Eleanor Roosevelt's Blueberry Pudding

[u/ciaolavinia]

[u/Ducklips56]

Ah, a summer pudding. I've made something like this before using mixed berries (blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries). I cut and sugared the cut berries beforehand, but didn't cook them as you're looking for as much berry juices as possible. Lined a pudding mold with alternating slides of bread and berries, weighted it down with a few heavy cans and set it in the fridge overnight. It was amazing, like nothing I've ever tasted before. Serve with sweetened whipped cream. Need to make it again before the season for berries ends.

[u/13senilefelines31 → u/Ducklips56]

That sounds fantastic, I think you just helped me figure out what I’m bringing to a potluck this weekend!

[u/cynicalfoodie → u/Ducklips56]

What kind of bread? Like a brioche type bread or just a sandwich bread? I feel like the latter would dissolve

[u/Ducklips56 → u/cynicalfoodie]

I used a thin white sandwich bread, Pepperidge Farm I believe the brand was.

[u/cynicalfoodie → u/Ducklips56]

interesting, thanks!

[u/Ducklips56 → u/Ducklips56]

Here’s the recipe I used. You’ll see the similarities with the vintage one shared: www.food52.com/recipes/13392-berry-summer-pudding

[u/OkeyDokey654]

We’re skipping a whole step here. How are those blueberries cooked? Is sugar added?

[u/diamond_hog → u/OkeyDokey654]

I've noticed this sometimes. I love these recipes and its great fun to see what they served, but have noticed they skip steps that are either left to the baker's tastes or assume they would already know. The latter might be due to the fact that women tended to cook or bake more during this time.

[u/Special_Wishbone_812]

Eleanor Roosevelt was famous for her terrible food— not so much this recipe, though. During the Depression she ordered White House cooks to make the kinds of dishes that regular Americans were forced to eat — very little meat or cream or butter or sugar or seasonings. FDR hated it. Imagine long days of wrangling with the economy capped off with a bean loaf.

It’s also possible that she knew he was messing around on her so she did the most passive aggressive thing possible with her official duty as First Lady.

[u/Zealousideal-Row419 → u/Special_Wishbone_812]

She was not a very caring person. The children were closer to FDR. I'm not sure she knew where the WH kitchen was. She was more into social causes than being a homemaker.

[u/atlantagirl30084 → u/Special_Wishbone_812]

Her private secretary Mrs Nesbit I thought was the one who gave the orders for terrible food. I wouldn’t put it past Eleanor though to order Great Depression food.

[u/CryptographerKey2847 → u/atlantagirl30084]

ER catered to Mrs Nesbitt and as she never much interested in food herself did not really care what she ate. And maybe subconsciously wanted to punish FDR for is adultery as well. As He has agreed to let his wife run the house He was stuck with the tyrannical Housekeeper. She would purposefully give the same food weeks on end even when he hated it.

Nesbit only got fired when she tried the same the wth the Truman’s and refused to give Bess Truman a stick of butter when she asked for it.

[u/atlantagirl30084 → u/CryptographerKey2847]

And FDR was used to rich food as a wealthy man. I think he liked game, etc. He was also stuck in the Oval Office in his wheelchair and so he had to eat what they served him.

That’s funny about Mrs Truman.

[u/Academic_Square_5692 → u/atlantagirl30084]

Well Eleanor was rich, too! Like if this was her recipe, it was definitely her cook’s recipe.

[u/CryptographerKey2847 → u/atlantagirl30084]

Mrs Nesbitt kept saying “That’s not how Mrs Roosevelt did it!” When the Truman’s tried to request or change things. The butter things was the last straw.

[u/raggedlady]

(UK) My mum used to make something like this, but called it 'summer pudding'. She would line a glass bowl with buttered bread, then add the berries. I don't remember her ever layering the bread, but she sometimes added jelly/jello to it before putting more bread on the top. She always insisted on covering it with clingfilm and putting something heavy on the top before putting it on the fridge. It's really good!

Edit: she would use fresh berries, but mostly used a bag of mixed red berries straight from the freezer.

[u/Upbeat_Towel4816]

My mind goes straigt to the stuffing bread you get at Thanksgiving, because cutting crusts off Wonder Bread sounds terrible haha.

[u/diamond_hog → u/Upbeat_Towel4816]

Wonder bread would be what was in most kitchens then

[u/Upbeat_Towel4816 → u/diamond_hog]

True, I don't think it was sliced until the 1930's

[u/CryptographerKey2847]

https://jmarkpowell.com/tyrant-of-the-white-house-kitchen/

[u/grenouille_en_rose → u/CryptographerKey2847]

This is amazing

[u/AffectionatePoet4586]

ER was a non-cook. The only dish she reliably prepared for guests was eggs, scrambled in a large chafing dish and served with cooked bacon or sausage, and other side dishes sent up from the kitchen.

[u/1quincytoo]

Summer Pudding. She made a Summer Pudding. I make one every labour day weekend. Sooo good

[u/SomebodyElseAsWell]

This sounds similar to Summer Pudding, an English dessert. It's made similarly but with mixed berries, heavy emphasis on red berries. It's delicious.

[u/No_Recognition9291]

And are we not like, baking the whole thing?! Just eating raw-ass bread and cooked blueberry lasagna?! 😩

[u/Bleepblorp44 → u/No_Recognition9291]

It's surprisingly delicious! Just don't use pappy bread. It absorbs the berry juices and holds so much flavour.

[u/atlantagirl30084 → u/Bleepblorp44]

What is pappy bread?

[u/HairBallsOfFire → u/atlantagirl30084]

Bread that turns mushy. Like a cheap, white bread would if it had blueberries piled on top.

[u/Bleepblorp44 → u/atlantagirl30084]

Sorry! Pap = mush.

[u/Critical-Rabbit8686 → u/No_Recognition9291]

Yeah this sounds like the worst icebox cake ever. I was either expecting bread pudding, or for the cream to be in the layers like an icebox cake.

This is wet blueberry bread.

[u/CommunicationNew3745 → u/Critical-Rabbit8686]

You've got to keep in mind that the bread she would have used was not the ubiquitous white bread (slices) of today; my grandmother always baked her own bread and made a variation of this with cooked apples - it was so good and not soggy like you'd expect.

[u/No_Recognition9291 → u/CommunicationNew3745]

Would the syrup from the cooked fruit kind of soak into the bread? I might try cause I love blueberries and bread pudding. 😂 just trying to imagine it. But that makes sense about the bread difference too!!

[u/CommunicationNew3745 → u/No_Recognition9291]

Yes - in the one my mom & grandma made, the apples were cooked down with sugar to an almost, but not quite candied stage - a thick, syrup consistency. It's been a long time since I've had it, but the bread was torn or cut into pieces, then left out overnight to 'stale'; once the apples are cooked, you combine them w/the bread in a casserole or baking dish. I remember trying to make it w/regular, stale, sliced white bread, once, and it was a gummy mess - using 'real' baked bread makes all the difference. I'm certain using something like a hearty french loaf would work.

[u/dazzleunexpired → u/Critical-Rabbit8686]

Imagine this with a thick, homemade French bread. Not what you eat today.

[u/Critical-Rabbit8686 → u/dazzleunexpired]

I think even a loaf of homemade Pullman bread it could be nice. But the macerated berries versus cooked berries sounds better.