SC - The great Christmas pudding experiment. And quinces! [Partial OOP]

[cclark at vicon.net]

Vika wrote:
> ... Unfortunately, the suet a) started breaking off and b)
>melting in my hand, very very quickly. ...

If I really wanted to grate a big lump of suet, here's how i'd duet - er, I
mean do it. :-)

Chill it in the refrigerator (if it's still too soft, transfer it very
briefly to the freezer before grating). Put the grater, the bowl or plate
that the suet will be grated into, a relatively flexible (e. g. terrycloth)
potholder, and a large spoon in the refrigerator too. Once everything is
cold, take out the potholder and lay a piece of plastic wrap over it. Then
put the lump of suet on the plastic wrap, pick it up by the potholder, and
start grating. This way the suet should stay cold and solid throughout the
process (unless you work in a hot room). Your hand should be protected from
grating by the potholder. When the lump gets too small to handle with the
potholder, hold it with the chilled spoon to finish it off. Don't bother
with the last little bit that will undoubtedly stick inside the spoon.

On the other hand, you could mince it instead.

> ... Well, I'd strained the quinces back into the pot they'd
>come from, which had the leftover wine, so that settled it.  I put in the
>honey and stirred it up--but, several minutes later, wondered: how do you
>tell when the _honey_ is reduced by half?  What if it's the quince glop
>that's reducing?  This may be a dumb question, I'm not sure.

Since there's supposed to be wine mixed into the honey in either case, the
main thing that cooks off first should be alcohol from the wine. Next will
come water, mainly from the wine. This much works the same regardless of
what you add when. But some of the flavor will cook off too. I would guess
that's one reason for adding the fruit after the other ingredients are
considerably reduced. On the other hand, since the fruit gets well cooked
anyway, I wouldn't worry about that too much. The main issues in terms of
flavor are more likely the quality of the ingredients and how concentrated
they are after cooking.

There remains the question of which portion should reduce by half. Perhaps
it would be better not to be too precise about that measurement anyway, and
go by texture. Decide how thick to make it, have a little bowl standing in
crushed ice (one that won't be cracked by sudden heating), and whenever you
think it might be about ready, drop a little sample into that bowl. Leave
the sample to chill for a bit, then eat it. If the sample turns out to be
about thick enough, take the rest off the heat.

Once again, as someone else mentioned, it will likely need constant stirring
once it is getting thick.

Henry of Maldon/Alex Clark

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