Suet puddings?

[Angstrom]

A couple of weeks ago I did try the Black Bun(currant loaf) recipe that Tobus kindly linked. It's now resting quietly and maturing. I'll report on how it came out after the holidays.

As Tobus did, I also felt that I should add more liquid than the recipe called for.

A thought on "traditional" recipes: It's good to remember that versions of these foods were being enjoyed long before uniform ingredients, standard measures, or calibrated ovens. Old cookbooks give general outlines for dishes, not precise formulas. Cooks made the best of what they had. The "that seems about right" approach is probably MORE authentic than following someone's recipe down to the last quarter-teaspoon.

[Pleater]

On BBC Radio 4 the other day there was a program about lard, and it seems that it isn't as bad for you as has been assumed - yes, assumed, because it appears that no one actually thought to do any tests when something was so obvious.

It turns out that the fat is composed of far less saturated fat than you might think - and the mono saturate in it is the same as olive oil.

A fresh fat such as pig rendering is the one to go for.

Take a strip of internal body fat and place it on a rack in a tin, then into a hot oven. Pour off the fat - if you have some small pottery or metal bowls you can measure it out into quarter pounds very easily on electronic scales.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[piperdbh]

In the American South, many people still collect the renderings (we call them "drippings") from bacon that has been fried, similar to what you've described, Anne.

[Tobus]

In the American South, many people still collect the renderings (we call them "drippings") from bacon that has been fried, similar to what you've described, Anne.

I didn't realise this was just a Southern thing. My mother did it, and my wife does it too. We always have a coffee can of bacon grease in the 'fridge, and use it for cooking. Any time we need to fry an egg, make a skillet of cornbread, or anything else that needs a little grease, we go immediately to the bacon grease can. Do folks elsewhere in the world just throw away their bacon grease?!

[Angstrom]

In most places, good fat is too valuable to throw away.

If you really want rendered fat, try roasting a goose. The amount that comes off is astonishing.

When I had a traditional meal in Denmark, goose grease was the spread used on black bread to prepare it for the pickled herring. Yum! Then a bit of aquavit to "help the fish swim", and repeat......

[Grizzly]

Goose fat is well known over here as the best fat to cook roast potatoes in. Most top chefs will roast potatoes with it.

[Pleater]

It is not usual to get much fat off bacon here - the pigs are bred and fed so as to produce a low fat carcase, and often the rind and subcutaneous fat is removed from the rashers before sale. Having taken note when watching some American TV food programs, the bacon is far fattier and the rashers far larger than any sold here.

To get 'leaf' pork fat here you have to seek it out from a butcher who cuts up his own carcases rather than buys prejointed meats from a processing unit. The fat from belly pork is softer and less brittle, and doesn't make the pastry as 'short' as leaf fat.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Dangerdean]

In the American South, many people still collect the renderings (we call them "drippings") from bacon that has been fried, similar to what you've described, Anne.

I use both bacon and renderings in peanut butter bacon chocolate chip cookies.

[usonian]

I'm late to the party, although I read this thread back when it first started and apparently it put a bee in my bonnet, because last night I went out and bought ingredients to make a Christmas pudding... something I've been meaning to try for years and never gotten around to. I missed "Stir up Sunday" but I figure if I make it this weekend it will still have adequate time to mature.

I decided to try Nigella Lawson's recipe because the ingredient list is more manageable than many I've seen, and because I have had some excellent desserts prepared from other recipes by her. I'd love to track down some suet, but as my sister is a vegetarian I will probably use frozen, grated crisco. Now I just need to lay my hands on some Pedro Ximenez sherry.

[Angstrom]

Good luck! Let us know how it comes out.

I had to laugh at the notes to the recipe. The puddings I've made have certainly been moist, but "light" was not a word I'd ever use....