Victorian Amber Pudding Explained | 1864 Scottish Recipe Tested

Video Description

If you enjoy the videos we make; buy us a cup of tea: https://ko-fi.com/glenandfriendscooking Welcome friends, and welcome back to Sunday Morning and The Old Cookbook Show. Today we’re diving deep into a forgotten Victorian dessert: Amber Pudding, straight out of Williamson’s Cookery, 6th edition, 1864, published in Edinburgh, Scotland. A few weeks ago, I made a steak and kidney pie (never again 😅), but it introduced me to a truly excellent rough puff pastry. After making that pastry on yesterday’s Saturday Morning Show, today we put it to work in a fascinating 19th-century recipe that blends butter, sugar, eggs, and orange peel into something that’s part pudding, part pie, and very much a product of its time. Amber Pudding is a curious recipe. It asks you to boil butter and sugar, temper egg yolks, whip egg whites separately, and bake everything in a “quick oven”—with no temperatures, no dish size, and very few instructions. As usual with Victorian cookbooks, we’re left to interpret, experiment, and occasionally argue with the past. In this episode, we explore: Cooking from a Scottish Victorian cookbook (1864) Using rough puff pastry in historical desserts Interpreting vague oven instructions like “quick oven” Why some old recipes leave out critical steps What actually makes Amber Pudding “amber” Whether this dessert should be baked, flipped… or re-imagined entirely The flavour? Outstanding. Bright orange, rich, and custardy—despite a few structural regrets and some lessons learned about baking vessels, puff pastry, and presentation. This is one of those recipes where the idea is brilliant, even if the execution needs modern tweaks. If you enjoy historical cooking, Victorian recipes, British puddings, or experimenting with old cookbooks, this one’s for you. 👇 I’d love your input Are you still making a version of Amber Pudding today? Have you seen this recipe before, or cooked something similar with puff pastry and pudding fillings? Drop your knowledge in the comments—especially if you’ve worked with coffin pies or 19th-century baking methods. Thanks for stopping by, and we’ll see you again soon. Amber Pudding Recipe. Take half a pound of fresh butter, half a pound of white sugar, put them in a small sauce-pan, and stir until it comes to boil. Beat up six eggs, yolks and whites sepa-rately, mince two ounces of orange-peel; put it in the yolks of the eggs, pour in the butter and sugar, stirring all the time. When it is cold, add the whites of the eggs, then butter a baking dish that will hold the mixture, line it with puff paste, pour in the pudding, cover it with puff paste, bake it in a quick oven for one hour, turn it out and serve with brandy sauce. Here is the Rough Puff Video Recipe: https://youtu.be/imgnxUKTHsY More info about Hope Air: https://hopeair.ca/ https://hopeair.ca/impact-report-2024/ Here is the link to our Apron: https://searchandrescuedenim.com/products/s-r-x-glen-friends-chef-apron?country=IO&variant=50865649877152 https://searchandrescuedenim.com/GLENANDFRIENDSCOOKING Discount code to be used at checkout: GLENANDFRIENDSCOOKING If you enjoy the videos we make; buy us a cup of tea: https://ko-fi.com/glenandfriendscooking Help us out with a PayPal donation: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=T4FPGUQABAUTE Join this channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsU15yvILBmnHPeAf4SFVaQ/join This channel is nothing without you our viewers! Thanks for watching the Old Cookbook Show and our Historical Cooking. #LeGourmetTV #GlenAndFriendsCooking Check out our Aviation and Flying Channel: https://www.youtube.com/glenshangar