Old Fashioned Rhubarb Pudding

Ingredients:

1 oz butter
Soft brown sugar
8 oz self raising flour
1 tsp salt
3 oz suet
1/4 pint water
1 1/2 lbs of young rhubarb
1 oz chopped candied peel
2 oz currants
rind and juice of half a lemon
4 oz sugar
pinch of ground cinnamon
3 fl oz water

Method:

1. Choose a very large glass or china pudding basin (2 pint basin is not really big enough for this quantity of stuff).
2. Butter the basin thickly with the butter and shake plenty of brown sugar about in it so that it sticks to the butter (or spread them both together).
3. In a mixing bowl, make suet pastry with the flour, salt, suet and the 1/4 pint of water.
   
4. Form the dough into a ball and cut off one third of the ball to reserve for the lid.
5. Take the larger piece and put it into the pudding basin. Pummel it out thin so that it lines the bottom and sides of the basin up to a bit short of the brim. Make sure there are no holes.
6. Wash and trim the sticks of rhubarb and slice them into 1 inch pieces.
   
7. Put half the pieces of rhubarb into the pudding shell.
   
8. Sprinkle over the peel, currants, lemon rind and juice, half the sugar, and the cinnamon.
9. Add the rest of the rhubarb and the rest of the sugar.
10. Pour in the water.
11. Take the remaining piece of suet pastry and knead it out to make a round lid. Put the lid on the pudding and stick the edges of the pastry together.
12. Cover the pudding with a circle of greaseproof paper as if for steaming, tied on with string.
13. Bake at 350º F, 180ºC, Fan oven 160º, gas mark 4, for 75 minutes.
14. Remove from the oven, take off the paper top, turn out into a dish with sides.
15. Serve piping hot with cream or custard.