A large number of puddings are boiled in a cloth. The first care should be to see that the cloth is quite clean, and it is generally best to throw it into scalding hot water for a minute, and afterwards to wring it out. For an ordinary pudding - say, suet (see Suet-Pudding) - suppose the pudding mixture is ready in a basin, lay the cloth out, and flour it well - ie., every part of it that is likely to come into contact with the pudding; shape the pudding into a ball, and place it in the middle of the cloth; bring the ends up together, and tie the cloth round with a piece of string very tight. This does not mean that you, so to speak, wrap up the pudding very tight; but, on the contrary, you should allow room for the pudding to swell; i.e., you tie the string round the cloth about an inch above the pudding. Always plunge the pudding, when tied up, into boiling water, and keep the water boiling. A suet-pudding for five or six persons will take about two hours or two and a half hours to boil. When you take it out, put the pudding on a dish or plate, and let it stand and drain for a minute before you untie the string and take out the pudding.

When the pudding is a rich one (such as a Christmas pudding), you should butter the cloth before you flour it. It is also best, on these great occasions, to have a new cloth that has been scalded several times. It is perhaps needless to state that there must be no holes in the cloth.

In boiling a pudding in a basin, wrapped up in a cloth, the basin should have a rim. The cloth should be stretched over the top of the basin, then tied round the rim, and the cloth brought up and tied again.