Is it just a regional name for suet pudding?
From BBC Lancashire
How do you make Rag Puddings please?
Paul replies...
Old recipe for rag pudding...
one basinful plain flour
one basinful suet
one basinful currants
one basinful sugar
one basinful candied peel
a little salt
one tablespoonful treacle
one or two eggs, well beaten
warm buttermilk
one teaspoonful bicarbonate of soda
Dice the suet finely and work it into the flour. Add all the other dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Pour the eggs into a hole in the center of this dry mixture. Dissolve the treacle and soda in the warm buttermilk and add gradually to the other ingredients to
give a moist consistency, stirring well with a wooden spoon. Put the mixture into greased bowls, cover with greaseproof paper and clean cloths, and tie securely. Boil in the usual way for four of five hours. From Mynytho, Caernarvonshire.
David Cross replies...
In Rochdale rag puddings are a savoury meat dish. Though I now live on Tyneside, I still cook these. This is my mum's recipe:
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6 oz Self Raising Flour
3 Oz shredded suet
pinch salt
cold water
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6 oz Casserole Steak
half an onion, chopped
salt and pepper
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Put flour in bowl, add suet and salt and stir together. Add water a little at a time to bind together. When you get a ball of pastry, roll it out to measure about 9" by 7".
Put half the meat in the centre of the pastry, then the onion, then the rest of the meat on top. Add seasoning.
Dampen the edges of the pastry. Fold the long ends to the middle and seal closed, then fold and seal the short ends. Wrap in a clean white cloth and fasten with string, cotton or pins.
Put in a pan of cold water, bring to the boil, and simmer for 3 hours.