To Make A Very Good Pudding

This recipe dates to approximately 1706, reflecting early 18th-century English domestic cookery. Puddings of this period ranged from savory to sweet, often relying on simple, available ingredients such as bread, cream, and suet to create comforting, hearty dishes. The inclusion of rosewater and nutmeg hints at the lingering influence of medieval and Renaissance flavors, prized for their aromatic qualities. Recipes like this were commonly written for household cooks and gently guided them toward a pleasing balance of texture and flavor, relying on visual and tactile cues rather than precise timings or temperatures.

This pudding would have been made with basic kitchen implements: a large bowl for mixing, a coarse grater for preparing the bread and suet, a sieve for sifting the crumbs, a wooden spoon for stirring, and a well-buttered shallow bake dish (likely earthenware or tin). Baking would have taken place in a hearth oven or a closed beehive oven, monitored by intuition and trained experience rather than thermometers.