Eve’s Pudding

If you want a good pudding, mind what you are taught;

Take eggs six in number, when bought for a groat*;

The fruit with which Eve her husband did cozzen**,

Well pared and well chopped, take at least half a dozen;

Six ounces of bread – let the cook eat the crust –

And crumble the soft as fine as the dust;

Six ounces of currants from the stalks you must sort,

Lest they husk out your teeth, and spoil all the sport;

Six ounces of sugar won't make it too sweet,

And some salt and some nutmeg will make it complete.

Three hours let it boil, without any flutter,

And Adam won't like it without sugar and butter.

I will have more to say about this rhyme a bit later on.

*n.

An English silver coin worth four pence, used from the 14th to the 17th century.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition by Houghton Mifflin Company.

** Variation of v. coz·ened, coz·en·ing, coz·ens v.tr. 1. To mislead by means of a petty trick or fraud; deceive. 2. To persuade or induce to do something by cajoling or wheedling. 3. To obtain by deceit or persuasion. v.intr. To act deceitfully. [Perhaps from Middle English cosin, fraud, trickery.] cozen·er n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

This recipe came from the Clements Library at the University of Michigan, Janice Bluestone Longone Collection and was retrieved in 2005. It appears in a number of charity cookbooks from the late nineteenth century.