How can you turn on your gadgets if you don't have any pudding?

December 1, 2007 4:51 AM

I have neither pudding basin nor steamer. How can I improvise the equipment necessary to steam a Christmas pudding for hours and hours? For what it's worth I do have a rice cooker.
posted by hackly_fracture to Food & Drink (8 answers total)

Do you need a fancy steamer? Last time I saw it made was in a bowl placed into a large pot with some water on the stove. I think there was a cake rack or the rack from a toaster oven under the bowl to limit heat conduction from the pot to the bowl.
posted by caddis at 5:56 AM on December 1, 2007

We do our pudding in a bundt pan stuck on a large pot of water. The bundt pan's rim rests on the rim of the pot, and the pan's lid sits on the rim of the bundt pan.
posted by The corpse in the library at 6:12 AM on December 1, 2007

from the New Joy of Cooking, How to Steam a Pudding:

"If you do not ahve a pudding basin---a deep bowl of heatproof ceramic---you may use any heatproof bowl with equally good results. The steep 4 to 5-quart metal bowls that come with heavy-duty mixers are good for particularly handsome larger puddings. Grease these and all other metal bowls especially well, as puddings are more prone to sticking to metal than to glass or ceramic...

To steam a pudding, find a pot large enough to hold the pudding basin or bowl comfortably. If you are steaming several small plum puddings, a turkey roaster, set over two burners, is convenient. (Puddings must be steamed in, not over boiling water, which rules out a double boiler.) To insulate the bottom of the pudding, set a trivet, rack, or folded dish towel in the bottom of your pot. Place the pudding in the pot, then pour in enough boiling water to reach halfway or to two-thirds of the way up the sides of the pudding bowl. Bring the water to a boil over high heat, then turn the heat down to a brisk simmer. Cover the pot tightly and steam the pudding until done, checking the pot every 30 minutes or so and replenishing with boiling water as needed. When removing the cooked pudding from the pot, protect your hands with oven mits or gloves."

(Doesn't your recipe for steamed pudding come with instructions for how to steam it?)
posted by leahwrenn at 6:15 AM on December 1, 2007

Here is someone who steams puddings in a rice cooker. She puts a bowl (pudding mold) into the rice cooker, adds water to the rice cooker, and then lets it steam.
posted by caddis at 6:25 AM on December 1, 2007

You could always make a Scottish clootie dumpling (link to just one of many recipes on the web), which uses a cloth as the bowl.
posted by scruss at 6:42 AM on December 1, 2007

i've steamed vegetables by putting them in a metal colander over an inch or two of water in a pan. it's just a variation on a double boiler.
posted by thinkingwoman at 7:54 AM on December 1, 2007

I make a steamed pudding most years without special equipment. The things to keep in mind: 1. the bowl or basin the pudding is in should be covered tightly so the water and steam don't get in, and 2. it shouldn't be resting on the bottom of the pan. A plate over the top of the bowl with a can or some other weight on top takes care of #1, and a wire rack or balled up pieces of aluminum foil in the bottom of the pan takes care of #2.
posted by cali at 1:45 PM on December 1, 2007

I believe in some parts of the world, a clean, empty coffee can is the traditional (if unlovely) substitute for a pudding mold. I'm not sure of the details, but I think the coffee can is covered with a piece of foil held tight by rubber bands.
posted by Orinda at 5:32 PM on December 1, 2007