How to Make Apple and Crumb Pudding — The Victorian Way

Here are the answers to some questions you may have about this recipe, from our expert Dr Annie Gray:

• Isn’t this just crumble but with breadcrumbs?
No, it’s a breadcrumb and apple pudding. Bread was one of the most consumed foodstuffs in the Victorian era, and inevitably that meant finding ingenious ways to use it when it got stale. Breadcrumb-based puddings came in all sorts of guises but this layered type was one of the most popular.

• Why doesn’t Mrs Crocombe cook a crumble?
Crumble hadn’t been invented yet. We tend to think of crumble as quintessentially British, and assume it goes back for centuries, but it’s actually a Depression-era dish which received some limited exposure during the Second World War, and wasn’t popularised in Britain until the 1950s. The topping uses the same ingredients as sweet shortcrust pastry, but much less of them, so it was ideal for ekeing out rations and giving a crispy, pastry-like boost to fruit puddings. But it simply wasn’t a technique Mrs Crocombe would have known.

• What kind of fruit can I use?
Absolutely anything which will mulch down a little bit when cooked. Anything, really, that you might use for a crumble if you were born 100 years after Mrs Crocombe. You could try rhubarb, gooseberries, pears, quinces, medlars, blackberries, raspberries or plums. If you are using apples, don’t use Bramley though. You want something which will retain a little bit of texture. You could, however, mix bramleys with an eating apple such as a Braeburn.

• Did Mrs Crocombe say lemons were grown at Audley? And what’s this about forcing fruit?
Yes, they were. The Victorians were masterful fruit and vegetable growers, and Audley End, like every other country house, had acres of growing space. This included glasshouses, heated with coal, for growing hothouse fruit such as grapes and citrus, as well as hotbeds heated with rotting manure. The contemporary terms were ‘forcing’ to force a plant to produce before it would normally, and ‘retarding’ to slow growth and make it fruit after it normally would.

Has anyone tried? Looks yummy!!

Can you please wear some earrings! It can make you look much prettier!

I made this today following the recipe (slightly modernized) and this is actually really good. I would probably use brown sugar in the future and add a little butter between the layers but definitely a win. Definitely needs the custard though or it's pretty dry

Absoltuely no one
Britian: Conquers literally half of the world for spices, Ms. Crocombe uses a TINY teaspoon of JUST cinnamon on her apple tart.

I would probably add butter between each layer, but as it's for the servants...

I want to eat it!

I like the servants better

@ EnglishHeritage Are any of the ceramics that are used in the videos for sale? Nesting bowls, that pie dish, the custard pitcher? Or are they all vintage?

"but you don't have the time, or the inclination, or perhaps even the money"
ok she really just called us out as overworked, lazy, AND poor all in ONE sentence
...I'll just go lay down and cry

Why she reminds me Melanie C?

What's fascinating is that this recipe is very similar to Apple Crisp, just replace the breadcrumb with rolled oats.

This is similar to what we call an Apple Brown Betty in the US.

"...but as this is j u s t for the servants..."

I notice that Mrs. Crocombe sometimes mixes her “L” with “R”, like in “aLmond” she said “aRLmond”. In this video she put and “R” in the end of “vanilla”, makes me wonder is she speaking in specific accents/dialects?

My mum sometimes makes this but she calls it Apple Charlotte.

Ummm why didn’t she say shrimps or Prawns??

Very reminiscent of cobbler, which in the south does the same thing- a delicious fruit dessert without having to make pastry. It can also be made in a Dutch oven, and in the heat of a southern summer, you dont light an oven unless you have to!

i wonder if the acress dresses up as Mrs. C for carnival or helloween ^^

I think this is what we would call an Apple Brown Betty in America (minus the custard that is).

If the apples are from last year's harvest, they've been around for a long time. How do they keep them from spoiling for so long?

Also, do y'all have the recipe for the vanilla custard?

Vaniller. I'll never get tired of that, haha

I'm going to share my process for making rustic bread:

"For this recipe, you will knead."

“Where’d you learn to make that??”
“Mrs Crocombe where tf else would I”

In today's age Mrs. C would be single for a whole 2 mine!

Is there a Video on the Custards?

😋

It doesn’t matter if she’s making an apple crumb pudding, marmalade water ice, or arsenic and lead stew, every time she lists the ingredients my mind goes to the Novympia parody when she says “cayern peppern” “armonds” and “turbot”

Could you please make a Pavlova pie? 😊🍨

Those knives look a bit modern to me, no? 😉

The servants do not eat the orange flower water version

It's a layerd crumble

I don't have breadcrumbs but I have bread in the freezer.

I love how her words perpetuate social hierarchy, where most people are lesser than a minority of people.

❤

Why is it always breadcrumbs she’s using?

I tbink its time for Mrs. Warwick and Mrs. Crocombe to have tea together again. The shade queens must reunite.

We used to call this Apple Betty.

That looks delicious! I love desserts!

Last video she said that Queen Victoria's golden jubilee would be in 6 years (1887) so right then would be 1881. The real avis crocombe left Audley End House in 1884 to get married. That means that we only have 3 years left of this

"For this recipe, you will need..."

Ah, there's my dopamine fix.

I had to smile when I heard you say that there was no excuse for throwing away bread. My mother felt the same way about sour milk. She used sour milk to bake chocolate cakes.

I made this tonight to go with dinner because my son asked me to make it but I used peaches instead of apples because I can't eat apples. This was so good. 🙂 Thank you so much.

Nice

Wow 😊

My kitchen-maid is always away🤣

i brought you some apples that are about to be fit for the pig pale soon.
excellent, i'll make something for the servants 🙂

Bread crumbs are magical.

When she said, “it is a little expensive”, it felt like she wanted to also say- “YOU could never afford to do that.”

"there's no use for throwing away bread" well, except for mold