Basin lined with suet crust, filled with green gooseberries and sugar, boiled 2 to 3 hours. Known from Mrs.B and dozens of references throughout the 19th and early 20th Century.


Gooseberry Pudding by Alex Bray...


Original Receipt in 'The Book of Household Management', 1861, edited by Isabella Beeton (See Mrs.B)

BOILED GOOSEBERRY PUDDING.
1284. INGREDIENTS: ¾ lb. of suet crust No. 1215, 1-½ pint of green gooseberries, ¼ lb. of moist sugar.
Mode: Line a pudding-basin with suet crust no. 1215, rolled out to about½ inch in thickness, and, with a pair of scissors, cut off the tops and tails of the gooseberries; fill the basin with the fruit, put in the sugar, and cover with crust. Pinch the edges of the pudding together, tie over it a floured cloth, put it into boiling water, and boil from 2-½ to 3 hours; turn it out of the basin, and serve with a jug of cream.
Time: 2-½ to 3 hours.
Average cost:, 10d.
Sufficient: for 6 or 7 persons.
Seasonable: from May to July.


You might like a 'Kentish Sauce' to go with it ...

Original Receipt from Barnsley Chronicle, etc. - Saturday 12 October 1895

Boiled gooseberry pudding is rendered still better if served with Kentish Sauce. The pudding is mode as usual, but without any sugar, or, if berries are very sour, very little may added, and put on boil. Beat up egg, then beat in about three tablespoonfuls of moist sugar and half a teaspoonful of powdered cinnamon. When the puddiug is cooked and placed on the dish in which it is served, cut a small round out the top it, pour in the egg and the sugar, replace top, serve.


A 'delightful dish', though we, oddly, have more than one record of death by Boiled Gooseberry Pudding, this one from South Wales Echo - Friday 21 June 1895

South Wales Echo - Friday 21 June 1895