CURRANT DUMPLINGS

The Book of Household Management · Beeton, Mrs. (Isabella Mary) · 1861

Source: The Book of Household Management
Yield: 6.0 – 7.0 persons
Status: success · extracted 13 days ago
Not a recipe: No

Ingredients (8)

Dumplings

1 lb. of flour ↝ Flour, 00 [Cereal Grains and Pasta]
6 oz. of suet ↝ Beef, variety meats and by-products, suet, raw [Beef Products]
1/2 lb. of currants ↝ Currants, european black, raw [Fruits and Fruit Juices]
rather more than 1/2 pint of water ↝ Water, tap [Tap water]
use milk ↝ Milk, NFS [Milk, reduced fat]

Serving

a cut lemon ↝ Lemon, raw [Citrus fruits]
cold butter ↝ Butter, stick, unsalted [Dairy and Egg Products]
sifted sugar ↝ Sugar, NFS [Sugars and honey]

Instructions (6)

Chop the suet finely, mix it with the flour, and add the currants, which should be nicely washed, picked, and dried.
Mix the whole to a limp paste with the water (if wanted very nice, use milk).
Divide it into 7 or 8 dumplings.
Tie them in cloths, and boil for 1-1/4 hour.
They may be boiled without a cloth: they should then be made into round balls, and dropped into boiling water, and should be moved about at first, to prevent them from sticking to the bottom of the saucepan.
Serve with a cut lemon, cold butter, and sifted sugar.

Original Text

CURRANT DUMPLINGS.

1264. INGREDIENTS.—1 lb. of flour, 6 oz. of suet, 1/2 lb. of currants, rather more than 1/2 pint of water.

Mode.—Chop the suet finely, mix it with the flour, and add the currants, which should be nicely washed, picked, and dried; mix the whole to a limp paste with the water (if wanted very nice, use milk); divide it into 7 or 8 dumplings; tie them in cloths, and boil for 1-1/4 hour. They may be boiled without a cloth: they should then be made into round balls, and dropped into boiling water, and should be moved about at first, to prevent them from sticking to the bottom of the saucepan. Serve with a cut lemon, cold butter, and sifted sugar.

Time.—In a cloth, 1-1/4 hour; without, 3/4 hour.

Average cost, 9 d.

Sufficient for 6 or 7 persons.

Seasonable at any time.

[Illustration: ZANTE CURRANTS.]

ZANTE CURRANTS.—The dried fruit which goes by the name of currants in grocers' shops is not a currant really, but a small kind of grape, chiefly cultivated in the Morea and the Ionian Islands, Corfu, Zante, &c. Those of Zante are cultivated in an immense plain, under the shelter of mountains, on the shore of the island, where the sun has great power, and brings them to maturity. When gathered and dried by the sun and air, on mats, they are conveyed to magazines, heaped together, and left to cake, until ready for shipping. They are then dug out by iron crowbars, trodden into casks, and exported. The fertile vale of "Zante the woody" produces about 9,000,000 lbs. of currants annually. In cakes and puddings this delicious little grape is most extensively used; in fact, we could not make a plum pudding without the currant.

Notes

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