Compleat Housewife's Quaking Pudding

History

Quaking pudding emerged in seventeenth-century England as a boiled custard pudding, so named because it trembled when turned out from its cloth or basin. Eliza Smith's 1727 recipe in The Compleat Housewife represents the dish at its Georgian height, when it graced middling and gentry tables. Made from eggs, cream, flour, and spices, it was boiled in a buttered cloth, producing a delicate, wobbly texture. The name itself became proverbial for anything that shook or quivered. Whilst largely forgotten today, it exemplifies the English fondness for rich, egg-thickened puddings that dominated eighteenth-century cookery.

Sources

• Smith, Eliza. The Compleat Housewife. 1727.
• Glasse, Hannah. The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy. 1747.
• Davidson, Alan (ed.). The Oxford Companion to Food. 1999.
• Mason, Laura and Catherine Brown. Traditional Foods of Britain. 1999.
• Wilson, C. Anne. Food and Drink in Britain. 1973.