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Nut Pudding
1 cup soft breadcrumbs, 2 cups scalded milk, 1 tablespoon Crisco, 1 cup chopped nuts, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 egg yolks 3/4 cup sugar, juice and grated rind of 1 lemon, 2 egg whites beaten until stiff, and 2 squares chocolate, melted. Mix breadcrumbs, milk, Crisco, nuts, salt, egg yolks, sugar, chocolate, juice and rind of lemon. When well blended, cut and fold in whites of eggs; pour into Criscoed individual molds, and bake 20 to 30 minutes. Serve hot with cream.
A baked bread-crumb custard stiffened with beaten whites, closer to a light pudding-soufflé than to a dense bread pudding. The original gives no oven temperature, so the two things to settle before you start are the heat and the pan.
- Oven temperatureNone is given, which was normal in a book assuming a range the cook already knew. Bake at 350F; the 20-30 minutes quoted is consistent with a moderate oven and small molds.
- Squares of chocolateA "square" is one ounce of unsweetened baking chocolate, so this calls for 2 oz. Sweetened chocolate will make the pudding cloying against the 3/4 cup sugar.
- CriscoThe book was written to sell it. One tablespoon of any neutral solid shortening works, and butter works better for flavour; "Criscoed molds" just means greased.
- Individual moldsSix-ounce ramekins or custard cups, filled about three-quarters full to leave room for the rise; the batter will fill six or more of them. A water bath is not called for and is not needed at this size, but it will give a smoother set.
- Temper the chocolate into the baseTwo cups of scalded milk poured onto crumbs and yolks will scramble the yolks if it goes in boiling. Let the milk stand off the heat a minute, stir it into the crumbs, then add the yolks and melted chocolate once the mixture is warm rather than hot.
- Lemon and chocolateThe acid from a whole lemon's juice can curdle the milk mixture visibly. Add it last, just before the whites, and expect a slightly grainy look that bakes out.
- Folding"Cut and fold" is the period phrase for folding with a flat spoon or spatula. The batter is heavy with crumbs and nuts, so lighten it with a spoonful of the whites first, then fold in the rest.
- Doneness and servingThe centre should be just set and slightly domed; it will sink as it cools, which is expected. Serve hot in the molds with cold pouring cream. Makes about six servings.
A Calendar of Dinners was written by Marion Harris Neil and published by Procter & Gamble as advertising for Crisco, the hydrogenated cottonseed shortening introduced in 1911 — which is why a tablespoon of it turns up in a pudding that hardly needs any fat at all, and why the molds are "Criscoed" rather than buttered. The dish itself belongs to a long line of English bread-and-butter and cabinet puddings, in which stale crumbs soaked in scalded milk carried whatever the household had to hand: nuts, citrus rind, chocolate.