A Sunderland Pudding

History

A Sunderland Pudding is a plain baked batter pudding. Six eggs are whipped with only half of their whites, then beaten together with a pint of cream, a little salt, half a nutmeg, and four spoons of fine flour; the batter is poured into oiled or buttered pans, cups, or bowls, baked in a quick oven for an hour, and eaten with sweet sauce. Dropping half the whites and holding the flour to four spoons against a full pint of cream keeps the batter thin and rich, so it bakes light rather than dense, and setting it in small cups or bowls rather than one large dish yields individual portions with more risen, crisp surface. It belongs to the household family of egg-and-cream batter puddings baked quickly and finished with a sweet sauce.

The receipt appears in Amelia Simmons's American Cookery, the first cookbook written by an American — a book that leaned openly on English cookery, with entire chapters borrowed from Susannah Carter's Frugal Housewife. What the record does not keep is the reason for the name. Nothing in the recipe or in the sources consulted explains 'Sunderland': whether it marks a place, a person, or a household is simply not recorded, no source traces this particular preparation to an earlier book, and the similarly named nineteenth-century castle pudding is a separate, later dish rather than the same thing under another name. The method survives in full; the story behind its name does not.

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 1/2 nutmeg
• 1 pint cream
• salt
• 4 spoons fine flour
• oil or butter

Instructions

1. Whip 6 eggs using only half the whites.
2. Add half a nutmeg, a pint of cream, a little salt and 4 spoons fine flour.
3. Oil or butter pans, cups or bowls, pour in the batter, and bake in a quick oven one hour.
4. Serve with sweet sauce.