To Make A Good Pudding

This pudding recipe hails from the 17th century, specifically from manuscript V.a.8 associated with L. Cromwell, dating back to the 1600s in England. During this period, enriched bread puddings using dairy, eggs, spices, and aromatics were considered luxurious and festive dishes, often enjoyed by well-off households. The use of rosewater and delicate spices like mace and nutmeg reveals the cook’s access to imported luxuries—a marker of wealth and status. Puddings of this kind represent the English love of both custard and bread-based desserts, precursors to our modern bread and butter puddings. This deliciously perfumed dish would likely have been served as a sweet course amidst lavish banquets or family feasts.

Back in the day, this pudding would be made in a large hearth kitchen. The cook would use a heavy saucepan or cauldron to boil cream over an open fire, a sharp knife for slicing the loaf, and a large bowl or pan (typically of pewter, wood, or pottery) for assembling and soaking the bread. Mixing would be done with a wooden spoon or hand whisk, and the pudding itself might be boiled in a cloth ('pudding cloth') or baked in a ceramic or metal basin set in a water bath near the fire or in a wood-fired oven. Straining the rosewater from the spices would require a fine cloth or sieve.