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Peach Pudding
Fill Criscoed baking dish full of peaches and pour over top a batter made of 1 tablespoon Crisco, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 cup flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 well beaten egg, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1 cup milk. Bake in moderate oven 30 minutes. Serve with cream.
A cobbler-style batter pudding from a Crisco-era promotional cookbook. It is straightforward, but the batter is thin and the peaches need help.
- Crisco and greasing"Criscoed" simply means greased with vegetable shortening. Butter, oil or any neutral shortening works for both the dish and the tablespoon in the batter; melt it if it is solid so it disperses through the milk.
- Moderate ovenRoughly 350-375F. At that temperature 30 minutes will set a shallow dish; a deep dish packed full of fruit will want longer, until the batter is browned and a skewer comes out clean of raw batter.
- Dish sizeNo size is given. The batter quantity suits an 8-inch square or a 9-inch round dish holding about 1.5 quarts, with roughly 4 cups of sliced peaches beneath it.
- The peachesFresh peaches should be peeled and sliced, and are worth tossing with 2-3 tablespoons of sugar and a squeeze of lemon first — the batter carries all the sweetness otherwise. Canned peaches should be drained well or the bottom stays soupy.
- Batter consistencyOne cup of milk to one cup of flour gives a thin, pourable batter that will run down between the fruit rather than sit on top as a biscuit crust. It bakes to a soft, cake-like layer; resist the urge to thicken it.
- SaltHalf a teaspoon in a sweet batter of this size is on the assertive side by modern taste; a quarter teaspoon is plenty.
- Serving"Cream" here means plain unwhipped pouring cream, not whipped. Serves 6. Best warm, within an hour of baking, while the top is still crisp at the edges.
This comes from the era when Procter & Gamble was working hard to move cooks off lard and butter, and recipe collections built around Crisco — introduced in 1911 — appeared in quantity through the 1910s and 1920s, with the brand name used as a verb in the instructions. The dish itself is older than the shortening: a batter poured over fruit and baked was a long-established form well before Crisco reached the pantry.