Crushed biscuit or nuts with sugar, eggs and spice, baked. First known from The English Cookery Book’ of 1859, a simpler version using crushed dried breadcrumbs appeared as a wartime economy measure in 1917 and featured repeatedly in ‘Birds’ advertisements throughout the 1920s.
Ingredients
Original Receipt from Falkirk Herald (Saturday 23 February 1924)
2 teacups of stale bread and crusts, baked oven and crushed finely with rolling pin.
3oz moist sugar
2 teaspoons mixed spice
1 teacup of sultanas and currants mixed
1/2 teacup shredded suet.
1 piled up desert spoon of BIRD’S
EGG SUBSTITUTE METHOD: mix all ingredients well together in a basin then add sufficient milk to stir into a stiff batter. Pour into a well greased pudding basin, tie over with greased paper and steam for about two hours.
Alex Bray…”I baked it at 160 degrees in a fan over for about 50 minutes. It started as a liquid and rose very well. The
texture works very well with the nutmeg. Highly recommended!”
Cooking Instructions
Original Receipt from ‘The English Cookery Book’ edited by JH Walsh Walsh 1859
Take a quarter of a pound of almonds blanched and beaten, half a pound of loaf sugar, six eggs, and nutmeg to taste. Beat the eggs well up with the sugar over the fire till hot, but not boiling. When cold, add the almonds, and beat again; pour the mixture into a buttered dish and bake it
