Carrot Puddings Through the Ages (original) (raw)

Carrot Pudding History & Recipes Through the Ages

Carrot pudding is a dish traditional to a wide range of cultures around the world. It can be served either as a savoury pudding (as an accompaniment to a regular meal) or as a sweet dessert. I believe there is confusion, because the term "cake" is fairly recent, probably 13th C and it could be that many puddings were in fact cakes - solid pudding. Read aboutorigin of carrot cake here. Carrot Pie here. The Wellcome Library has published a digital collection of historical recipe manuscripts ~ many on free download http://bit.ly/2rM09Kp.

In the Oxford Companion to Food, writer Alan Davidson believes that carrots were used in Europe to make sweet cakes. These were a predecessor to the carrot cake. Because sweeteners were rationed during the Second World War carrot pudding was seen as an alternative in the UK. Later on, carrot cake was seen as a 'health food'.

Concealed beneath its decorative puff pastry cover, is a baked pudding enriched with bone marrow and delicately flavoured with rosewater. It belongs to a class of English puddings which were baked in a dish or pastry case, rather than being boiled or 'fired'. Puddings of this kind were closely related to tarts. They were always enriched with butter or marrow, rather than the much heavier suet used in boiled puddings. In his Academy of Armory and Blazon (Chester: 1688), Randle Holme calls this sort of pudding, 'a pudding pie'.

Published in 1591, there is an English recipe for "pudding in a Carret root". (A Book of Cookrye: Very Necessary for All Such as Delight Therin. Edward Allde, 1591). That recipe is essentially a stuffed carrot with meat, but it includes many elements common to the modern dessert: shortening, cream, eggs, raisins, sweetener (dates and sugar), spices (clove and mace), scraped carrot, and breadcrumbs (in place of flour).

To make a pudding in a Carret root.

Take your Carret root and scrape it fair, then take a fine knife and cut out all the meat that is within the roote, and make it hollow, then make your pudding stuffe of the liver of a Goose or of a Pig, with grated bread, Corance, Cloves and mace, Dates, Pepper, Salt and Sugar, chop your Liver very small, and perboile it ere you chop it, so doon, put it in your hollow root. As for the broth, take mutton broth with corance, carrets sliste, salt, whole Mace, sweet Butter, Vergious and grated bread, and so serve it forth upon sippets (=a small piece of bread or toast, used to dip into soup or sauce or as a garnish). - Source https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=eebo2;idno=A14584.0001.001

This recipe appeared in 1682 - Pudding of Carrot.

Pare off some of the Crust of Manchet-Bread, and grate of half as much of the rest as there is of the Root, which must also be grated: Then take half a Pint of fresh Cream or New Milk, half a Pound of fresh Butter, six new laid Eggs (taking out three of the Whites) mash and mingle them well with the Cream and Butter: Then put in the grated Bread and Carrot, with near half a Pound of Sugar; and a little Salt; some grated Nutmeg and beaten Spice; and pour all into a convenient Dish or Pan, butter'd, to keep the Ingredients from sticking and burning; set it in a quick Oven for about an Hour, and so have you a Composition for any Root-Pudding. - A Perfect School of Instructions For the Officers of the Mouth by Giles Rose, 1682

In 1726 Henry Carey wrote a dissertation on Dumplings and Puddings which claims that Puddings developed from dumplings which were basically lentils cemented together with fat. The Britons enhanced this recipe by adding milk and later eggs were included (by accident!) and the first puddings were born. These were made for the court of King John (1166-1216) by a lady cook ("good wife") and the English became known world wide as the great pudding eaters! A Learned Dissertation on Dumpling (1726) by Henry Carey:-

"The Invention of Eggs was merely accidental, two or three of which having casually roll�d from off a Shelf into a Pudding which a good Wife was making, she found herself under a Necessity either of throwing away her Pudding, or letting the Eggs remain, but concluding from the innocent Quality of the Eggs, that they would do no Hurt, if they did no Good. She wisely jumbl�d �em all together, after having carefully pick�d out the Shells; the Consequence is easily imagined, the Pudding became a Pudding of Puddings; and the Use of Eggs from thence took its Date. The Woman was sent for to Court to make Puddings for King John, who then sway�d the Scepter; and gain�d such Favour, that she was the making of her whole Family." source

The cook's son, called John Brand, took over from his mother as the King's cook and became known as Jack Pudding and was knighted as "Knight of the Gridiron". They had Plain Pudding, Plumb Pudding, Marrow Pudding, Oatmeal Pudding, Carrot Pudding, Saucesage Pudding, Bread Pudding, Flower Pudding and Suet Pudding flavours.

Although recipes appear in seventeenth century cookery texts, this type of pudding reached its apogee in the following century. Popular flavours were marrow, almond, carrot, chestnut, lemon and Seville orange. Recipes abound in the popular cookery books of the Georgian period.

In Punjab, India, carrot pudding is called Gajar ka Halwa. Carrot pudding has been served in Ireland since at least the 18th century. It was also served in the United States as long ago as 1876.

(Candied Carrots Below(click) - Carrots Torta 1599 here)

Carrot Puddings through the ages

950 ad - Khabis al-jazar (Carrots): (A carrot pudding)

From Ibn Sayyār al-Warrāq's cookbook - �The Book of Cookery preparing Salubrious Foods and Delectable Dishes extracted from Medical Books and told by Proficient Cooks and the Wise.� read more 950 carrot recipes here

Choose fresh tender and sweet carrots. Peel them and thinly slice them crosswise. For each pound of honey use 3 pounds of these carrots. Boil the honey and remove its froth. Pound the carrot in a stone mortar. Set a clean copper cauldron with a rounded bottom on a trivet on the fire, and put in it the skimmed honey and carrots. Cook the mixture on medium fire until the carrots fall apart.

Add walnut oil to the pot. For each pound of homey used add 2/3 cup of oil. Pistachio oil will be the best for it, but you can also use fresh oil of almond or sesame. Add the oil before the honey starts to thicken. However you do not need to stir the pot. You only scrape the bottom gently when mixture starts to thicken to prevent it from sticking to it. To check for doneness, use a stick or a spoon to see whether the pudding is thick enough or not yet.

When pudding becomes thick, put the pot down, and spread the dessert on a copper platter. Set it aside to cool down before serving. It will be firm and delicious.

A Booke of Cookrye 1591

To make a pudding in a Carret root. Take your Carret root and scrape it fair, then take a fine knife and cut out all the meat that is within the roote, and make it hollow, then make your pudding stuffe of the liver of a gooce or of a Pig, with grated bread, Corance, Cloves and mace, Dates, Pepper, Salt and Sugar, chop your Liver very small, and perboile it ere you chop it, so doon, put it in your hollow root.
As for the broth, take mutton broth with corance, carets sliste, salt, whole Mace, sweet Butter, Vergious and grated bread, and so serve it forth upon sippets.

A sermon book 1616-17 Dorothy Phillips (source Folger Library)

Carrot pudding. (above left)

Take some Carrots and boyl them soft and mash them through a sive, and mix it with Crumb'd - white bread and Cream and Eggs and some sack and sugar and the juice of a Lemon & sweet Beef - marrow or suet cut fine and either bake or boyl it

Another - To Make a Carrot Pudding (above right)

Grate 2 great Carrots or 3 little ones & 2 penny loves of Whitte bread halfe a l (pound?) of fine sugger beaten fine.

Physicall and chyrurgicall receipts. Cookery and preserves. 1654

This extensive work contains 3 different carrot pudding recipes.

(Eliz. Jacob 1654 on the fifth leaf. Though the beginnings of both sections are written by Elizabeth Jacob, there are many additions by other and later hands, especially by the writer of a neat upright script, which can perhaps be dated c. 1685. - source Wellcome Library)

A Carrett Pudding

Take 2 naples biscakes, a pint of cream one nuttmeg, 4 eggs,2 whites a little rose water, some sack a peece of suet with some butter and sugar. Then take a fine young carret and scrape it very fine and put it into the other ingredients. Stir them well together,make puff pastry in a dish. when this is baked throw some sugar on it.

(Naples: A type of biscuit flavoured with rosewater.)
From the same source:

A Carrot Pudding - Mary Miller 1660 (source Wellcome Library)

Cookbook of Constance Hall, 1672, Folger Shakespeare Library, V.a.20.

1675 - Carret Pudding A Booke of usefull receipts for cookery, etc.1675-c.1700

Take five young carrots free from canker and wash them well. Take a grater and grate them. Then take the weight of your carrots and Naples bisket and mix them together with a pint of cream and the yolk of 8 eggs and three whites.

Some sugar mace, beaten cinnamon

Mix all well together and put into a shallow pewter dish with puff pastry about it. Bake this in an oven and when you take it out squeeze two oranges upon it and scrape over it with a loaf of sugar. This is a rare pudding and if made well not many will know what it is. (Naples Bisket=dried cookie or biscuit made of sugar & almonds)

Source - Wellcome Library, London The work of the two earliest compilers ends at p. 254. The remainder of the volume cons ists of medical and cookery receipts by various late 17th cent. hands. Of these the only named compiler is Jane Newton (verso of the 11th un-numbered leaf), who is perhaps the same person as the Jane Whyte who has signed a receipt on the verso of the 8th leaf from the end, which is dated 20 April 1692.

�The family dictionary or household companion� written by William Salmon�s in1695.

He likens red carrots to beets, which at that time were carrot shaped until later selected out for roundness.

This recipe required the mix, once baked, to be placed in a puff pastry, sugar grated over to taste.

He treated red rooty beets and red carrots almost interchangeable in his pudding recipe. This book is both cookery book and a compendium of information for the homemaker. (extract right)

1693 Receipt book of Jane Staveley [manuscript].

Transcription - To make A carrot pudding

Take a pint of cream, & a penny loaf grated, & as much grated carrot, A quarter of a pound of Butter melted thick, six egges & half the whites, a nutmeg grated, & 4 spoonfulls of sack, & 4 of Rose Water, beat your egges with your sack & mix these all well together, & sweeten it to your tast, & one spoonfull or too of fine floure, well dryed (it must be pritty thin) put it in a dish the sides being garnished with Puff past & the inside well Buttered, your oven must be as hot as for white bread, an houre bakes it, scrape a good deal of loaf suger on it before it tis baked & when you searve it up.

Source Folger Shakespeare Library, V.a.20

1699 Edward Kidder

	A Carrot Pudding - Take a pint of creame, the yolks of eight eggs and four whites, two manchets grated, nutmeg, four or five large carrots grated. Some rose water, beat all well together put in half a pound of melted butter and put in a dish (unreadable) �.. sweeten it as you please and put marrow on top of it and bake in a slow oven.

1699 - Anne Toller (source 35 receipts from the Larder Invaded)

The pudding is fairly easy to make once the idiosyncrasies of Mrs Toller�s language are overcome, she wrote it out the way she said it! There are two discrepancies in the course of testing: the egg whites are left out first, but must back in last (typical of other recipres of the period); and there is about twice the necessary amount of butter (maybe personal taste?). Less butter gives a better structure.

English Cookery and Medicine Book 1677-1711 Folger Shakespeare Library

Loose Receipts (recipes) 1663-1740

Source Wellcome Library MS 8002/61

1682 - Pudding of Carrot

Pare off some of the crust of Manchet bread and grate off half as much of the rest as there is of the root, which must also be grated. Then take half a pint of half Cream or New Milk half a Pound of fresh Butter Six new laid Eggs (taking out three of the Whites) mash and mingle them well with the Cream and Butter. Then put in the grated Bread and with near half a Pound of Sugar and a little Salt ; some grated Nutmeg and beaten Spice and pour all into a convenient dish or pan buttered to keep the ingredients from sticking or burning; set it in a quick oven for about an Hour. And so have you a Composition for any Root Pudding. The Sauce is a little rose-water with Butter beaten together and sweetened with the Sugar Caster. (Giles Rose, one of the Master Cooks to Charles II, 1682.)(From Garden of Herbs 1921 � Eleanour Rohde)

1683 - Karrat Pudding (from the English Houswife containing the inward virtues which ought to be in a Compleat Woman - (source A Heritage of British Cooking by Maggie Black)

1723 - The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary; Or, The Accomplish'd Housewife's Companion (1723) by John Nott was a very early reference to recipes with carrots as the main ingredient. (below - Carrot Pudding and Carrot Soup) Full work here - https://ia802700.us.archive.org/14/items/cooksandconfect00nottgoog/cooksandconfect00nottgoog.pdf

**This recipe in UPenn Ms. Codex 631, volume 1 - 1730.**This two-volume recipe book is dated 1730 (vol. 1) and 1744 (vol. 2) and belonged to Judeth Bedingfield, though it contains the handwriting of multiple persons.

To make a Carrot Pudding Mrs Bransby Kent (1730)

Take six Carrots not to large boyl them well & as many pip[pins] with the juce of one lemon & four sugar rouls beat them very well in a Marble Mortor Mix with these a pint of cream & three Eggs Sweeten it to your tast Bake in a dish with pu[xxx] & put in Cittern & Candid Oringe. (Cittern probably means citrus, probably candied or preserved.)

(source and more information at Rare Cooking)

From the same Codex

Unknown Ladies Cookbook - more than 350 handwritten recipes dating from 1690 to 1830

To Make Puddings of Carriotts

First cut the roots hollow as children scoope appels. Take out all the pale yellow. Take greated bread, 4 eggs, beat them well, some pounded cinnamon, sugar to yr taste, some currants. Mix all together. Stuf yr carriots. Put in the piece you cut of the top again. Boyle them in clariot & strong greavy & a little sugar, a stick of cinnimon. When the are boiled thicken yr sauce with the whites & yolks of 2 eggs. So serve them. If for a change you may boyle them in water & nothing else. Serve them in butter, sack & sugar for sauce. Besur[e] serve them hot. This is the first course.

Picture credit - Westminster City Archives (UK)

Acetaria: A Discourse of Sallets - 1699 John Evelyn

26. Pudding of Carrot. Pare off some of the Crust of Manchet-Bread, and grate of half as much of the rest as there is of the Root, which must also be grated: Then take half a Pint of fresh Cream or New Milk, half a Pound of fresh Butter, six new laid Eggs (taking out three of the Whites) mash and mingle them well with the Cream and Butter: Then put in the grated Bread and Carrot, with near half a Pound of Sugar; and a little Salt; some grated Nutmeg and beaten Spice; and pour all into a convenient Dish or Pan, butter'd, to keep the Ingredients from sticking and burning; set it in a quick Oven for about an Hour, and so have you a Composition for any Root-Pudding.

Receipts (recipes) of Pastry and Cookery For the Use of his Scholars. By Ed. Kidder (1720-1740) (left);

The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary; Or, The Accomplish'd Housewife's Companion... (1723) by John Nott (right)

A Carrot Pudding - Colonial Virginia's Cooking Dynasty 1720

Boyle 2 large carrots ...pound in a mortar and strain it thro a sive mix it with 2 grated biskets 1/2 a pound of butter sack and orange flower water sugar and a little salt and pint of cream mixt in 4 yolks of eggs and 2 whites beat these together and put it in a dish being covered with puff past and garnish the brim.

Court Cookery or the Compleat English Cook containing the choicest and newest receipts - by R Smith Cook to King William. 1725

Other recipes from this cook book are here (pdf)

The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary; Or, The Accomplish'd Housewife's Companion (1723) by John Nott was a very early reference to recipes with carrots as the main ingredient. (below) - 65 Carrot Pudding

1732 (approx) - E Smith, The compleat housewife; or, Accomplish'd gentlewoman's companion, being a collection of upwards of five hundred of the most approved receipts in Cookery, Pastry, Confectionary, Preserving, Pickles, Cakes, Creams, Jellies, Made Wines, Cordials.

1737 - The Whole Duty of a Woman, Or, An Infallible Guide to the Fair Sex, Containing, Rules, Directions, and Observations, for Their Conduct and Behaviour Through All Ages and Circumstances of Life, as Virgins, Wives, Or Widows : with Directions, how to Obtain All Useful and Fashionable Accomplishments Suitable to the Sex : in which are Comprised All Parts of Good Housewifry, Particularly Rules and Receipts in Every Kind of Cookery : to which is Added, Bills of Fare for Every Month in the Year, Curiously Engraven on Copper Plates, with the Forms of Tables and Dishes, and the Shapes of Pies, Tarts, and Pasties : with Instructions for Marketing : Also Rules and Receipts for Making All the Choicest Cordials for the Closet: Brewing Beers, Ales, &c., Making All Sorts of English Wines, Cyder, Mum, Mead, Metheglin, Vinegar, Verjuice, Catchup, &c. : with Some Fine Perfumes, Pomatums, Cosmeticks and Other Beautifiers.

Sarah Stack. This items contains lots of recipes including carrots. Full work here - https://archive.org/details/wholedutyawoman00unkngoog

Red carrots were included in this Carrot Pudding recipe of 1755 - "The family's best friend, or The whole art of cookery made plain and easy: together with a complete system of brewery" Arabella Fairfax, London. (Image below, source US National Library of Medicine, Digital Collections)

Smyth Family Recipe Book 1750 (Wellcome Foundation archives)

Professed Cookery, Ann Cook. 3rd ed London: 1760 - Teacher of the true art of cookery.

Original Pudding Recipe in 'The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy' by Hannah Glasse, 1747 (Glasse 1747);

To make a carrot pudding.

You must take a raw carrot, scrape it very clean and grate it. Take half a pound of the grated carrot, and a pound of grated bread, beat up eight eggs, leave out half the whites, and mix the eggs with half a pint of cream: then stir in the bread and carrot, half a pound of fresh butter melted, half a pint of sack, and three spoonfuls of orange-flower-water, a nutmeg grated. Sweeten to your palate. Mix all well together, and if it is not thin enough, stir in a little new milk or cream. Let it be of a moderate thickness, lay a puff-paste all over the dish, and pour in the ingredients. Bake it; it will take an hour's baking. Or you may boil it, but then you must melt butter and put in white wine and sugar.

A second carrot pudding.

Get two penny loaves, pare off the crust, soak them in a quart of boiling milk, let it stand till it is cold, then grate in two or three large carrots, then put in eight eggs well beat, and three quarters of a pound of fresh butter melted, grate in a little nutmeg, and sweeten to your taste. Cover your dish with puff-paste, pour in the ingredients and bake it an hour.

English Housewifery Exemplified, by Elizabeth Moxon 1764

(Note these recipes are repeated in the English Art of Cookery of 1788 written by Richard Briggs - available here - https://archive.org/details/englishartcooke00briggoog

135. A CARROT PUDDING.

Take three or four clear red carrots, boil and peel them, take the red part of the carrot, beat it very fine in a marble mortar, put to it the crumbs of a penny loaf, six eggs, half a pound of clarified butter, two or three spoonfuls of rose water, a little lemon-peel shred, grate in a little nutmeg, mix them well together, bake it with a puff-paste round your dish, and have a little white wine, butter and sugar, for the sauce.

27. CARROT PUDDING - another Way.

Take half a pound of carrots, when boil'd and peel'd, beat them in a mortar, two ounces of grated bread, a pint of cream, half a pound of suet or marrow, a glass of sack, a little cinnamon, half a pound of sugar, six eggs well beat, leaving out three of the whites, and a quarter of a pound of macaroons; mix all well together; puff-paste round the dish-edge.

Sauce. Wine and sugar.

The Compleat Confectioner Mary Eales confectioner to King William and Queen Ann 1781

The Young Ladies School of Arts Containing, a Great Variety of Practical Receipts, ... by Mrs Hannah Robertson 1766

Hannah Glasse (1708-1770)

By far the most well known of the 18th century cookbook authors, Glasse�s �Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy� 1788 became the cookbook to have if you lived in Britain at the time. Many editions later, it was still being used in the 1840s when Mrs. Beeton�s works hit the market. Although accused of being ghost written, her book was well organised and easy to follow without high, ornate language. The book appealed to the upper as well as the middling ranks. Watch video of a modern re-creation here.

Rous, Charlotte1767 Recipes

To make a Carot Pudding. Take six carots not too large, boil them well & as many kentish pippens with the juice of one lemon & four sugar bowls, beat them very well in a marble mortar mix with these a pint of cream & three eggs sweeten it to your taste, bake it in a dish with paste & put in citron & candid oranges. (source US National Library of Medicine, Digital Collections)

1777 printing of �Cookery and Pastry� as taught and practiced by Mrs Maciver, teacher of those arts in Edinburgh.

A Carrot Pudding

Boil some good carrots; and when they are well clean�d, weigh half a pound of them; beat them very fine in a mortar; mix two or three spoonfuls of sweet cream along with them; beat ten eggs, (keep out half the whites), with half a pound of sugar; mix all well together, and season it with beat cinnamon, or orange grate, if you have it, as it makes it eat like an orange pudding; mix eight ounces of oil�d butter in it, just when you are about putting it into the oven.

The Lady�s Assistant for Regulating and Supplying the Table By: Mrs. Charlotte Mason London, 1787

Mrs Frazer 1791 - The practice of cookery, pastry , pickling, preserving, containing figures of dinners, from five to nineteen dishes, and a full list of supper dishes; also a list of things in season.

A Carrot Pudding . Boil some good carrots ; and when they are well cleaned , weigh half a pound of them ; beat them very fine in a mortar ; mix two or three spoonfuls of sweet cream along with them ; beat eight eggs , keeping our half of the whites , with half a pound of sugar ; mix all well together , and season it with beat cinnamon , or orange grate , if you have it , as it makes it eat like an orange pudding ; mix six ounces of cast butter in it , just when you are about putting it into the oven .--- For Sauce, take an half mutchkin of cream , sweeten it with a little sugar , and add to it the squeeze of a lemon.(mutchkin=a Scottish unit of capacity equal to a quarter of the old Scottish pint, or roughly three quarters of an imperial pint (0.43 litres).

Amelia Simmons 1796 - American Cookery.

The first known American cookbook, an elegantly simple recipe that requires some guesswork and estimation, but nothing that can hurt so good for experimentation.

Carrot Pudding - A coffee cup full of boiled and strained carrots, 5 eggs sugar and butter, of each 2oz, cinnamon and rose water to your taste, baked in a deep dish, without paste, 1 hour.

1802 - The Art of Cookery made easy and refined, comprising ample directions for preparing every article requisite for furnishing the tables of the Nobleman, Gentleman and Tradesman. By John Mollard, Cook

Carrot Pudding. Take red carrots, boil them, cut off the red part, and rub them through a sieve or tamis cloth. To a quarter of a pound of pulp add half a pound of crumb of french bread, sifted sugar, a spoonful of orange flower water, half a pint of cream, some slices of candied citron, some grated nutmeg, a quarter of a pound of Boiled fresh butter, eight eggs well beaten, and bake it in a dish with a paste round the rim.

1807 - A new system of domestic cookery, formed upon principles of economy, and adapted to the use of private families by Rundell, Maria Eliza Ketelby, 1745-1828

Beat a large carrot tender; bruise it well, and mix with it a tablespoonful of biscuit beaten to powder, or four Naples biscuits, four yolks and two whites of eggs, a pint of scalded cream, some rose or orange flower water, a little ratafia, nutmeg, and sugar. If you have no scalded cream, raw will do, if very thick. Put a little rim of paste round the dish and bake it. Put orange, lemon or citron, cut in good sized bits.

The New Family Receipt Book 1817 � D Hughson LLD

Fine Carrot Pudding.

Grate half a pound of the sweetest and most delicate raw carrot, and double the quantity of white bread; mix eight beaten yolks and four whites of eggs, with half a pint of new milk; and melt half a pound of fresh butter, with half a pint of white wine, three spoonfuls of orange-flower water, a grated nutmeg, and sugar to palate. Stir the whole well together; and, if too thick, add more milk, till it be of a moderate consistency. Lay a puff paste all over the dish, and bake it an hour. Serve it up with sugar grated over. This fine pudding is easily made still more delicious by using Naples biscuit and cream instead of bread and new milk, and put ting in a glass of ratafia with the orange flower water.

On account of its beautiful colour, this pudding is often sent to table, turned out of the crust bottom up ward, having a little fine sugar grated over it. Some, too, boil the carrot, and scald the cream, but neither is necessary; and, by boiling, much of the saccharine quality is unavoidably lost.

Carrot Pudding _(from same recipe book, I assume less than fine!)_Grate well-scraped raw carrots, with a circular grater; and, to half a pound of carrot, take a pound of grated bread, a nutmeg, a little cinnamon, half a pound of sugar, a very small quantity of salt, half a pint of mountain, eight eggs, a pound of melted or clarified butter, and as much cream as will mix the whole well together. Having sufficiently stirred and beaten it up, put it in a baking dish with puff paste at the bottom, and serve it up hot.

An 1824 recipe (left); The Cook Not Mad 1831 - Steamed Carrot Pudding "The Cook Not Mad" is a recipe book first published in Canada in 1831, believed to be Canada's first cookbook. (note this is a direct copy of the Amelia Simmons recipe above - not uncommon for plagiarism of recipes throughout the ages!)(right)

1844 - Steamed Carrot Pudding The Lady's Own Cookery Book, Charlotte Campbell Bury

(New Dinner Table Directory; in which will be found a large collection of original receipts including not only many years of observation, experience and research, but also the contributions of an extensive circle of acquaintance, adapted to the use of persons living the highest lifestyle, as well as those of moderate fortune.)

Carrot Pudding.

Take two or three large carrots, and half boil them; grate the crumb of a penny loaf and the red part of the carrots; boil as much cream as will make the bread of a proper thickness; when cold, add the carrots, the yolks of four eggs, beat well, a little nutmeg, a glass of white wine, and sugar to your taste. Butter the dish well, and lay a little paste round the edge. Half an hour will bake it.

Another way.

Take raw carrots, scraped very clean, and grate them. To half a pound of grated carrot put a pound of grated bread. Beat up eight eggs, leaving out the whites; mix the eggs with half a pint of cream, and then stir in the bread and carrots, with half a pound of fresh butter melted.

In 1851 - A Housekeeper, The American Matron; or, Practical and Scientific Cookery (Boston & Cambridge: James Munroe & Co

Carrot Pudding - One half pound of grated carrot, one pound of bread crumbs. Beat six eggs well. and add one glass of wine, one half a nutmeg, and mix well together; a pint of cream; 2 two ounces of sugar, Bake it in a dish lined with puff paste.

(no timing given!) and another very similar

The English Housekeeper 1851 Anne Cobbett - Carrot Pudding.

Mix � lb. grated raw carrot with � lb. grated bread, and stir these into a pint of thick cream and the yolks of 8 eggs well beaten, then stir in � lb. fresh butter, melted, 3 spoonsful of orange-flower water, � a wine-glassful of brandy, a nutmeg grated, and sugar to your taste; stir all well together, and if too thick, add a very little new milk, pour it into a dish lined with paste and bake it an hour.

1855 - Lincolnshire Carrot Pudding

Approximately equal quantities of raisins, currants, grated potato, grated carrots, brown sugar and breadcrumbs with sweet spices and egg, steamed.

A dish by this name is known to have been served at the Mayor of Lincoln's Banquet (Lincolnshire Chronicle - Friday 28 September 1855, p8) more information here.

Mrs Beeton's Recipe - 1861

BAKED OR BOILED CARROT PUDDING.

1259. INGREDIENTS.�� lb. of bread crumbs, 4 oz. of suet, � lb. of stoned raisins, � lb. of carrot, � lb. of currants, 3 oz. of sugar, 3 eggs, milk, � nutmeg.

Mode - Boil the carrots until tender enough to mash to a pulp; add the remaining ingredients, and moisten with sufficient milk to make the pudding of the consistency of thick batter. If to be boiled, put the mixture into a buttered basin, tie it down with a cloth, and boil for 2-� hours: if to be baked, put it into a pie-dish, and bake for nearly an hour; turn it out of the dish, strew sifted sugar over it, and serve.

Time - 2-� hours to boil; 1 hour to bake. Average cost, 1s. 2d. Sufficient for 5 or 6 persons.

Seasonable from September to March.

Carrots, says Liebig, contain the same kind of sugar as the juice of the sugar-cane.

(Liebig was the highest authority on all matters connected with the chemistry of food - Baron Justus Liebig, born Darmstadt 1803, was an �eminent chemist,� according to his 19 April 1873 obituary in the New York Times : �� by the aid of a travelling stipend allowed him by the Grand Duke he removed to Paris, where he remained from 1822 to 1824 � Baron Liebig was the author of numerous works, in which his researches are set forth with great minuteness � In his Familiar Letters he developed his views on chemistry, and its relations to commerce, physiology, and vegetation.�.) Read more about a modern re-creation of this famous pudding.

1877 Canadian Home Cookbook

First published in 1877, The Home Cook Book was Canada's original fundraising cookbook and soon became the best-selling Canadian cookbook of the 19th century with 1 in 6 households having a copy. Its astounding success inspired women's groups across the country to compile their own versions, setting off a community cookbook phenomenon. Here is a fascinating collection of recipes and remedies compiled by the Ladies of Toronto and other towns and cities in Canada, also chapters on Housekeeping, Social Observances, Little Housekeepers, Utensils and more. It has hundreds of plain and healthy recipes along with guide to proper etiquette and the making of miscellaneous products such as soap, medicines, and preservation. According to the original title page the over 300 recipes are tested and proven.

Carrot Pudding - 1 Cup brown sugar, 1 cup suit, chopped fine, 1 cup raw potatoes, grated, 1 cup raw carrots, grated, 1 cup raisins, 1 cup currants, 1 teaspoon soda sifted in flour, 1 teaspoon each cinnamon and cloves, flour to make a stiff batter. Steam 3 hours. " Mrs. Wm. Hawkins

Canadian Carrot Steamed Pudding 1898

This is a steamed pudding, a type of dessert very popular in the late 19th century especially among people with British origins. There are two recipes for carrot pudding in the 1898 New Galt Cook Book and they naturally appear in the section called Puddings. (The New Galt Cook Book, Rev. ed. Toronto: McLeod & Allen, 1898)

Victorian Carrot Pudding

In Victorian times, the upper classes would often eat very grand, fattening dishes. However, very few people were well-off, and the food eaten by the masses was often very simple, and cheap. Carrot pudding is a dish belonging to the latter food genre.

Ingredients

One large carrot, Approximately one tablespoon biscuit powder, Three or four sweet biscuits, Four egg yolks, Two egg whites, 570ml cream, either raw or scalded, a few teaspoons ratafia (an alcoholic beverage, beware! - brandy will do!), a quarter of a nutmeg, 60g sugar.

Method - Boil the large carrot until tender, and then mash it in a mortar. When the carrot is suitably mashed5, add the remaining ingredients, and stir the mixture together.

Bake all the ingredients in a shallow dish.

Times vary wildly for Victorian dishes, but 45 minutes at 180�C should do it.

Pakistani Carrot Pudding ( gajraila) sometimes called halva

(read more about Halva history here)

Ingredients

4 cups milk,� cup basmati or Carolina long-grain rice,1 pound carrots, scrubbed and grated

� cup sugar (or more, depending on sweetness of carrots).� teaspoon ground cardamom

� cup golden raisins,� cup shelled pistachios

Method - Combine milk and rice in a medium saucepan, and set aside 30 minutes to soak. Add grated carrots, sugar and cardamom. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 1� hours, scraping down the sides of pan and stirring occasionally to keep rice from sticking.

If a thick pudding is desired, mash some of mixture with a potato masher or immersion blender. Add raisins. Taste for sweetness, adding more sugar if desired. Cook 30 minutes longer, stirring every so often. When pudding is done, transfer to 1-quart serving dish or individual ramekins. S

Sprinkle with pistachios. Serve warm or chilled. Yield: Serves 6. Approximate nutritional analysis per serving: 293 calories, 7.9 grams fat (3.4 grams saturated), 6.3 milligrams cholesterol, 8.1 grams protein, 50.1 grams carbohydrates, 3.4 grams fibre, 119.2 milligrams sodium.

Torta de carrots - Diego Granado's Libro del Arte de Cozina, 1599, translation by Robin Carroll-Mann

Wash and scrape the carrots, and remove them from the water and cook them in good meat broth, and being cooked remove them and chop them small with the knife, adding to them mint and marjoram, and for each two pounds of chopped carrots a pound of Tronchon cheese and a pound and half of buttery Pinto cheese, and six ounces of fresh cheese, and one ounce of ground pepper, one ounce of cinnamon, two ounces of candied orange peel cut small, one pound of sugar, eight eggs, three ounces of cow's butter, and from this compostion make a torta with puff pastry above and below, and the tortillon with puff pastry all around, and make it cook in the oven, making the crust of sugar, cinnamon, and rosewater. In this manner you can make tortas of all sorts of roots, such as that of parsley, having taken the core out of them. Ref: http://www.katjaorlova.com/2005F7D.html

Candied Carrots

Candied carrots taste nice on their own, but can also be served as a side dish with many savoury meals. The idea of adding golden syrup to carrots, and then eating them as part of a main course may seem a little strange, but the Victorians did it.

Ingredients

� 500g carrots � Two tablespoons golden syrup � Salt (pinch) � Two tablespoons butter � Chopped mint or parsley

Method

1. Slice the carrots length-wise, and then boil them in salt water until nice and tender, and then drain.
2. In a separate pan, melt the syrup and butter together.
3. Add the carrots to the syrup and butter, and cook for 10 minutes.
4. Sprinkle some chopped mint or parsley over the top, and serve. A tablespoon of cream may also be added, according to personal preference.

Modern Indian Carrot Pudding

4 cups milk 2 tablespoons basmati rice 1 pound carrots -- peeled and minced 1/3 cup sugar 1/4 cup blanched almonds OR blanched pistachios -- chopped 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom 1/4 cup heavy cream OR coconut milk 1 teaspoon rosewater silver and/or gold leaf slivers -- to garnish

In a heavy saucepan, place the milk over medium high heat, and bring to a boil. Sprinkle the rice into the boiling milk, stirring constantly for several minutes to keep the rice from settling on the bottom of the pan. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook the rice at a gentle boil until the milk is reduced by half and the rice is tender, about 20 minutes, stirring often to prevent a skin from forming on the surface of the milk.

Stir the carrots into the milk-rice mixture and continue cooking until the carrots are tender and the mixture is reduced to a thick sauce, about 15 minutes; stir frequently to prevent scorching on the bottom.

Stir the sugar, about two-thirds of the almonds or pistachios, and the cardamom into the pudding and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture begins to stick to the pan bottom, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, spoon into a bowl, and let cool to room temperature.

Stir 1/4 cup of the cream or coconut milk and the rosewater into the pudding. Cover tightly with plastic wrap or aluminium foil and chill for at least 3 hours.

Shortly before serving, remove from the refrigerator and check consistency; it should be a bit thinner than traditional rice pudding. If it seems too thick, stir in a little more cream or coconut milk. Spoon into individual bowls and sprinkle with the remaining almonds or pistachios and the silver and/or gold leaf (if used).

Notes : �In India, puddings like this are adorned for special occasions with slivers of tissue-thin silver leaf or gold leaf. These inert metals are edible and may be purchased at art-supply stores and some fancy-food shops.�

Raw Carrot Pudding

The Suffrage Cook Book Compiler: L. O. Kleber, 1915

1 cup carrots, grated 1 cup potatoes, grated 1� cups white sugar 2 cups flour 1 cup raisins 1 teaspoon soda Salt, cinnamon, lard and nutmeg to taste.

Steam three hours. Serve with whipped cream or sauce

Danvers (Illinois) Township Home Bureau Unit Cook Book, 1921

CARROT PUDDING 1 pound grated carrots 3/4 lb. chopped suet 1/2 lb. raisins 1/2 lb. currants Steam 4 hours, sauce. 4 tablespoons sugar 8 tablespoons flour Spices to suit the taste Place in oven for 20 minutes. Serve with Sauce

Sauce - 1 cup butter 2 cups powdered sugar 1/2 cup wine Beat butter to cream. Add sugar gradually. When light add wine which has been heated. Place in bowl of water and stir until smooth. � Mrs. Wm. C. Allen

Ambrose heath - "War Time Recipes" - 1941 - Heath was one of the contributors to the �Kitchen Front� talks broadcast by the BBC during the Second World War. The talks were organized by the Ministry of Food to encourage frugality and palliate the hardship of rationing with recipes, household hints, exhortations from government officials and comedy. The �Kitchen Front� was a platform for propaganda, but of a homely and avuncular cast. These recipes appeared in a World War Two cookbook.

Carrot Christmas Pudding - 2011

(also know as Lincolnshire Pudding)

This is a really good and light Lincolnshire alternative to a traditional Christmas pudding, particularly if you're not one of those efficient cooks who has made their steamed puddings months in advance. And if you've forgotten all about the pudding, because you were so busy getting to grips with the turkey, this is absolutely ideal for saving the day!

Ingredients (Serves 6 - 8): 100g plain flour 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda 1 tsp of mixed spice 100g suet 100g raisins 100g currants 100g potato, grated 100g carrots, grated 100g Demerara sugar 100g fine breadcrumbs 25g chopped glace cherries 1 large egg, beaten.

Mix the flour, soda, spice well together. Add all the other ingredients except the egg, mix all ingredients well together and thoroughly. Then add the egg and bind well, if it is a little too stiff, add a little milk as well. Pour into a large greased pudding basin, leaving space at the top as the mixture will expand during cooking. Cover with a double layer of greaseproof paper and tie with string. Steam for 3 hours.

Serve with lashings of custard, brandy sauce or double cream.

Carrot Pies some examples

The New England Cook Book's 1836

Scrape three good sized carrots, boil them till very tender. Then rub them through a sieve, and mix them with a quart of milk, four beaten eggs, a piece of butter of the size of half an egg, a table spoonful of lemon juice, and the grated peel of half of a one. Sweeten it to your taste. Bake it in deep pie plates with an under crust and rim.

The New England Economical Housekeeper 1845 - Carrot Pie A very good pie may be made of carrots in the same way that you make pumpkin pies (that was it!).

Carrot Pie - from The American Housewife and Kitchen Directory 1869.

Scrape the skin off from the carrots, boil them soft, and strain them through a sieve. To a pint of the strained pulp put three pints of milk, six beaten eggs, two table-spoonfuls of melted butter, the juice of half a lemon, and the grated rind of a whole one. Sweeten it to your taste, and bake it in deep pie plates without an upper crust.

Woolton Pie 1941 (WW2 -here)

Modern Recipe (Grimmway Farms)

Ingredients

1 9-inch Pie Crust, unbaked 1 cup cooked, pureed Carrots 1 cup Milk 1/2 cup Evaporated Milk 1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon Cloves 1/4 teaspoon Salt, or to taste 2/3 cup Brown Sugar, packed 2 Eggs, beaten 1/2 teaspoon Ginger 1/4 teaspoon Nutmeg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Have the pie crust ready on hand in your refrigerator.

3. Combine all the other ingredients in a large mixing bowl and blend thoroughly. Pour into a prepared pastry-lined 9 inch pie pan and bake until the crust is a rich golden brown and the filling is firm. Test it by inserting a clean table knife blade into the center. The pie is done when no filling clings to it.

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