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Delicate Pudding
Butter a mould or basin and line it with saltana raisins, then put in a layer of sponge cake cut in inch thick slices and the raisins alternately until the mould is filled. Beat two eggs to a stiff froth and turn in a pint of milk, a tablespoon sugar and a grated lemon peel, pour it over the cake and put the mould into a steamer; cover the pudding closely and steam twenty minutes. Serve with whipped cream or any kind of sauce.
A steamed custard-and-sponge pudding of the plainest sort, built from stale cake. The only real technique here is not letting the custard boil.
- Sultana raisins"Saltana" is sultana, the golden seedless raisin. Any raisin works, but sultanas are softer and sweeter and stick to the buttered mould as the recipe intends.
- Mould sizeA pint of milk plus two eggs and the cake fills a 1 to 1.5 quart pudding basin. Leave an inch of headroom; the pudding rises slightly.
- Let the cake soakThe recipe sends the mould straight to the steamer, but dry sponge that has not absorbed liquid tends to float and leave the custard to set around it in a separate layer; a short rest after pouring helps.
- Steam gentlyKeep the water at a bare simmer, not a rolling boil. A hard boil curdles the egg custard and gives a weeping, honeycombed pudding.
- Cover it closelyButtered parchment tied with string, or foil, over the basin. Condensation dripping in will thin the top of the custard.
- Twenty minutes is optimisticFor a full pint of custard in a deep mould it will likely need considerably longer, perhaps twice that. It is done when a knife inserted at the centre comes out clean and the pudding is set but still trembling.
- Lemon peelGrate only the yellow zest of one lemon. The white pith beneath is bitter and will carry through the whole custard.
- Unmoulding and yieldRest 10 minutes off the heat, then run a knife round and invert onto a plate. Serves four to six, warm, with whipped cream or a thin custard or jam sauce.
Steamed puddings in a buttered basin were a mainstay dessert of the nineteenth-century English and American kitchen: they wanted no oven, only a pot of simmering water, useful when the range was already crowded with the rest of the meal. This one belongs to the large family of thrift puddings built on stale cake or bread and a plain egg custard -- cabinet pudding and diplomat pudding are its better-dressed relatives, usually enriched with candied fruit or a spoonful of liqueur. "Delicate" in titles of this period generally suggests a dish light enough for invalids, children and the supper table rather than a heavy suet pudding for the middle of dinner, though the book itself does not say so. Sultanas were imported in growing quantity in the later nineteenth century, chiefly from the eastern Mediterranean and afterwards from California vineyards, so a cook of the period could reasonably be expected to have enough on hand to line a mould.