramekins, filling them up right to the top. If a foam develops, skim it off with a spoon.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 50 minutes or until the mixture is set, but has a gentle wobble. Carefully and cautiously lift the ramekins out of the baking dish and place them on a rack to cool.
Transfer them to the fridge when cooled, until you need them. When you are ready to serve, gently spread a teaspoon of sugar over each custard and then get out your kitchen blowtorch. Gently burn the sugar by holding the flame just above it and moving the torch around until the sugar is caramelised.
Likely an English invention
The apple charlotte is a relative of the summer pudding. Both are puddings made in a mould lined with slices of bread, and both hold some kind of fruit. It is said that the apple charlotte is named after Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III, who might have been the patron of the apple growers.
Some have claimed this pudding was invented by the French chef Careme in 1802, and that he published a recipe for "charlotte a la parisienne" and later changed it to "charlotte russe" when he worked for Tsar Alexander of Russia; however, in that same year a recipe for charlotte of apples was published by John Mollard (The Art of Cookery Made Easy and Refined, 1802). Moreover, Careme only published his first book in 1815, not 1802, and as far as I know the pudding does not appear in it. In 1802 Careme was an 18-year-old apprentice, working for a pastry chef who encouraged him to learn to read and write. Hardly a time at which he would write a book.
Although the earliest recipe in print I could find is John Mollard’s, it is very possible this pudding did appear earlier in manuscript recipe books. What we do know is that it is more likely that the apple charlotte is an English invention after all.
John Mollard instructs the cook to make a pulp of apples, stewed with brandy, a little quince syrup, apricot jam and dried cherries. Mary Eaton, in The Cook and Housekeeper’s Dictionary (1822), uses thinly sliced apples, layered with butter and a little sugar until the mould is full. Mollard tells us to dip the bread in butter, while Eaton omits that step.
Historic recipe
CHARLOTTE OF APPLES
Stew some apples with a bit of fresh butter, a little syrup of quinces, half a pound of apricot jam, and half a gill of brandy; rub all through a hair- sieve, add a few dried cherries, and put into a mould lined with bread cut in diamonds of four inches square and half an inch thick, and previously dipped in oiled butter. Cover with slices of bread, likewise dipped in butter, bake of a light colour, and sift sugar over.
— John Mollard, The Art of Cookery Made Easy and Refined, 1802
Apple Charlotte
Makes 1 charlotte mould or 16 x 10 x 7.5 cm loaf (bar) tin
3 cooking apples, such as granny Smith or Bramley, about 500g, peeled and cored
5 tablespoons apricot jam
60ml (¼ cup) brandy or dark rum
1 loaf of stale plain white bread, about 550g
50g butter,
melted sugar, for sprinkling
Method
Preheat the oven to 190degC. Place a disc or strip of baking paper in the bottom.
Chop up the apples and put them in a saucepan with the apricot jam and brandy. Cook until soft and pulpy. You might need a splash of water to prevent the apples from burning. Allow to cool in the pan.
Cut thick slices of bread in 5cm-wide rectangles the same height as the side of the mould and use a pastry brush to generously coat them with the melted butter. Place the bread in the mould, overlapping the edges a little so there are no gaps. Finally, put a disc or strip of bread on to the bottom of the mould, making sure there are no gaps.
Scoop the apple mixture into the bread-lined mould, then close the top with a final few slices of buttered bread and sprinkle some sugar on top.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 30-40 minutes until golden brown, as you prefer your toast. When ready to serve, turn the mould on to a plate and allow to stand for 5 minutes before attempting to remove the mould.
Serve with clotted cream , brown bread ice cream , vanilla ice cream, or custard sauce for the custard lovers.
Toad-in-the-hole down through the ages
Hannah Glasse, who came up with the term Yorkshire pudding in 1747, also had a recipe in her book The Art of Cookery for pigeons in a hole. It was basically a toad-in-the-hole using whole pigeons rather than bangers (sausages).
Fifty years later the novelist Fanny Burney mentions the trend for putting a noble sirloin of beef into a poor, paltry batter pudding! (Diary and Letters of Madame D’Arblay, December 1797). Sausages were being used in this manner as well; in the mid-18th century the diarist Thomas Turner mentions that he dined on a sausage batter pudding (February 9, 1765).
Richard Briggs, in The English Art of Cookery (1788), is the first instance I can find that actually names the dish toad-in-the-hole, although his version uses beef.
Alexis Soyer gives not one but 11 versions of a toad-in-the-hole in A Shilling Cookery for the People (1854), his book aimed at the working classes. The first uses trimmings of either beef, mutton, veal, or lamb, not too fatty; then there is a plain version with potatoes, and one with peas. Further, he suggests to use calves’ brains; larks or sparrows; ox cheek or sheep’s head; a rabbit; the remains of a previously cooked hare; a blade-bone of pork; and finally the remains of salt pork.
The next mention I wish to share with you comes from the Italian Pelegrino Artusi. He mentions a recipe for toad-in-the-hole in La Scienza in Cucina e l’Arte di Mangiare Bene (1891). The recipe is called twice-cooked meat English style (lesso rifatto all’inglese) and in his description he mentions that toad-in-the-hole is the name of this twice-cooked meat. He also goes on to explain that it is a delicious dish and it would be an insult to call it a toad. Artusi had a great sense of humour and that is something you can see in his introductions to his recipes. However, the toad-in-the-hole he mentions is not for a sausage cooked in batter, but uses meat for boiling, sliced and browned on both sides.
What becomes clear is that the toad-in-the-hole is a popular dish to use up leftovers at this period in time. Mary Jewry gives three recipes for toad-in-the-hole in her book, Warne’s Every Day Cookery: one for a batter pudding with a veal-stuffed chicken, one with rump steak and one to use up cold roast mutton.
During the war years, people were instructed to cook toad-in-the-hole using Spam rather than the (by then) more commonly used sausage. Today the dish has become so connected with British food culture it is no wonder references can be found as early as the mid-1700s.
Toad-in-the-hole is now a favourite dish of small and tall: every child loves a banger, and every grown-up likes to be transported back to his or her childhood. It now features on the menus of laid-back pubs and restaurants, which prepare it with posh locally sourced bangers. And a festive Bonfire Night, too, wouldn’t be the same without it.
Toad in the hole
Serves 3-4
Ingredients
3 or 4 good-quality pork sausages
Sunflower oil or clarified butter, for frying
A few sprigs of rosemary (optional)
1 quantity Yorkshire pudding batter
Method
Preheat the oven to 250degC.
Fry the sausages in sunflower oil or clarified butter in a frying pan until nearly cooked through.
Pour 1cm of sunflower oil, clarified butter, lard or tallow into a baking tray or cake tin and set it in the middle of the hot oven. Place a larger tray underneath in case the oil drips; you don’t want extra cleaning and a smoky kitchen afterwards.
When the oil is hot (you will see it spitting), arrange the sausages in the tray along with any oil or butter remaining in the frying pan.
Carefully but swiftly pour the batter into the hot oil, stick in the rosemary sprigs, if using, and close the oven door.
Bake for 20-25 minutes without opening the oven until the pudding is puffed up and nicely coloured.
Serve with mustard, braised red cabbage, jacket potatoes or mashed potato and caramelised onions, if you like.
Yorkshire pudding
Serves 4-6 people
110g (¾ cup) plain (all-purpose) flour
a pinch of salt
280ml milk
3 eggs
sunflower oil, clarified butter, lard or tallow, for frying
Method
Proceed by creating the batter as you would for a pancake batter, adding the flour and pinch of salt to the milk and eggs, making sure there are no lumps.
I find that the pudding improves if you leave the batter to rest for 30 minutes or so before cooking.
Preheat the oven to 250degC .
Pour 1cm of sunflower oil, clarified butter, lard or tallow into a baking dish or cake tin and set it in the middle of the hot oven.
Place a larger tray underneath in case the oil drips; you don’t want extra cleaning and a smoky kitchen afterwards.
When the oil is hot (you will see it spitting), carefully but swiftly pour the batter into the hot oil and close the oven door.
Bake for 20-25 minutes without opening the oven until the pudding is puffed up and nicely coloured.
