Sussex Pond Pudding

Sussex pond pudding is a warm pudding from Sussex in southern England. Butter and sugar are wrapped in a dough and cooked, and when it is cut open, the melted sauce spreads across the plate. The way it spreads across the plate brings to mind the “pond” in its name.

A pond that appears when you cut it

Some of the best-known methods today include a whole lemon. A dough mixed with suet, the fat from around beef kidneys, is used to line a basin, and butter, sugar and a lemon with holes pierced in its skin are placed inside before the dough lid is added. Cooking it slowly for a long time melts the butter and sugar, which mix with the juice and the aroma of the peel released from the lemon. The thick crust is cut and eaten together with the sauce that flows out.

The example introduced in Jane Grigson’s 1974 cookbook “English Food” also includes one whole lemon. The dough uses chopped beef suet, and diced butter and sugar are placed inside, enclosing the lemon. After it is tied up in a cloth and cooked, it is turned out of the basin and cut at the table. The sweet sauce inside flows out onto the plate.

Adding rosewater or wrapping apples

Hannah Woolley’s 17th-century cookbook “The Queen-Like Closet” includes a “Sussex pudding.” A firm dough is made from cream, butter, flour, eggs and spices, and a large piece of butter is placed in the center before it is shaped into a ball. It is wrapped tightly in a buttered cloth and boiled, and the rim of the dish is garnished with barberries. In this method, the top is cut open at the table and rosewater and sugar are added inside. No lemon appears here.

The same entry goes on to describe a method of wrapping whole peeled apples in a similar dough and boiling them, as well as a method using gooseberries. The fruit-filled versions are also served with rosewater, butter and sugar after being cut. After the round pudding with butter inside, the entry gives separate examples in which fruit is wrapped in the dough.

Food-history resources trace the version with a whole lemon to Grigson’s 1974 recipe. The 17th-century “Sussex pudding” and today’s lemon version have points in common in their names and their warm butter sauce, but they differ in how fruit and sweetening are added.

Glossary