CHAPTER XXI.

=Baked Puddings.= [Illustration: Pudding garnished with Preserves. ] INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. [Illustration: Baked Pudding Mould. ] WE have little to add here to the remarks which will be found at the commencement of the preceding Chapter, as they will apply equally to the preparation of these and of boiled puddings. All of the custard kind, whether made of eggs and milk only, or of sago, arrow-root, rice, ground or in grain, vermicelli, &c., require a very gentle oven, and are spoiled by fast-baking. Those made of batter on the contrary, should be put into one sufficiently brisk to raise them quickly but without scorching them. Such as contain suet and raisins must have a well-heated but not a fierce oven; for as they must remain long in it to be thoroughly done, unless carefully managed they will either be much too highly coloured or too dry. By whisking to a solid froth the whites of the eggs used for any pudding, and stirring them softly into it at the instant of placing it in the oven it will be rendered exceedingly light, and will rise very high in the dish; but as it will partake then of the nature of a _soufflé_, it must be despatched with great expedition to table from the oven, or it will become flat before it is served. When a pudding is sufficiently browned on the surface (that is to say, of a fine equal amber-colour) before it is baked through, a sheet of writing paper should be laid over it, but not before it is _set_: when quite firm in the centre it will be done. Potato, batter, plum, and every other kind of pudding indeed which is sufficiently solid to allow of it, should be turned on to a clean hot dish from the one in which it is baked, and strewed with sifted sugar before it is sent to table. Minute directions for the preparation and management of each particular variety of pudding will be found in the receipt for it. A BAKED PLUM PUDDING EN MOULE, OR MOULDED. Mingle thoroughly in a large pan or bowl half a pound of the nicest beef-kidney suet minced very small, half a pound of carefully stoned raisins, as many currants, four ounces of pounded sugar, half a pound of flour, two ounces of candied citron and lemon or orange rind, four large well whisked eggs, a small cup of milk, a glass of brandy, a tiny pinch of salt, and some nutmeg or powdered ginger. Beat the whole up lightly, pour it into a well-buttered mould or cake-tin and bake it in a moderate oven from an hour and a half to two hours. Turn it from the mould and send it quickly to table with _Devonshire cream_, or melted apricot marmalade for sauce. THE PRINTER’S PUDDING. Grate very lightly six ounces of the crumb of a stale loaf, and put it into a deep dish. Dissolve in a quart of cold new milk four ounces of good Lisbon sugar; add it to five large, well-whisked eggs, strain, and mix them with the bread-crumbs; stir in two ounces of a fresh finely-grated cocoa-nut; add a flavouring of nutmeg or of lemon-rind, and the slightest pinch of salt; let the pudding stand for a couple of hours to soak the bread; and bake it in a gentle oven for three-quarters of an hour: it will be excellent if carefully made, and not too quickly baked. When the cocoa-nut is not at hand, an ounce of butter just dissolved, should be poured over the dish before the crumbs are put into it; and the rind of an entire lemon may be used to give it flavour; but the cocoa-nut imparts a peculiar richness when it is good and fresh. Bread-crumbs, 6 oz.; new milk, 1 quart; sugar, 4 oz.; eggs, 5; cocoa-nut, 2 oz. (or rind, 1 large lemon, and 1 oz. butter); slightest pinch of salt: to stand 2 hours. Baked in gentle oven full 3/4 hour. _Obs_.—When a very sweet pudding is liked, the proportion of sugar may be increased. ALMOND PUDDING. On two ounces of fine bread-crumbs pour a pint of boiling cream, and let them remain until nearly cold, then mix them very gradually with half a pound of sweet and six bitter almonds pounded to the smoothest paste, with a little orange-flower water, or with a few drops of spring water, just to prevent their oiling; stir to them by degrees the well-beaten yolks of seven and the whites of three eggs, six ounces of sifted sugar, and four of clarified butter; turn the mixture into a very clean stewpan, and stir it without ceasing over a slow fire until it becomes thick, but on no account allow it to boil. When it is tolerably cool add a glass of brandy, or half a one of noyau, pour the pudding into a dish lined with very thin puff paste, and bake it half an hour in a moderate oven. Bread-crumbs, 2 oz.; cream, 1 pint; pounded almonds, 1/2 lb.; bitter almonds, 6; yolks of 7, whites of 3 eggs; sugar, 6 oz.; butter, 4 oz.; brandy, 1 wineglassful, or 1/2 glass of noyau: 1/2 hour, moderate oven. THE YOUNG WIFE’S PUDDING. (_Author’s Receipt._) Break separately into a cup four perfectly sweet eggs, and with the point of a small three-pronged fork clear them from the specks. Throw them, as they are done, into a large basin, or a bowl, and beat them up lightly for four or five minutes, then add by degrees two ounces and a half of pounded sugar, with a very small pinch of salt, and whisk the mixture well, holding the fork rather loosely between the thumb and fingers; next, grate in the rind of a quite fresh lemon, or substitute for it a tablespoonful of lemon-brandy, or of orange-flower water, which should be thrown in by degrees, and stirred briskly to the eggs. Add a pint of cold new milk, and pour the pudding into a well buttered dish. Slice some stale bread, something more than a quarter of an inch thick, and with a very small cake-cutter cut sufficient rounds from it to cover the top of the pudding; butter them thickly with good butter; lay them, with the dry side undermost, upon the pudding, sift sugar thickly on them, and set the dish gently into a Dutch or American oven, which should be placed at the distance of a foot or more from a moderate fire. An hour of _very slow_ baking will be just sufficient to render the pudding firm throughout; but should the fire be fierce, or the oven placed too near it, the receipt will fail. _Obs._—We give minute directions for this dish, because though simple, it is very delicate and good, and the same instructions will serve for all the varieties of it which follow. The cook who desires to succeed with them, must take the trouble to regulate properly the heat of the oven in which they are baked. When it is necessary to place them in that of the kitchen-range the door should be left open for a time to cool it down (should it be very hot), before they are placed in it; and they may be set upon a plate or dish reversed, if the iron should still remain greatly heated. THE GOOD DAUGHTER’S MINCEMEAT PUDDING. (_Author’s Receipt._) Lay into a rather deep tart-dish some thin slices of French roll very slightly spread with butter and covered with a thick layer of mincemeat; place a second tier lightly on these, covered in the same way with the mincemeat; then pour gently in a custard made with three well-whisked eggs, three-quarters of a pint of new milk or thin cream, the slightest pinch of salt, and two ounces of sugar. Let the pudding stand to soak for an hour, then bake it gently until it is quite firm in the centre: this will be in from three-quarters of an hour to a full hour. MRS. HOWITT’S PUDDING. (_Author’s Receipt._) Butter lightly, on both sides, some evenly cut slices of roll, or of light bread freed from crust, and spread the tops thickly but uniformly with good orange-marmalade. Prepare as much only in this way as will cover the surface of the pudding without the edges of the bread overlaying each other, as this would make it sink to the bottom of the dish. Add the same custard as for the mincemeat-pudding, but flavour it with French brandy only. Let it stand for an hour, then place it gently in a slow oven and bake it until it is quite _set_, but no longer. It is an excellent and delicate pudding when properly baked; but like all which are composed in part of custard, it will be spoiled by a fierce degree of heat. The bread should be of a light clear brown, and the custard, under it, smooth and firm. This may be composed, at choice, of the yolks of four and whites of two eggs, thoroughly whisked, first without and then with two tablespoonsful of fine sugar; to these the milk or cream may then be added. AN EXCELLENT LEMON PUDDING. Beat well together four ounces of fresh butter creamed, and eight of sifted sugar; to these add gradually the yolks of six and the whites of two eggs, with the grated rind and the strained juice of one large lemon:—this last must be added by slow degrees, and stirred briskly to the other ingredients. Bake the pudding in a dish lined with very thin puff-paste for three-quarters of an hour, in a slow oven. Butter, 4 oz.; sugar, 1/2 lb.; yolks of 6, whites of 2 eggs; large lemon, 1: 3/4 hour, slow oven. LEMON SUET PUDDING. To half a pound of finely grated bread-crumbs, add six ounces of fresh beef-kidney suet, free from skin, and minced very small, a quarter of a pound of castor sugar, six ounces of currants, the grated rind and the strained juice of a _large_ lemon, and four full-sized or five small well-beaten eggs; pour these ingredients into a thickly-buttered pan, and bake the pudding for an hour in a brisk oven, but draw it towards the mouth when it is of a fine brown colour. Turn it from the dish before it is served, and strew sifted sugar over it or not, at pleasure: two ounces more of suet can be added when a larger proportion is liked. The pudding is very good without the currants. Bread-crumbs, 8 oz.; beef-suet, 6 oz.; pounded sugar, 3-1/2 oz.; lemon, 1 _large_; currants, 6 oz.; eggs, 4 large, or 5 small: 1 hour, brisk oven. BAKEWELL PUDDING. This pudding is famous not only in Derbyshire, but in several of our northern counties, where it is usually served on all holiday-occasions. Line a shallow tart-dish with quite an inch-deep layer of several kinds of good preserve mixed together, and intermingle with them from two to three ounces of candied citron or orange-rind. Beat well the yolks of ten eggs, and add to them gradually half a pound of sifted sugar; when they are well mixed, pour in by degrees half a pound of good clarified butter, and a little ratifia or any other flavour that may be preferred; fill the dish two-thirds full with this mixture, and bake the pudding for nearly an hour in a moderate oven. Half the quantity will be sufficient for a small dish. Mixed preserves, 1-1/2 to 2 lbs.; yolks of eggs, 10; sugar, 1/2 lb.; butter, 1/2 lb.; ratifia, lemon-brandy, or other flavouring, to the taste: baked, moderate oven, 3/4 to 1 hour. _Obs._—This is a rich and expensive, but not very refined pudding. A variation of it, known in the south as an Alderman’s Pudding, is we think, superior to it. It is made without the candied peel, and with a layer of apricot-jam only, six ounces of butter, six of sugar, the yolks of six, and the whites of two eggs. RATIFIA PUDDING. Flavour a pint and a half of new milk rather highly with bitter almonds, blanched and bruised, or, should their use be objected to, with three or four bay leaves and a little cinnamon; add a few grains of salt, and from four to six ounces of sugar in lumps, according to the taste. When the whole has simmered gently for some minutes, strain off the milk through a fine sieve or muslin, put it into a clean saucepan, and when it again boils stir it gradually and quickly to six well-beaten eggs which have been likewise strained; let the mixture cool, and then add to it a glass of brandy. Lay a half-paste round a well-buttered dish, and sprinkle into it an ounce of ratifias finely crumbled, grate the rind of a lemon over, and place three ounces of whole ratifias upon them, pour in sufficient of the custard to soak them; an hour afterwards add the remainder, and send the pudding to a gentle oven: half an hour will bake it. New milk, 1-1/2 pint; bitter almonds, 6 or 7 (or bay leaves, 3 to 5, and bit of cinnamon); sugar, 4 to 6 oz.; eggs, 6; brandy, 1 wineglassful; ratifias, 4 oz.; rind 1/2 lemon: baked 1/2 hour. THE ELEGANT ECONOMIST’S PUDDING. We have already given a receipt for an exceedingly good boiled pudding bearing this title, but we think the baked one answers even better, and it is made with rather more facility. Butter a deep tart-dish well, cut the slices of plum-pudding to join exactly in lining it, and press them against it lightly to make them adhere, as without this precaution they are apt to float off; pour in as much custard (previously thickened and left to become cold), or any other sweet pudding mixture, as will fill the dish almost to the brim; cover the top with thin slices of the plum pudding, and bake it in a slow oven from thirty minutes to a full hour, according to the quantity and quality of the contents. One pint of new milk poured boiling on an ounce and a half of _tous-les-mois_, smoothly mixed with a quarter of a pint of cold milk, makes with the addition of four ounces of sugar, four small eggs, a little lemon-grate, and two or three bitter almonds, or a few drops of ratifia, an excellent pudding of this kind; it should be baked nearly three-quarters of an hour in a quite slow oven. Two ounces and a half of arrow-root may be used in lieu of the _tous-les-mois_. RICH BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING. Give a good flavour of lemon-rind and bitter almonds, or of cinnamon, if preferred, to a pint of new milk, and when it has simmered a sufficient time for this, strain and mix it with a quarter of a pint of rich cream; sweeten it with four ounces of sugar in lumps, and stir it while still hot to five well-beaten eggs; throw in a few grains of salt, and move the mixture briskly with a spoon as a glass of brandy is added to it. Have ready in a thickly-buttered dish three layers of thin bread and butter cut from a half-quartern loaf, with four ounces of currants, and one and a half of finely shred candied peel, strewed between and over them; pour the eggs and milk on them by degrees, letting the bread absorb one portion before another is added: it should soak for a couple of hours before the pudding is taken to the oven, which should be a moderate one. Half an hour will bake it. It is very good when made with new milk only; and some persons use no more than a pint of liquid in all, but part of the whites of the eggs may then be omitted. Cream may be substituted for the entire quantity of milk at pleasure. New milk, 1 pint; rind of small lemon, and 6 bitter almonds bruised (or 1/2 drachm of cinnamon): simmered 10 to 20 minutes. Cream, 1/4 pint; sugar, 4 oz.; eggs, 6; brandy, 1 wineglassful. Bread and butter, 3 layers; currants, 4 oz.; candied orange or lemon-rind, 1-1/2 oz.: to stand 2 hours, and to be baked 30 minutes in a moderate oven. COMMON BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING. Sweeten a pint and a half of milk with four ounces of Lisbon sugar; stir it to four large well-beaten eggs, or to five small ones, grate half a nutmeg to them, and pour the mixture into a dish which holds nearly three pints, and which is filled almost to the brim with layers of bread and butter, between which three ounces of currants have been strewed. Lemon-grate, or orange-flower water can be added to this pudding instead of nutmeg, when preferred. From three quarters of an hour to an hour will bake it. Milk, 1-1/2 pint; Lisbon sugar, 4 oz.; eggs, 4 large, or 5 small; 1/2 small nutmeg; currants, 3 oz.: baked 3/4 to 1 hour. A GOOD BAKED BREAD PUDDING. Pour, quite boiling, on six ounces (or three quarters of a pint) of fine bread-crumbs and one ounce of butter, a pint of new milk, cover them closely, and let them stand until the bread is well soaked; then stir to them three ounces of sugar, five eggs, leaving out two of the whites, two ounces of candied orange-rind, sliced thin, and a flavouring of nutmeg; when the mixture is nearly or quite cold pour it into a dish, and place lightly over the top the whites of three eggs beaten to a firm froth, and mixed at the instant with three large tablespoonsful of sifted sugar. Bake the pudding for half an hour in a moderate oven. The icing may be omitted, and an ounce and a half of butter, just warmed, put into the dish before the pudding, and plenty of sugar sifted over it just as it is sent to the oven, or it may be made without either. Bread, 6 oz.; butter, 1 oz.; milk, 1 pint; sugar, 3 oz.; eggs, 5 yolks, 3 whites; candied orange-rind, 2 oz.; little nutmeg. Icing, 3 whites of eggs; sugar, 3 tablespoonsful: baked, 1/2 hour. ANOTHER BAKED BREAD PUDDING. Add to a pint of new milk a quarter of a pint of good cream, and pour them boiling on eight ounces of bread-crumbs, and three of fresh butter; when these have stood half an hour covered with a plate, stir to them four ounces of sugar, six ounces of currants, one and a half of candied orange or citron, and five eggs. A GOOD SEMOULINA, OR SOUJEE PUDDING. Drop lightly into a pint and a half of boiling milk two large tablespoonsful of semoulina, and stir them together as this is done, that the mixture may not be lumpy; continue the stirring from eight to ten minutes, then throw in two ounces of good butter, and three and a half of pounded sugar, or of the finest Lisbon; next add the grated rind of a lemon, and, while the semoulina is still warm, beat gradually and briskly to it five well-whisked eggs; pour it into a buttered dish, and bake it about half an hour in a moderate oven. Boil the soujee exactly as the semoulina. New milk, 1-1/2 pint; semoulina, 2-1/2 oz.: 7 to 8 minutes. Sugar, 3-1/2 oz.; butter, 2 oz.; rind of lemon; eggs, 5: baked in moderate oven, 1/2 hour. Or, soujee, 4 oz.; other ingredients as above. FRENCH SEMOULINA PUDDING. _Or Gâteau de Semoule._ Infuse by the side of the fire in a quart of new milk, the very thin rind of a fine fresh lemon, and when it has stood for half an hour bring it slowly to a boil: simmer it for four or five minutes, then take out the lemon rind, and throw lightly into the milk, stirring it all the time, five ounces of the best quality of semoulina;[149] let it boil over a gentle fire for ten minutes, then add four ounces of sugar roughly powdered, three of fresh butter, and less than a small quarter-teaspoonful of salt; boil the mixture for two or three additional minutes, keeping it stirred without ceasing; take it from the fire, let it cool a little, and stir to it briskly, and by degrees, the yolks of six eggs and the whites of four _well_ beaten together, and strained or prepared for use as directed at page 395, four or five bitter almonds, pounded with a little sugar, will heighten the flavour pleasantly to many tastes. When the pudding is nearly cold, pour it gently into a stewpan or mould, prepared as for the _Gâteau de Riz_ of page 433, and bake it in a very gentle oven from an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half. Footnote 149: As we have had occasion to state in the previous pages of this volume, we have had semoulina, vermicelli, and various kinds of macaroni of first-rate quality, from Mr. Cobbett, 18, Pall Mall; but they may, without doubt, be procured equally good from many other foreign warehouses. SAXE-GOTHA PUDDING, OR TOURTE. Blanch and pound to the smoothest possible paste, a couple of ounces of Jordan almonds, and four or five bitter ones; add to them, spoonful by spoonful quite at first, four eggs which have been whisked very light; throw in gradually two ounces of pounded sugar, and then four ounces of the finest bread-crumbs. Just melt, but without heating, two ounces of fresh butter, and add it in very small portions to the other ingredients, beating each well to them until it ceases to appear on the surface. Pour the paste thus prepared upon a pint of red currants, ready mixed in a tart-dish with four ounces of pounded sugar, and bake them gently for about half an hour. Raspberries and currants mixed, and Kentish or morella cherries, will make most excellent varieties of this dish: the Kentish cherries should be stoned for it, the morellas left entire. Should the paste be considered too rich, a part or the whole of the butter can be omitted; or again, it may on occasion be made without the almonds; but the reader is recommended to try the receipt in the first instance without any variation from it. The crust will be found delicious if well made. Like all mixtures of the kind it must be kept light by constant beating, as the various ingredients are added to the eggs, which should themselves be whisked to a very light froth before they are used. Jordan almonds, 2 oz.; bitter almonds, 4 or 5; eggs, 4; pounded sugar, 2 oz.; bread-crumbs, 4 oz.; fresh butter, 2 oz. Red currants, (or other fruit) 1 pint; sugar, 4 oz.: 1/2 hour. BADEN-BADEN PUDDINGS. Prepare the same paste as for the preceding receipt, and add to it by degrees a couple of tablespoonsfuls of fine raspberry, strawberry, or apricot jam, which has previously been worked smooth with the back of a spoon; half fill some buttered pattypans or small cups with the mixture and bake the puddings in a gentle oven from fifteen to twenty minutes, or rather longer should it be very slow. For variety, omit the preserve, and flavour the puddings with the lightly grated rind of a fresh lemon, and with an ounce or so of candied peel shred small; or with a little vanilla pounded with a lump or two of sugar, and sifted through a hair sieve; or with from three to four drachms of orange flowers _pralineés_ reduced to powder; or serve them quite plain with a fruit sauce. SUTHERLAND OR CASTLE PUDDINGS. Take an equal weight of eggs in the shell, of good butter, of fine dry flour, and of sifted sugar. First, whisk the eggs for ten minutes or until they appear extremely light, then throw in the sugar by degrees, and continue the whisking for four or five minutes; next, strew in the flour, also gradually, and when it appears smoothly blended with the other ingredients, pour the butter to them in small portions, each of which should be beaten in until there is no appearance of it left. It should previously be just liquefied with the least possible degree of heat: this may be effected by putting it into a well-warmed saucepan, and shaking it round until it is dissolved. A grain or two of salt should be thrown in with the flour; and the rind of half a fine lemon rasped on sugar or grated, or some pounded mace, or any other flavour can be added at choice. Pour the mixture directly it is ready into well-buttered cups, and bake the puddings from twenty to twenty-five minutes. When cold they resemble good pound cakes, and may be served as such. Wine sauce should be sent to table with them. Eggs, 4; their weight in flour, sugar, and butter; _little_ salt; flavouring of pounded mace or lemon-rind. _Obs._—Three eggs are sufficient for a small dish of these puddings. They may be varied with an ounce or two of candied citron; or with a spoonful of brandy, or a little orange-flower water. The mode we have given of making them will be found perfectly successful if our directions be followed with exactness. In a slow oven they will not be too much baked in half an hour. MADELEINE PUDDINGS. _To be served cold._ Take the same ingredients as for the Sutherland puddings, but clarify an additional ounce of butter; skim, and then fill some round tin pattypans with it almost to the brim; pour it from one to the other until all have received a sufficient coating to prevent the puddings from adhering to them, and leave half a teaspoonful in each; mix the remainder with the eggs, sugar, and flour, beat the whole up very lightly, fill the pans about two-thirds full, and put them directly into a rather brisk oven, but draw them towards the mouth of it when they are sufficiently coloured; from fifteen to eighteen minutes will bake them. Turn them out, and drain them on a sheet of paper. When they are quite cold, with the point of the knife take out a portion of the tops, hollow the puddings a little, and fill them with rich apricot-jam, well mixed with half its weight of pounded almonds, of which two in every ounce should be bitter ones. A GOOD FRENCH RICE PUDDING, OR GÂTEAU DE RIZ. Swell gently in a quart of new milk, or in equal parts of milk and cream, seven ounces of the best Carolina rice, which has been cleared of the discoloured grains, and washed and drained; when it is tolerably tender, add to it three ounces of fresh butter, and five of sugar roughly powdered, a _few_ grains of salt, and the lightly grated rind of a fine lemon, and simmer the whole until the rice is swollen to the utmost; then take it from the fire, let it cool a little, and stir to it quickly, and by degrees, the well-beaten yolks of six full-sized eggs. Pour into a small copper stewpan[150] a couple of ounces of clarified butter, and incline it in such a manner that it may receive an equal coating in every part; then turn it upside down for an instant, to drain off the superfluous butter; next, throw in some exceedingly fine light crumbs of stale bread, and shake them entirely over it, turn out those which do not adhere, and with a small brush or feather sprinkle more clarified butter slightly on those which line the pan. Whisk quickly the whites of the eggs to snow, stir them gently to the rice, and pour the mixture softly into the stewpan, that the bread-crumbs may not be displaced; put it immediately into a _moderate_ oven, and let it remain in a full hour. It will then, if properly baked, turn out from the mould or pan well browned, quite firm, and having the appearance of a cake; but a fierce heat will cause it to break, and present an altogether unsightly appearance. In a very slow oven a longer time must be allowed for it. Footnote 150: One which holds about five pints is well adapted to the purpose. When this is not at hand, a copper cake-mould may be substituted for it. The stewpan must not be covered while the _gâteau_ is baking. New milk, or milk and cream, 1 quart; Carolina rice, 7 oz.: 3/4 hour. Fresh butter, 3 oz.; sugar, in lumps, 5 oz.; rind, 1 large lemon: 3/4 to 1-1/4. Eggs, 6: baked in a moderate oven, 1 hour. _Obs._—An excellent variety of this _gâteau_ is made with cocoa-nut flavoured milk, or cream (see Chapter XXIII.), or with either of these poured boiling on six ounces of Jordan almonds, finely pounded, and mixed with a dozen bitter ones, then wrung from them with strong pressure; it may likewise be flavoured with vanilla, or with candied orange-blossoms, and covered at the instant it is dished, with strawberry, apple, or any other clear jelly. A COMMON RICE PUDDING. Throw six ounces of rice into plenty of cold water, and boil it gently from eight to ten minutes; drain it well in a sieve or strainer, and put it into a clean saucepan with a quart of milk; let it stew until tender, sweeten it with three ounces of sugar, stir to it, gradually, three large, or four small eggs, beaten and strained; add grated nutmeg, lemon rind, or cinnamon to give it flavour, and bake it one hour in a gentle oven. Rice, 6 oz.: in water, 8 to 10 minutes. Milk, 1 quart: 3/4 to 1 hour. Sugar, 3 oz.; eggs, 3 large, or 4 small; flavouring of nutmeg lemon-rind, or cinnamon: bake 1 hour, _gentle_ oven. QUITE CHEAP RICE PUDDING. Boil the rice in water, as for a currie, and while it is still warm, mix with it a pint and a half of milk, and three fresh or four or five French eggs (at many seasons of the year these last, which are always cheap, are _very good_, and answer excellently for puddings.) Sweeten it with pale brown sugar, grate nutmeg on the top, and bake it _slowly_ until it is firm in every part. RICHER RICE PUDDING. Wash very clean four ounces of whole rice, pour on it a pint and a half of new milk, and stew it slowly till quite tender; before it is taken from the fire, stir in two ounces of good butter, and three of sugar; and when it has cooled a little, add four well-whisked eggs, and the grated rind of half a lemon. Bake the pudding in a gentle oven from thirty to forty minutes. As rice requires long boiling to render it soft in milk, it may be partially stewed in water, the quantity of milk diminished to a pint, and a little thick sweet cream mixed with it, before the other ingredients are added. Rice, 4 oz.; new milk, 1-1/2 pint; butter, 2 oz.; sugar, 3 oz.; eggs, 4; rind of 1/2 lemon: 30 to 40 minutes, slow oven. RICE PUDDING MERINGUÉ. Swell gently four ounces of Carolina rice in a pint and a quarter of milk or of thin cream; let it cool a little, and stir to it an ounce and a half of butter, three of pounded sugar, a grain or two of salt, the grated rind of a small lemon, and the yolks of four large, or of five small eggs. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered dish, and lay lightly and equally over the top the whites of four eggs beaten as for sponge cakes, and mixed at the instant with from four to five heaped tablespoonsful of sifted sugar. Bake the pudding half an hour in a moderate oven, but do not allow the _meringue_ to be too deeply coloured; it should be of a clear brown, and very crisp. Serve it directly it is taken from the oven. Rice, 4 oz.; milk, or cream, 1-1/4 pint; butter, 1-1/2 oz.; sugar, 3 oz.; rind, 1 lemon; yolks of eggs, 4 or 5; the whites beaten to snow, and mixed with as many tablespoonsful of sifted sugar: baked 1/2 hour, moderate oven. _Obs._—A couple of ounces of Jordan almonds, with two or three bitter ones, pounded quite to a paste, will improve this dish, whether mixed with the pudding itself, or with the _meringué_. A GOOD GROUND RICE PUDDING. Mix very smoothly five ounces of flour of rice (or of _ground_ rice, if preferred), with half a pint of milk, and pour it into a pint and a half more which is boiling fast; keep it stirred constantly over a gentle fire from ten to twelve minutes, and be particularly careful not to let it burn to the pan; add to it before it is taken from the fire, a quarter of a pound of good butter, from five to six ounces of sugar, roughly powdered, and a few grains of salt; turn it into a pan, and stir it for a few minutes, to prevent its hardening at the top; then mix with it, by degrees but quickly, the yolks of eight eggs, and the whites of two, the grated or rasped rind of a fine lemon, and a glass of brandy. Lay a border of rich paste round a buttered dish, pour in the pudding, strain a little clarified butter over the top, moisten the paste with a brush, or small bunch of feathers dipped in cold water, and sift plenty of sugar on it, but less over the pudding itself. Send it to a _very_ gentle oven to be baked for three-quarters of an hour. Rice-flour (or ground rice), 5 oz.; new milk, 1 quart: 10 to 12 minutes. Butter, 4 oz.; sugar, 5 to 6 oz.; salt, 1/2 saltspoonful; yolks, 8 eggs; whites, 2; rind, 1 large lemon; brandy, large wineglassful: 3/4 hour, _slow_ oven. _Obs._—These proportions are sufficient for a pudding of larger size than those served usually at elegant tables; they will make two small ones; or two-thirds of the quantity may be taken for one of moderate size. Lemon-brandy or ratifia, or a portion of each, may be used to give it flavour, with good effect; and it may be enriched, if this be desired, by adding to the other ingredients from three to four ounces of Jordan almonds, finely pounded, and by substituting cream for half of the milk. COMMON GROUND RICE PUDDING. One pint and a half of milk, three ounces and a half of rice, three of Lisbon sugar, one and a half of butter, some nutmeg, or lemon-grate, and four eggs, baked slowly for half an hour, or more, if not quite firm. GREEN GOOSEBERRY PUDDING. Boil together, from ten to twelve minutes, a pound of green gooseberries, five ounces of sugar, and rather more than a quarter of a pint of water: then beat the fruit to a mash, and stir to it an ounce and a half of fresh butter; when nearly, or quite cold, add two ounces and a half of very fine bread-crumbs, and four well whisked eggs. Bake the pudding gently from half to three-quarters of an hour. To make a finer one of the kind, work the fruit through a sieve, mix it with four or five crushed Naples biscuits, and use double the quantity of butter. Green gooseberries, 1 lb.; sugar, 5 oz.; water, full 1/4 pint: 10 to 12 minutes. Bread-crumbs, 2-1/2 oz.; eggs, 4: 1/2 to 3/4 hour. POTATO PUDDING. With a pound and a quarter of fine mealy potatoes, boiled very dry, and mashed perfectly smooth while hot, mix three ounces of butter, five or six of sugar, five eggs, a few grains of salt, and the grated rind of a small lemon. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered dish, and bake it in a moderate oven for nearly three-quarters of an hour. It should be turned out and sent to table with fine sugar sifted over it; or for variety, red currant jelly, or any other preserve, may be spread on it as soon as it is dished. Potatoes, 1-1/4 lb.; butter, 3 oz.; sugar, 5 or 6 oz.; eggs, 5 or 6; lemon-rind, 1; salt, few grains: 40 to 45 minutes. _Obs._—When cold, this pudding eats like cake, and may be served as such, omitting, of course, the sugar or preserve when it is dished. A RICHER POTATO PUDDING. Beat well together fourteen ounces of mashed potatoes, four ounces of butter, four of fine sugar, five eggs, the grated rind of a small lemon, and a slight pinch of salt; add half a glass of brandy, and pour the pudding into a thickly-buttered dish or mould, ornamented with slices of candied orange or; pour a little clarified butter on the top, and then sift plenty of white sugar over it. Potatoes, 14 oz.; butter, 4 oz.; sugar, 4 oz.; eggs, 5; lemon-rind, 1; little salt; brandy, 1/2 glassful; candied peel, 1-1/2 to 2 oz.: 40 minutes. _Obs._—The potatoes for these receipts should be lightly and carefully mashed, but never pounded in a mortar, as that will convert them into a heavy paste. The better plan is to prepare them by Captain Kater’s receipt (Chapter XVII.), when they will fall to powder almost of themselves; or they may be grated while hot through a wire sieve. From a quarter to a half pint of cream is, by many cooks, added always to potato puddings. A GOOD SPONGE CAKE PUDDING. Slice into a well-buttered tart-dish three penny sponge biscuits, and place on them a couple of ounces of candied orange or lemon rind cut in strips. Whisk thoroughly six eggs, and stir to them boiling a pint and a quarter of new milk, in which three ounces of sugar have been dissolved; grate in the rind of a small lemon, and when they are somewhat cooled, add half a wineglassful of brandy, while still just warm, pour the mixture to the cakes, and let it remain an hour; then strain an ounce and a half of clarified butter over the top, or strew pounded sugar rather thickly on it, and bake the pudding three quarters of an hour or longer in a gentle oven. Sponge cakes, 3; candied peel, 2 oz.; eggs, 6; new milk, 1-1/4 pint; sugar, 3 oz.; lemon-rind, 1; brandy, 1/2 glass; butter, 1 oz.; sifted sugar, 1-1/2 oz.: 3/4 hour. CAKE AND CUSTARD, AND VARIOUS OTHER INEXPENSIVE PUDDINGS. Even when very dry, the remains of a sponge or a Savoy cake will serve excellently for a pudding, if lightly broken up, or crumbled, and intermixed or not, with a few ratifias or macaroons, which should also be broken up. A custard composed of four eggs to the pint of milk if small, and three if very large and fresh, and not very highly sweetened, should be poured over the cake half an hour at least before it is placed in the oven (which should be _slow_); and any flavour given to it which may be liked. An economical and clever cook will seldom be at a loss for compounding an inexpensive and good pudding in this way. More or less of the cake can be used as may be convenient. Part of a mould of sweet rice or the remains of a dish of Arocē Docē (see Chapter XXIII.), and various other preparations may be turned to account in a similar manner; but the custard should be perfectly and equally mingled with whatever other ingredients are used. Macaroni boiled tender in milk, or in milk and water, will make an excellent pudding; and sago stewed very thick, will supply another; the custard may be mixed with this last while it is still just warm. Two ounces well washed, and slowly heated in a pint of liquid, will be tender in from fifteen to twenty minutes. All these puddings will require a gentle oven, and will be ready to serve when they are firm in the centre, and do not stick to a knife when plunged into it. BAKED APPLE PUDDING, OR CUSTARD. Weigh a pound of good boiling apples after they are pared and cored, and stew them to a perfectly smooth marmalade, with six ounces of sugar, and a spoonful or two of wine; stir them often that they may not stick to the pan. Mix with them while they are still quite hot, three ounces of butter, the grated rind and the strained juice of a lemon, and lastly, stir in by degrees the well-beaten yolks of five eggs, and a dessertspoonful of flour, or in lieu of the last, three or four Naples’ biscuits, or macaroons crushed small. Bake the pudding for a full half hour in a moderate oven, or longer should it be not quite firm in the middle. A little clarified butter poured on the top, with sugar sifted over, improves all baked puddings. Apples 1 lb.; sugar, 6 oz.; wine 1 glassful; butter, 3 oz.; juice and rind, 1 lemon; 5 eggs: 1/2 hour, or more. _Obs._—Many cooks press the apples through a sieve after they are boiled, but this is not needful when they are of a good kind, and stewed, and beaten smooth. DUTCH CUSTARD, OR BAKED RASPBERRY PUDDING. Lay into a tart-dish a border of puff-paste, and a pint and a half of freshly-gathered raspberries, well mixed with three ounces of sugar. Whisk thoroughly six large eggs with three ounces more of sugar, and pour it over the fruit: bake the pudding from twenty-five to thirty minutes in a moderate oven. Break the eggs one at a time into a cup, and with the point of a small three-pronged fork take off the specks or germs, before they are beaten, as we have directed in page 424. Raspberries, 1-1/2 pint; sugar, 6 oz.; eggs, 6: 25 to 30 minutes. GABRIELLE’S PUDDING, OR SWEET CASSEROLE OF RICE. Wash half a pound of the best Carolina rice, drain it on a hair-sieve, put it into a very clean stewpan or saucepan, and pour on it a quart of cold new milk. Stir them well together, and place them near the fire that the rice may swell very gradually; then let it simmer as gently as possible for about half an hour, or until it begins to be quite tender; mix with it then, two ounces of fresh butter and two and a half of pounded sugar, and let it continue to simmer softly until it is dry and sufficiently tender,[151] to be easily crushed to a smooth paste with a strong wooden spoon. Work it to this point, and then let it cool. Before it is taken from the fire, scrape into it the outside of some sugar which has been rubbed upon the rind of a fresh lemon. Have ready a tin mould of pretty form, well buttered in every part; press the rice into it while it is still warm, smooth the surface, and let it remain until cold. Should the mould be one which opens at the ends, like that shown in the plate at page 344, the pudding will come out easily; but if it should be in a plain common one, just dip it into hot water to loosen it; turn out the rice, and then again reverse it on to a tin or dish, and with the point of a knife mark round the top a rim of about an inch wide; then brush some clarified butter over the whole pudding, and set it into a brisk oven. When it is of an equal light golden brown draw it out, raise the cover carefully where it is marked, scoop out the rice from the inside, leaving only a crust of about an inch thick in every part, and pour into it some preserved fruit warmed in its own syrup, or fill it with a _compôte_ of plums or peaches (see Chapter XXIII.); or with some good apples boiled with fine sugar to a smooth rich marmalade. This is a very good as well as an elegant dish: it may be enriched with more butter, and by substituting cream for the milk in part or entirely but it is excellent without either. Footnote 151: Unless the rice be boiled slowly, and _very dry_, it will not answer for the casserole. Rice, 1/2 lb.; new milk, 1 quart: 1/2 hour. Fresh butter, 2 oz.; pounded sugar, 2-1/2 oz.; rasped rind, 1 lemon: 1/2 hour or more. _Obs._—The precise time of baking the pudding cannot well be specified: it only requires colour. VERMICELLI PUDDING WITH APPLES OR WITHOUT, AND PUDDINGS OF SOUJEE AND SEMOLA. Drop gradually into an exact quart of boiling milk four ounces of very fresh vermicelli, crushing it slightly with one hand and letting it fall gently from the fingers, and stirring the milk with a spoon held in the other hand, to prevent the vermicelli from gathering into lumps. Boil it softly until it is quite tender and very thick, which it will be usually in about twenty minutes, during which time it must be very frequently stirred; then work in two ounces of fresh butter and four of pounded sugar; turn the mixture into a bowl or pan, and stir it occasionally until it has cooled down. Whisk five good eggs until they are very light, beat them gradually and quickly to the other ingredients, add the finely grated rind of a lemon or a little lemon-brandy or ratifia, and pour the pudding when nearly cold into a buttered dish, and just cover the surface with apples pared, cored, and quartered; press them into the pudding-mixture, to the top of which they will immediately rise again, and place the dish in a very gentle oven for three-quarters of an hour, or longer if needed to render the fruit quite tender. The apples should be of the best quality for cooking. This is an exceedingly nice pudding if well made and well baked. The butter can be omitted to simplify it. Milk, 1 quart; vermicelli, 4 oz.: boiled about 20 minutes. Butter 2 oz.; (when used) pounded sugar, 1/4 lb.; eggs, 5: baked _slowly_ 3/4 hour or more. For a plain common vermicelli pudding omit the apples and one egg: for a very good one use six eggs, and the butter; and flavour it delicately with orange-flower water, vanilla, or aught else that may be preferred. We have often had an ounce or two of candied citron sliced very thin mingled with it. Puddings of _soujee_ and semola are made in precisely the same manner, with four ounces to the quart of milk, and ten minutes boiling. RICE À LA VATHEK, OR RICE PUDDING À LA VATHEK. (_Extremely Good._) [Illustration] Blanch, and then pound carefully to the smoothest possible paste four ounces of fine Jordan almonds and half a dozen bitter ones, moistening them with a few drops of water to prevent their oiling. Stir to them by slow degrees a quart of boiling milk, which should be new, wring it again closely from them through a thin cloth, which will absorb it less than a tammy, and set it aside to cool. Wash thoroughly, and afterwards soak for about ten minutes seven ounces of Carolina rice, drain it well from the water, pour the almond-milk upon it, bring it _very_ slowly to boil, and simmer it softly until it is tolerably tender, taking the precaution to stir it often at first that it may not gather into lumps nor stick to the pan. Add to it two ounces of fresh butter and four of pounded sugar, and when it is perfectly tender and dry, proceed with it exactly as for Gabrielle’s pudding, but in moulding the rice press it closely and evenly in, and hollow it in the centre, leaving the edge an inch thick in every part, that it may not break in the oven. The top must be slightly brushed with butter before it is baked, to prevent its becoming too dry, but a morsel of white blotting paper will take up any portion that may remain in it. When it is ready to serve, pour into it a large jarful of apricot jam, and send it immediately to table. If well made it will be delicious. It may be served cold (though this is less usual), and decorated with small thin leaves of citron-rind, cut with a minute paste-cutter. The same preparation may be used also for Gabrielle’s pudding, and filled with hot preserved fruit, the rice scooped from the inside being mixed with the syrup. GOOD YORKSHIRE PUDDING. To make a very good and light Yorkshire pudding, take an equal number of eggs and of heaped tablespoonsful of flour, with a teaspoonful of salt to six of these. Whisk the eggs _well_, strain, and mix them gradually with the flour, then pour in by degrees as much new milk as will reduce the batter to the consistence of rather thin cream. The tin which is to receive the pudding must have been placed for some time previously under a joint that has been put down to roast one of beef is usually preferred. Beat the batter briskly and lightly the instant before it is poured into the pan, watch it carefully that it may not burn, and let the edges have an equal share of the fire. When the pudding is quite firm in every part, and well-coloured on the surface, turn it to brown the under side. This is best accomplished by first dividing it into quarters. In Yorkshire it is made much thinner than in the south, roasted generally at an enormous fire, and _not_ turned at all: currants there are sometimes added to it. Eggs, 6; flour, 6 heaped tablespoonsful, or from 7 to 8 oz.; milk, nearly or quite 1 pint; salt, 1 teaspoonful: 2 hours. _Obs._—This pudding should be quite an inch thick when it is browned on both sides, but only half the depth when roasted in the Yorkshire mode. The cook must exercise her discretion a little in mixing the batter, as from the variation of weight in flour, and in the size of eggs, a little more or less of milk may be required: the whole should be rather more liquid than for a boiled pudding. COMMON YORKSHIRE PUDDING. Half a pound of flour, three eggs (we would recommend a fourth), rather more than a pint of milk, and a teaspoonful of salt. NORMANDY PUDDING. (GOOD.) Boil, until very soft and dry, eight ounces of rice in a pint and a half, or rather more, of water,[152] stir to it two ounces of fresh butter and three of sugar, and simmer it for a few minutes after they are added; then pour it out, and let it cool for use. Strip from the stalks as many red currants, or Kentish cherries, as will fill a tart-dish of moderate size, and for each pint of the fruit allow from three to four ounces of sugar. Line the bottom and sides of a deep dish with part of the rice; next, put in a thick layer of fruit and sugar; then one of rice and one of fruit alternately until the dish is full. Sufficient of the rice should be reserved to form a rather thick layer at the top: smooth this equally with a knife, sift sugar thickly on it, or brush it with good cream, and send the pudding to a moderate oven for half an hour, or longer, should it be large. Morella cherries, with a little additional sugar, make an excellent pudding of this kind. Footnote 152: A quart of milk can be substituted for this; but with the fruit, water perhaps answers better. COMMON BAKED RAISIN PUDDING. Beat well together three-quarters of a pound of flour, the same quantity of raisins, six ounces of beef-suet, finely chopped, a small pinch of salt, some grated nutmeg, and three eggs which have been thoroughly whisked, and mixed with about a quarter of a pint of milk, or less than this, should the eggs be large. Pour the whole into a buttered dish, and bake it an hour and a quarter. For a large pudding, increase the quantities one half. Flour and stoned raisins, each 3/4 lb.; suet, 6 oz.; salt, small pinch; nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoonful; eggs, 3; milk, 1/4 pint: 1-1/4 hour. A RICHER BAKED RAISIN PUDDING. Mix and whisk well, and lightly together, a pound of raisins weighed after they are stoned, ten ounces of finely minced beef-suet, three-quarters of a pound of flour, a little salt, half a small nutmeg, or the grated rind of a lemon, four large eggs, and as much milk as may be needed to make the whole into a _very_ thick batter: bake the pudding a few minutes longer than the preceding one. The addition of sugar will be found no improvement as it will render it much less light. Sultana raisins are well adapted to these puddings, as they contain no pips, and from their delicate size sooner become tender in the baking than the larger kinds. THE POOR AUTHOR’S PUDDING. Flavour a quart of new milk by boiling in it for a few minutes half a stick of well-bruised cinnamon, or the thin rind of a small lemon; add a few grains of salt, and three ounces of sugar, and turn the whole into a deep basin: when it is quite cold, stir to it three well-beaten eggs, and strain the mixture into a pie-dish. Cover the top entirely with slices of bread free from crust, and half an inch thick, cut so as to join neatly, and buttered on both sides: bake the pudding in a moderate oven for about half an hour, or in a Dutch oven before the fire. New milk, 1 quart; cinnamon, or lemon-rind; sugar, 3 oz.; little salt; eggs, 3; buttered bread: baked 1/2 hour. PUDDING À LA PAYSANNE. (_Cheap and Good._) Fill a deep tart-dish with alternate layers of well-sugared fruit, and very thin slices of the crumb of a light stale loaf; let the upper layer be of fruit, and should it be of a dry kind, sprinkle over it about a dessertspoonful of water, or a little lemon-juice: raspberries, currants, and cherries, will not require this. Send the pudding to a somewhat brisk oven to be baked for about half an hour. The proportion of sugar used must be regulated, of course, by the acidity of the fruit. For a quart of ripe greengages, split and stoned, five ounces will be sufficient. THE CURATE’S PUDDING. This is but a variation of the pudding _à la Paysanne_ which precedes it, but as it is both good and inexpensive it may be acceptable to some of our readers. Wash, wipe, and pare some quickly grown rhubarb-stalks, cut them into short lengths, and put a layer of them into a deep dish with a spoonful or two of Lisbon sugar; cover these evenly with part of a penny roll sliced thin; add another thick layer of fruit and sugar, then one of bread, then another of the rhubarb, cover this last with a deep layer of fine bread-crumbs well mingled with about a tablespoonful of sugar, pour a little clarified butter over them, and send the pudding to a brisk oven. From thirty to forty minutes will bake it. Good boiling apples sliced, sweetened, and flavoured with nutmeg or grated lemon-rind, and covered with well buttered slices of bread, make an _excellent_ pudding of this kind, and so do black currants likewise, without the butter. A LIGHT BAKED BATTER PUDDING. With three heaped tablespoonsful or about six ounces of flour mix a small saltspoonful of salt, and add very gradually to it three fresh eggs which have been cleared in the usual way or strained, and whisked to a light froth. Beat up the batter well, then stir to it by degrees a pint of new milk, pour it into a buttered dish, set it immediately into a rather brisk oven, and bake it three-quarters of an hour. If properly managed, it will be _extremely_ light and delicate, and the surface will be crisp. When _good_ milk cannot be had for it, another egg, or the yolk of one at least, should be added. Send preserved or stewed fruit to table with it. The same mixture may be baked in buttered cups from twenty to thirty minutes, turned out, and served with sugar sifted thickly over. In some counties an ounce or two of very finely minced suet is usually mixed with baked batter puddings, which are enriched, but not improved, we think, by the addition; but that is entirely a matter of taste. ------------------------------------------------------------------------