Green Pudding of Sweet Herbs – A Tudor Boiled Pudding from The Accomplisht Cook (1660)

Green Pudding of Sweet Herbs – A Tudor Boiled Pudding from The Accomplisht Cook (1660)

Editor’s Note: As autumn turns to feast season, the next several posts on Give It Forth explore a different kind of Thanksgiving table — one inspired not by Pilgrims and pumpkins, but by the kitchens of Tudor and Stuart England. These 16th- and 17th-century dishes, drawn from sources like Robert May’s The Accomplisht Cook (1660), showcase the foods and flavors that would have graced a festive English winter board. Presented here in modern form, each recipe offers a way to bring history to an American Thanksgiving — blending Old World elegance with New World abundance.

Historical Note: The Tudors and Stuarts did not celebrate Thanksgiving as we do in America today. This series simply imagines how dishes from their winter feasts — roasts, “made dishes,” puddings, and spiced pies — might have found their way, in spirit and flavor, to the modern table. It’s a chance to explore the shared themes of gratitude, abundance, and seasonal celebration across centuries.

A 17th-century-inspired feast still life. Alongside the roast, dishes like green puddings of sweet herbs added color and richness to the Tudor–Stuart table.

On a Tudor or early Stuart winter table, not every “pudding” was sweet. Many were savoury, herbal, and vividly green — rich with cream and egg yolks, scented with mace and nutmeg, and studded with currants and dates. Robert May’s “green boil’d Pudding of sweet Herbs” is one of these: a bread-and-cream pudding colored with spinach juice and flavored with a whole garden of herbs.

He tells us that these puddings are “excellent for stuffings of roast or boil’d Poultrey, Kid, Lamb, or Turkey, Veal, or Breasts of Mutton.” In other words, they could be served in slices as a side dish, or used as a rich, herbal forcemeat filling for meat and fowl.

The Original: A Green Boil’d Pudding of Sweet Herbs

To make a green boil’d Pudding of sweet Herbs.

Take and steep a penny white loaf in a quart of cream and only eight yolks of eggs, some currans, sugar, cloves, beaten mace, dates, juyce of spinage, saffron, cinamon, nutmeg, sweet marjoram, tyme, savory, peniroyal minced very small, and some salt, boil it in beef-suet, marrow, (or none.) These puddings are excellent for stuffings of roast or boil’d Poultrey, Kid, Lamb, or Turkey, Veal, or Breasts of Mutton.

This short paragraph carries a great deal of information: it tells us the base (bread and cream), the enrichment (egg yolks, suet, marrow), the “green” element (spinach juice and herbs), the seasoning (currants, dates, sugar, spices), and the preferred cooking method (boiled as a pudding, then served or used as stuffing).

What Is a Boiled Pudding?

In the 16th and 17th centuries, many puddings were cooked not in tins, but in cloth. The mixture was poured into a floured or buttered linen or canvas pudding cloth, tied securely, and boiled in a pot of water or broth until set. Afterward, the pudding was turned out, sometimes browned before the fire, and served in slices. The same method works for both sweet and savoury puddings.

Glossary: Penny Loaf, Spinage, & Peniroyal

Penny white loaf: A small, fine white bread, roughly similar to a modern small boule or 250–300 g of white sandwich bread (without the crusts).

Juyce of spinage: Spinach juice — spinach leaves pounded or blended, then squeezed to extract a vivid green juice used to color and flavor the pudding.

Peniroyal (pennyroyal): A strongly flavored mint family herb. Because modern pennyroyal is not considered food-safe, we omit it here and rely on marjoram, thyme, and savory instead.

A Historically-Faithful Green Herb Pudding

This redaction aims to stay close to May’s intent: a rich, herbal, green pudding boiled in cloth. It can be served sliced as a side dish alongside roast meats, or used as a stuffing in the cavity or under the skin of poultrie and veal.

Makes one medium pudding (serves about 6–8 as a side, or enough stuffing for a medium turkey).

Ingredients

• 250–300 g (about 8–10 oz) white bread, crusts removed, torn in pieces
• 1 quart (about 950 ml) heavy cream or a mix of cream and whole milk
• 8 egg yolks
• 1/3–1/2 cup currants
• 4–6 soft dates, pitted and finely chopped
• 2–3 Tbsp sugar (to taste; May’s would be subtly sweet, not a dessert level)
• Pinch of ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground mace (or a little extra nutmeg if mace is unavailable)
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 tsp fine salt (plus more to taste)
• 1 packed cup spinach leaves
• 2–3 Tbsp mixed fresh herbs, very finely minced (marjoram, thyme, savory, and a little parsley)
• 3–4 Tbsp shredded beef suet or finely chopped beef fat, or butter for a slightly lighter version
• Optional: a few small pieces of beef marrow, chopped, for extra richness

Equipment

• A large mixing bowl
• A clean pudding cloth (a large square of close-woven cotton or linen, 18–20 inches / 45–50 cm across)
• String for tying
• A large pot or stockpot deep enough to hold the pudding with room to move

Method: Making the Pudding Mixture

1. Prepare the bread and cream. Place the torn bread in a large bowl. Warm the cream gently until just steaming (do not boil), then pour it over the bread. Let stand until the bread is fully softened, then mash or whisk until mostly smooth.
2. Beat in the egg yolks. In a separate bowl, lightly beat the 8 egg yolks, then stir them into the warm bread-and-cream mixture.
3. Add fruits, sugar, and spices. Stir in the currants, chopped dates, sugar, cloves, mace, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Taste and adjust the sweetness and salt if needed — it should taste pleasantly rich, lightly sweet, and well-seasoned.
4. Make the spinach juice. Finely chop or blend the spinach leaves with a splash of water. Place in a fine sieve or clean cloth and squeeze out as much vivid green juice as you can. You should have several tablespoons. Stir this “juyce of spinage” into the pudding mixture until it takes on a soft green color. (You can add more spinach juice for a deeper shade.)
5. Add herbs and fat. Stir in the minced herbs (marjoram, thyme, savory, parsley) and the suet or finely chopped fat. If using marrow, fold in the small pieces last. The mixture should be thick but spoonable, like a very soft batter.

How to Boil a Pudding in Cloth

This is the step so many recipes skip, but it is central to the period method. Boiling a pudding in cloth gives it its distinctive shape and texture — firm enough to slice, slightly compressed, and faintly marked by the weave of the cloth.

1. Prepare the pudding cloth. Wash and scald the cloth if it is new. Just before using, dip it in boiling water, then wring it out so it is hot and damp. Lay it flat on a clean surface and flour it lightly all over, or spread a very thin layer of softened butter or suet. This helps prevent sticking.
2. Spoon in the pudding mixture. Place the warm cloth in a bowl to support it, then spoon the pudding mixture into the center, leaving several inches of cloth free all around. Do not fill more than about two-thirds of the available space — the pudding needs room to swell slightly as it cooks.
3. Gather and tie. Bring up the corners and edges of the cloth over the pudding, gathering them together to make a neat round bundle. Twist gently to tighten and press out any air pockets, then tie securely with string a little above the surface of the pudding, leaving a small “handle” of cloth and string for lifting. Do not tie it so tightly that the pudding cannot expand at all.
4. Have the water ready. While you are tying, bring a large pot of water to a good simmer (not a violent rolling boil). There should be enough water to cover the pudding completely and allow it to move slightly.
5. Lower in the pudding. Using the cloth “handle” or a long spoon, lower the pudding gently into the simmering water. If the cloth is very buoyant at first, press it under with a spoon until it is properly wetted and submerged.
6. Simmer, do not thrash. Bring the water back just to the boil, then reduce the heat so it simmers steadily. A furious boil can make the pudding tough or risk bursting the cloth. Cover the pot, leaving a slight vent, and cook for about 1½–2 hours for a pudding of this size, checking occasionally to ensure it remains covered with water. Top up with more boiling water as needed.
7. Lift, rest, and unwrap. When done, lift the pudding carefully from the water using the string or a slotted spoon. Hang it briefly over the sink or place it in a colander to drain for a few minutes. Then lay it on a plate or board, untie the string, and gently peel back the cloth. If the cloth sticks, dab it with a little cold water and ease it away.
8. To serve as a side dish. Turn the unwrapped pudding onto a warm serving dish, herb-green side up. It may be served as-is in its pale boiled state, or you may brush it lightly with butter and set it briefly in a hot oven or before the grill to take a little color on the outside. Slice into neat wedges or rounds and serve with a spoonful of melted butter or a splash of gravy, as a rich herbal accompaniment to roast meats.

Using the Green Pudding as Stuffing

As Robert May notes, these green puddings are “excellent for stuffings” of poultry, kid, lamb, veal, or breasts of mutton. To use this recipe in that way, you can:

• As a soft stuffing: Reserve some of the raw pudding mixture before boiling and spoon it loosely into the cavity of a bird, or under loosened skin (for example, under the breast skin of a turkey or capon). Roast as usual, ensuring that the stuffing reaches a safe internal temperature.
• As a pre-cooked stuffing: Boil the pudding as above, cool slightly, and cut into chunks or slices. These can be tucked around a roast in the pan, or arranged in a baking dish with slices of meat, then moistened with a little broth and baked until heated through, forming a layered dish of meat and herbal pudding.

Served either way — sliced as a side, or tucked inside poultry and veal — this green pudding adds color, fragrance, and a sense of ceremony to the table. It is both a starch and a herb course, deeply in keeping with the Tudor–Stuart love of richly seasoned, multi-purpose dishes.

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Part of the Tudor & Stuart Thanksgiving Series
Exploring how early modern English recipes—roasts, puddings, sauces, and “made dishes” from Robert May and his contemporaries—might inspire today’s holiday table.

Continue the series:
🦃 Robert May’s Roast Turkey (1660) | 🍇 Tudor Appetizers: Entrées de Table from The Accomplisht Cook | 

Sources & Further Reading

• Robert May, The Accomplisht Cook, or the Art and Mystery of Cookery (London, 1660).
• Discussion of early modern boiled puddings and their use as both sides and stuffings in 17th-century English household manuals.

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AI assistance disclosure: This post used AI to help with HTML formatting, SEO/meta, image creation, internal linking, and clarity edits. All recipes, testing, historical framing, and final edits are by the author.