Making Miss Beecher’s ‘Apple Lemon Pudding’ from 1848

Last week I posted Miss Beecher’s 1848 recipe for ‘An Apple Lemon Pudding’ and declared that I would definitely be having a go at this one myself. Well, for once, I’ve actually followed through on my culinary promise. Earlier this week I bought the lemons, set aside the time in the kitchen, rolled up my sleeves and got on with it.

I did have an double-incentive to try this one out. For one: it’s gluten free, and both myself and my beloved are afflicted with such a dietary necessity¹In her case, for medical reasons. In mine, I have to admit, most likely because after 20 years off the wheat, if I eat the stuff now it cramps me up for hours afterwards. I might even have an actual allergy myself, I don’t know, I haven’t been tested. But I definitely have an aversion / intolerance by now.. For two: both my beloved and I do love a properly lemon-flavoured lemon pudding, but most of the “lemon” treats that you come across are sweetened beyond belief, just in case someone actually tastes something sharp or sour and the sky falls on all our heads as a result.²Our near-constant refrain when sampling a lemon dessert is “yeah, not bad… but not enough lemon”..

This, though, looked like a recipe I could really get on board with, and by Jove, I did. The results were… well, I’ll tell you at the end of this post. But in the meantime, if you’d like to cook along, here’s what you’ll need:

Ingredients

• Three to five (depending on size), unwaxed lemons. I went with four smallish ones.
• Three medium-sized apples. I opted for ‘Royal Jubilee’, a sharp-ish cooker, but if you wanted to sweeten the dessert up a bit, you could use dessert apples instead.
• Six medium to large eggs. Mine were “assorted sizes”, but maybe you could leave one out if yours are quite large.
• 200g of unsalted butter.
• Sugar to taste.

That’s all the ingredients original recipe calls for, although see below for a few thoughts on potential flavour enhancements.

Method

First, grate the lemons. This, I don’t mind admitting, was the trickiest part. The recipe calls for whole lemons, “pulp, rind, and juice, all grated”, and I opted to use a box grater. Which took me ages, lemons being juicy and therefore a bit slippery and difficult to hang onto whilst grating. I did end up with a decent amount of grated pulp though.³I’m sure if I’d blitzed them to a similar texture in a food processor it would have been quicker, but the end results might have been a lot mushier. Please do let me know how you get on if you decide to go that way.

Next, grate the apples. Much easier. The original recipe calls for “six spoonfuls”, without specifying the size of spoon. I assumed a table spoon, judged the first apple to be about two heaped table-spoonfuls, and so I grated another two.

Normally, you’re advised to add chopped or grated apples to lemon juice or acidulated water, in order to stop them browning. As luck would have it, I happened to have a bowl of grated lemon pulp to hand, so in the grated apples went.

Next, gently melt the 200g of butter and ensure the eggs are “well beaten”. The recipe calls for seven, but I remember reading somewhere that eggs were generally a bit smaller in the nineteenth century, and so I just used a pack of six. They were indeed well beaten, with a fork, although a hand-mixer is also an option.

At this stage, the “sugar to taste” element comes into play. Now, I didn’t want to over-sweeten my first attempt at this pudding – as per my previous comment re: far too-sugary lemon desserts – and so I just added a generous dessert-spoonful of honey to the butter as it was melting, and left it at that. Please see ‘The Verdict’, below, for my thoughts on that decision.

And then, mix everything together.

Now the potentially tricky part: cooking the pudding. Miss Beecher’s recipe just says “bake with or without paste” – paste being pastry, which I decided to do without on this occasion – obviously assuming that her audience would know exactly what was required. I had no idea, but searching around online I found a similar-sounding egg custard recipe that suggested cooking bain-marie style, for around 45 minutes in a low oven at about 150°C (300°F) / 130°C (266°F) fan. I hedged my bets a bit, setting my old and slightly unreliable fan oven to 140°C. I poured the pudding mixture into a glass dish, put that on top of a larger casserole dish with a couple of inches of boiling water poured into the bottom, and set a timer for 40 minutes.

As luck – and I do mean sheer, dumb luck – would have it, this turned out to be the perfect cooking temperature and time. When I checked on it the pudding was set, but not over-set, and the top was lightly browned, but not over-browned. Just like this:

It looked great to me and I couldn’t wait to try it.

The Verdict, Part One

There’s no elegant way to serve Miss Beecher’s Apple Lemon Pudding, at least not when it’s still warm out of the oven. I did sample a bit as I was plating up and wow, was it lemony. Also, if I’m completely honest, I could tell that it just a little bit too sharp, sour and bitter, even for us. And so I caved and added a dribble of maple syrup to the top before I presented it to my beloved.

Her verdict on the flavour: very lemony. Definitely lemony enough. But she agreed that it really did need that drizzle of syrup – but not too much – just to turn sharp-sour into sharp-sweet. Her suggestion – heartily agreed with by myself – was a dollop of chantilly cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side, just to take the edge off. Or, if you’re really not in the market for this sort of acid-forward flavour profile, you could add in a couple of table-spoonfuls of sugar when you melt the butter; that should do the trick. And if you wanted to spice it up a bit, I think you could also add a light dusting of nutmeg or cinnamon to the top before baking, rice pudding style.

Texture-wise, it was indeed similar to an egg custard, but not quite as solidly-set. The grated apple still had a little bite to it, which added a gentle crunch, and some of the lemon rind pieces were still detectable as well, but not unpleasantly so. It reminded me a bit of Eliza Acton’s Essex Pudding, but it had a bit more bite to it, as the apples here were grated rather than a compote.

All in all, once I got used to the up-front whack of lemon flavour, it was really quite pleasant.

The Verdict, Part Two

After 24 hours in the fridge the apple lemon pudding had, as you’d expect, set into a much firmer texture.

Flavour-wise, straight out of the fridge, those sour-sharp lemon notes were still strong, but a bit muted by the lower temperature, and a bit more palatable as a result. At this point, I think that the aforementioned chantilly cream or vanilla ice cream combination would really come into its own. In fact, I suspect we’ll be trying just that later today. I’ll bung in a quick edit if we do, to let you know the final verdict.

I really enjoyed making and sampling this mid-nineteenth century recipe, despite the marathon lemon-grating session, and would definitely make it again. Next time, I think I might add in a splash of vanilla extract and perhaps a bit of spice – ginger or sweet cinnamon – to the mix, just to round out and compliment the lemon flavour.

How about you? Do you like the sound of Miss Beecher’s Apple Lemon Pudding? Will you be giving it a go? If you do try it, please do let me know how you get on, especially if you adapt the recipe, via the comments, or email me with notes and photos of your own Apple Lemon puddings. I’d love to hear from you.

Footnotes

• 1
  In her case, for medical reasons. In mine, I have to admit, most likely because after 20 years off the wheat, if I eat the stuff now it cramps me up for hours afterwards. I might even have an actual allergy myself, I don’t know, I haven’t been tested. But I definitely have an aversion / intolerance by now. ↩︎
• 2
  Our near-constant refrain when sampling a lemon dessert is “yeah, not bad… but not enough lemon”. ↩︎
• 3
  I’m sure if I’d blitzed them to a similar texture in a food processor it would have been quicker, but the end results might have been a lot mushier. Please do let me know how you get on if you decide to go that way. ↩︎