Dr Mobeus
Sussex Pond Pudding
Sussex pond pudding is one of the great theatre pieces of British cooking. A suet pastry is lined with butter and sugar, a whole lemon is placed inside, and after more than three hours of steaming you turn the pudding out and a warm pond of caramel and lemon sauce spills from the middle, which is where the name comes from. The lemon softens right through and can be sliced and eaten whole, skin and all, sharp and bittersweet against the sauce. It costs about £1.35 for six portions, uses store cupboard pastry basics plus one lemon, and it turns a plain Sunday roast into an occasion without anyone seeing the effort coming.
Sussex Pond Pudding
Ingredients
Method
- Mix the flour, suet and salt with enough cold water to form a soft, slightly sticky dough. Roll out two-thirds into a circle big enough to line a 1.2 litre buttered pudding basin, and the remaining third into a lid.
- Line the basin with the pastry, pressing out any cracks with floured fingers. Prick the lemon all over with a skewer or cocktail stick, right through to the middle, so it can release its juice as it cooks.
- Pile the butter cubes and half the sugar into the basin, sit the lemon on top and pack the rest of the sugar around it.
- Wet the pastry edges and press the lid on top, sealing it well so nothing can escape during the long steam. Cover with a pleated sheet of foil and tie with string.
- Steam for 3 hours 30 minutes in a pan of simmering water, keeping the water halfway up the basin and topping it up with boiling water as needed.
- Rest for 5 minutes, run a knife around the edge and turn the pudding out onto a deep plate. The lemon and buttery sugar melt into a pond of sauce that floods out around the sponge. Serve in bowls.
Tips and Variations
Vegetarian suet works exactly the same. The long steam is not optional, as an undercooked lemon stays hard and sharp. A spoon of golden syrup in with the sugar deepens the caramel if you have it. Leftovers steam back to life in 20 minutes the next day, and are arguably better for the wait.
