The World That Was - Medieval German Cherry Pudding

Hello and Welcome to The World That Was!


Today, I'll be making a simple cherry pudding recorded in the 14th century AD - from the region of the Holy Roman Empire! Cherries were (and still are) a very popular fruit to eat, given the extensive range at which they can be grown. The original recipe is recorded in The Forme of Cury - a 14th century English manuscript - but the origin of this recipe likely comes from a central European source, given the variety of recipes recorded here.


In any case, let's now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above. Consider supporting me on Patreon if you like my recipes!


Ingredients

500g fresh ripe red cherries
200ml red wine
100g white sugar
1 tbsp unsalted butter
100g soft white breadcrumbs
salt
Edible flowers (e.g. clover, lavender, etc)


Method

1 - Prepare the Cherries

To begin with, we need to wash, de-stem, and stone the cherries. Do this by cutting into them carefully with a knife, before using your thumb to dig out the stone. Do this to about half a kilogram of cherries. 

When your cherries have been stoned for their sins, place them into a bowl, along with 100ml (or a cup) of red wine - I used a merlot here, but a sweet dessert wine would work nicely. On top of this, also add about 50 grams of white sugar. Mix and mash everything together until it forms a very thick, lumpy soup.


2 - Cook the Pudding

At this stage, place a tablespoon of butter into a large saucepan or pot. Place this over a high heat until it starts to melt. At this point, place your breadcrumbs and cherry-wine mix into the pot, along with another 50g of sugar. Mix everything together. If it's looking a little dry, add in another cup of wine. Put this onto a medium-high heat and let it cook away for about 10-15 minutes. Keep the whole thing stirring as you cook it, so nothing sticks and burns onto the pot. 


3 - Cool and Serve

The pudding should thicken up considerably, and act like a porridge when it's done. Let everything cool a little, before spooning into a bowl of your choice. The original recipe claims that you should decorate it with edible flowers.

The finished pudding is super sweet and flavourful. The breadcrumbs soaked up the cherry juice and wine mixture and became fantastically smooth, with a sharp undertone (thanks to the wine). If you wanted to make an alcohol-free alternative, you could use some grape juice instead!

The pudding itself can also be used as a pie or tart filling, and firms up quite nicely if baked. 

In the original recipe, it gives the specific date for harvesting cherries for this dish - specifically the Feast of St John (the end of June) - this would of course be dependant on local weather patterns and harvesting seasons, but is a generally sound rule of thumb for harvesting cherries anyway!

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