Hunters' Pudding

Ingredients

• 1 cup suet, finely chopped
• 1 cup molasses
• 1 cup milk
• 3 cups flour
• 1 tsp soda
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 0.5 tsp clove
• 0.5 tsp mace
• 0.5 tsp allspice
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1.5 cups raisins
• 2 tbsp flour (for dredging)

Method

The suet pudding method depends on breaking down the fat thoroughly. Work the chopped suet with a wooden spoon or your fingertips until it's almost creamy — this distributes it evenly through the batter instead of leaving pockets of grease. Warm the molasses slightly (it pours more freely at blood heat) and combine it with the suet, then add the milk. The mixture should look almost homogenous at this stage, though it won't be perfectly smooth.

Sift the flour with the soda, salt, cinnamon, allspice, mace, and clove into a separate bowl. The soda is your chemical leavening; combined with the acidic molasses, it creates carbon dioxide that leavens the pudding during steaming. Add the dry ingredients to the wet in two additions, folding gently with a spatula until just combined. Overmixing develops gluten, which tightens the crumb and fights the tender, almost custard-like texture a suet-pudding demands.

Toss the raisins with the 2 tablespoons of flour — this prevents them sinking to the bottom during steaming by increasing friction within the batter. Fold them in last. Transfer to a buttered pudding mould or basin (a 1.5-litre ceramic bowl works well). If the basin has a fitted lid, use it; otherwise, cover tightly with buttered parchment, then foil, securing it underneath the rim with string. This seal prevents condensation dripping back into the pudding.

Steam for 2.5 to 3 hours over a rolling boil. Fill the steamer pot with enough water that it won't need topping up — the pudding is done when a fine skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean, with no batter clinging to it. Turn it out immediately onto a warm plate, running a knife around the inside of the basin first if it sticks. The pudding will have risen and developed a mahogany surface where it touched the mould. Serve warm, with custard or a treacle sauce. The spice notes — particularly the clove and mace — emerge most clearly once the pudding has cooled slightly, so don't serve it scalding.