Mutton Pudding

Pouding de mouton (mutton pudding) teaches the discipline of a sealed basin. Once the suet crust closes around the seasoned meat and its little measure of water, gentle moist heat does the rest. The one true thing to know before you touch the pot is this: the seal is the dish. Leave a weak seam and the liquor escapes; close it well, and mutton, salt, pepper, and time make their own deep gravy.

The book sent its cooks straight to Steak Pudding (No. 1170), a brigade-size formula with two pounds of flour, chopped beef kidney fat, a dome mould, a buttered pudding cloth, and someone available to mind the boiling pot. This home version takes one basin-size portion of that same stiff paste, lines a 1½-quart basin, replaces the cloth with buttered parchment and foil, and cooks in an ordinary lidded pot. The scale and covering changed because one cook needs four portions and dependable household equipment. The paste ratio, quarter-inch thickness, plain filling, tight seal, and four-hour cooking remain. Those are the pudding itself.

Turned out, the pouding is a pale, generous dome with tender mutton and glossy amber liquor waiting beneath the first cut. Cooking well is not cooking fancy. Give your full attention to moistening and pinching the lid firmly onto the lining; after that, one cook, one stove, one evening will carry it home.