Suet Pudding Recipe: Tips for Making Suet Pudding

Suet pudding is an eighteenth-century British steamed cake or pastry made with grated beef suet—the raw, hard fat found around the kidneys and loins of cows—instead of butter or oil. Chefs and home cooks typically mix the suet-flecked dough with dried fruit or wrap it around a sweet or savory filling.

While you can boil or bake suet pudding, steaming is the most traditional preparation method.

The earliest suet puddings were plain or studded with dried fruit and probably resembled steamed dumplings. Cooks eventually started using the rich dough as an outer crust for all kinds of fillings. Here are some of the most popular types of suet pudding:

1. 1. Apple hat: This sweet steamed pudding features a filling of chopped sweetened apples.
2. 2. Christmas pudding: Traditional Christmas pudding features dried or candied fruits and spices like ginger, dates, and orange in a suet-based dough.
3. 3. Jam roly-poly: This rolled suet pudding features a swirl of jam, similar to a Swiss roll or rugelach.
4. 4. Spotted dick: Like Christmas pudding, spotted dick doesn’t have a filling. Instead, the dried currants and lemon get folded into the cake-like batter.
5. 5. Steak and kidney pudding: This savory suet pudding features a filling of chopped beef and gravy.
6. 6. Sussex Pond pudding: This buttery steamed pudding has a whole lemon as its filling.
7. 7. Treacle pudding: Traditionally made with suet and breadcrumbs, this steamed cake gets its flavor from treacle, also known as golden syrup. Learn how to make treacle pudding at home.

Use these tips to master this classic steamed cake:

1. 1. Use a suet alternative. If you’re having trouble finding suet at your local grocery store or prefer a vegetarian option, vegetable shortening is an effective substitute. Simply freeze the vegetable shortening until it is firm (twenty to thirty minutes) before shredding and incorporating it into the pudding mixture.
2. 2. Experiment with ingredients. You can make this adaptable dish with a wide variety of ingredients. Incorporate various dried and candied fruits into the pudding, add nuts, or incorporate your favorite meats such as chicken or venison.
3. 3. Make single-serving puddings. For a quick-cooking dish, divide the pudding mixture among ramekins and top the puddings with sauce after steaming. Due to their smaller size, these puddings will cook much faster than the family-sized pudding.
4. 4. Serve it with something sweet. Dessert suet puddings often aren’t that sweet on their own. Serve your pudding with caramel sauce, crème anglaise, or vanilla ice cream for extra sweetness.