January can often be the coldest month of the year, and the Service Yard is pretty chilly.
When I woke up this morning there was ice on my wash jug. So today
I've decided to make one of the servants' favourite. A warming rabbit pudding.
For this recipe you will need...
Mushrooms.
Water.
Salt.
Suet.
Flour.
Thyme.
Bacon.
White wine.
Rabbit.
Minced parsley.
And stock.
I'm going to start by making a suet crust paste with the flour,
a pinch of salt
and the suet. Make sure you use good quality suet from the butcher.
In fact, you could buy kidneys and take the fat off yourself. That's what suet is.
I'm now going to add the water a little at a time to make a paste that's not too sticky.
This is a simple pudding, like all steamed suet puddings whether you use
veal or ham, or steak and kidney which I understand is growing popular.
Suet crust is one of the easiest pastries to make, and I always start the maids off with it first.
Now I'm going to take a third of it away and keep it for the lid and roll out the rest.
I'm going to dust the board down to stop it sticking.
I might start Annie the Scullery Maid making the pastry soon. It's about time she progressed.
She started last year at sixteen. We don't take girls at twelve straight from school.
They don't have the stamina. Or the experience.
I've already greased the bowl with butter and now I'll line it with the paste.
And now for the filling. I'm going to use mushrooms, some parsley,
a little thyme,
some bacon, and a rabbit that I have skinned and filleted.
Mr Barker the gamekeeper brings the rabbits he shoots, as they are pests.
I'm going to add a little flour, just to thicken the gravy.
And then into my pudding.
Now a little wine.
And some stock.
Now I'm going to make the lid. So I'll roll out the rest of the paste.
And just stick it together with a little bit of water.
I have here a cloth that is already damp that I'll sprinkle with flour to stop it sticking.
Leaving a pleat so it can expand.
I'm going to make a handle with the string.
And now it's ready to boil for at least an hour and a half.
And now it's ready.
All I need to do now is to take the cloth off.
Which you must do straight away to stop it sticking.
And I'm now going to cut just a small hole in the top otherwise the pudding will become heavy.
If I was serving this to the Upper Servants I might give it a minute or two in the oven
just to brown off. But as I'm serving it to the Service Hall I'll leave it as it is.
There we are. Rabbit pudding.