A Rhyming Recipe for Pudding.

I have featured rhyming recipes in a number of posts over the years (see the links below), and I have another one for you today. It is from The Dinner Question: Or, how to Dine Well and Economically (1860) by Tabitha Tickletooth (pseud. of Charles Silby.)

As rhyme is sometimes more impressive than reason, to complete my examples on this subject I will give you.

A Metrical Recipe for Christmas Pudding.

Air: Jeannette and Jeanot.

If you wish to make a pudding in which every one delights,

Of a dozen new-laid eggs you must take the yolks and whites;

Beat them well up in a basin till they thoroughly combine,

And shred and chop some suet particularly fine;

Take a pound of well-stoned raisins, and a pound of currants dried,

A pound of pounded sugar, and a pound of peel beside;

Stir them all well up together with a pound of wheaten flour,

And let them stand and settle for a quarter of an hour;

Then tie the pudding in a cloth, and put it in the pot,—

Some people like the water cold, and some prefer it hot;

But though I don’t know which of these two methods I should praise,

I know it ought to boil an hour for every pound it weighs.

Oh! if I were Queen of France, or, still better, Pope of Rome,

I’d have a Christmas pudding every day I dined at home;

And as for other puddings whatever they might be,

Why those who like the nasty things should eat them all for me.

For previous posts with rhyming recipes see:

PoeticalChristmas Recipes, Part 1.

PoeticalChristmas Recipes, Part 2.

ThePoetry of Pork Cake.

TheOriginal Chowder.