17^th century

Devonshire White-pot

Recipes for white-pots appear in most seventeenth and eighteenth century cookery books. ‘Pot’ meant pudding in Devon dialect but, after a while, the pudding became connected to Devon in name too. Gervase Markham mentions, in his early seventeenth century book The English Huswife, that pots are puddings in the West Country. A Devonshire white-pot is a sweet, buttery bread pudding – though sometimes rice is used – set with custard and layered with raisins or other dried fruits. It is usually flavoured with sugar and lightly spiced with nutmeg and sometimes mace. The bread was either used in slices, or as breadcrumbs. Some recipes call for soaking the bread then whisking it with the egg and cream mixture while others say to lay the bread in the basin and pour the egg and cream mixture over it. Yet another version is made by making layers of bread, fruit and spices, and then covering it with the egg and cream mixture.

To make a Devonshire White-pot.

Take a pint of Cream and straine four Eggs into it, and put a little Salt and a little sliced Nutmeg, and season it with Sugar somewhat sweet; then take almost a penny Loaf of fine bread sliced very thin, and put it into a Dish that will hold it, the Cream and the Eggs being put to it; then take a handfull of Raisins of the Sun being boyled, and a little sweet Butter, so bake it.

W.M., The Compleat Cook, 1658

The eighteenth century book, The Ladies Companion (1743), has a chapter on white-pots: it is tiny, with just two recipes, but apparently the author found it important enough to place these two recipes under a separate heading. One white-pot is made in a puff pastry base, while the other is made with rice.

Another white-pot version comes from Yorkshire. Place a layer of bread in the basin, then add thinly cut slices of apple, a layer of spices and raisins, then the bread again until your basin is full, then pour the egg and cream mixture over. This was a recipe originally from 1769, given by May Byron in her fabulous book, Pot-luck (1932), a collection of regional recipes of Britain. Sadly, she does not mention the sources of her recipes, only that they come from family manuscript books, so it is hard to track down the originals.

This pudding is best with day-old bread, not stale but not super-fresh.

Cooking over a fire? Use the Dutch oven method:
Place the pudding basin on a trivet in the base of the Dutch oven and cover with the lid. Fire the coals and let them go grey, then stand the oven on a trivet over the coals and place some of the coals on the Dutch oven lid. You can use a barbecue for this: just place the grill plate close to the coals and set the Dutch oven on top. As fire is unpredictable I can’t give you an exact cooking time, but check after 30 minutes: if the pudding isn’t already well on its way, the coals aren’t hot enough and you will have to add some new ones. Use your intuition for this.

Makes 1 pudding in a 16 cm (6¼ inch/No. 36) basin (mould)

butter, softened, for spreading and greasing

500 ml (17 fl oz/2 cups) thick (double) cream

½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

a pinch of salt

2 large eggs

1 large egg yolk

40 g (1½ oz) raw sugar

1 loaf of white bread (stale brioche works well), sliced

100 g (3½ oz) raisins or currants, soaked in water or rum overnight

Preheat the oven to 140°C (275°F). Generously grease the pudding basin with butter.

Put the cream in a medium saucepan with the nutmeg and salt and bring to a simmer, then remove from the heat and allow to stand for a minute or two. In a bowl, whisk the eggs and egg yolk with the sugar and gradually add the warm cream a little at a time, whisking constantly, to make a custard. Let the custard cool slightly, while you take the crusts off the slices of bread, and butter them on one side only.

Begin the layering of the pudding by placing the first piece of bread, butter side down, in the basin, then adding a layer of currants or raisins, followed by a layer of bread until the basin is filled halfway.

Now pour in half the custard and continue making layers of bread and fruit until the basin is almost filled, with room for one more layer of bread. Pour in the remaining custard.

Finally place the last layer of bread, leaving a small hole for the steam to get out. Place the pudding basin on a trivet in a Dutch oven or cast-iron ovenproof pot and cover with the lid.

Bake in the middle of the oven for 30–40 minutes until the bread is a beautiful golden brown.

Serve with vanilla ice cream, or icy cream, or clotted cream, which is always a winner.