Ginger Pudding

I made a Ginger Pudding this evening from a recipe found in a little cook booklet from 1910 called "Home Helps: A Pure Food Cook Book." It was published by the makers of Cottolene, a brand of shortening produced from 1868 to the mid 20th century, so it has advertisements throughout (or rather, testimonials), as well as a majority of recipes that require some sort of shortening. Grandmother bought the booklet at an antique fair because while she was looking at it there, she opened it to the page with Ginger Pudding and thought it sounded good :) Incidentally, this recipe doesn't require shortening.

So here we go:

Ginger Pudding (by Mrs. Armstrong)

Mix together thoroughly one and one-half cups of flour, one teaspoon each of ginger and soda, one cup molasses, two-thirds cup of boiling water and one beaten egg. Steam one hour in a tube pan, and serve with either hard of liquid pudding sauce.

I mixed the dry ingredients together before I added the rest. Just seemed like good form. And I set my oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit and put a jelly-roll pan of boiling water underneath my tube pan for the "steam" part. Not sure if that was what they were going for, but it worked out. I also used mini tube pans instead of one big one, and my pudding only needed to cook for 10 minutes!











I found a recipe later on in the pudding section that I think corresponds with the "pudding sauce" mentioned, though maybe Mrs. Armstrong didn't have a particular sauce in mind. At any rate, this is what I used:

Creamy Sauce and Hard Sauce (by Mrs. Lincoln)

Cream one-fourth cup of butter, add slowly one-half to one cup powdered sugar, beat in gradually two tablespoons rich fruit syrup, or wine, or any fresh fruit juice, and two to four tablespoons thick cream (whipped or not, as you have time). Serve hot by standing bowl over boiling water just before serving, and stirring only till melted and creamy. Or, serve cold; or, if for hard sauce, omit cream and pack it into dish for serving and chill till firm.

I added orange juice to mine and not as much powdered sugar as she suggests. It seems to be more of a spread than a sauce, but I suppose if you served it hot, the butter would melt, making it more of a liquid.

It was so good! The pudding and the sauce! I'm still wierded out that this cake-like thing is called a pudding, but it's not really a cake, either. It's a little more dense, and sponge-y, I guess. My only critique is that I think it needs more ginger. But it was so fun to make a recipe for the first time, from an iffy source, and have it turn out so well!