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Rice Meringue
Take four heaping tablespoonfuls of rice, and after washing it in several waters, put into a quart of sweet milk and steam until well cooked; stir in three heaping tablespoonfuls of sugar and a lump of butter the size of a butternut, while it is hot. Let it cool so it will not cook the eggs, then mix in the beaten yolks of four eggs and the grated rind of one lemon. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and spread over the top, the meringne formed of the beaten whites of the eggs, mixed with the juice of the lemon and six or seven tablespoonfuls of white sugar. Bake only long enough to brown handsomely. If jelly is preferred to lemon, spread a layer of apple, currant or raspberry jelly over the rice custard, and add the beaten whites and sugar on top.
A milk-rice custard with a lemon meringue lid, of a type that appears in almost every American household book of the late nineteenth century. The measurements are workable once translated, but the baking instruction needs rethinking.
- The hinge: bake until the custard sets, not just until the top brownsFour raw yolks go into a cooled rice base, so "bake only long enough to brown handsomely" leaves them barely warmed. Bake at 350F until the center is set and reads 160F on a thermometer, roughly 20-30 minutes, tenting loosely with foil if the meringue colors before the custard is done.
- Sweet milkSimply fresh unsoured whole milk, as opposed to the buttermilk or sour milk that older recipes call for by name. Whole milk is the right substitute; skim gives a thin, watery pudding.
- A lump of butter the size of a butternutA butternut is about the size of a large walnut, so roughly 1 to 1.5 ounces, or 2 to 3 tablespoons. This is a forgiving quantity.
- Rice and quantityFour heaping tablespoons is about a third of a cup of raw rice to a quart of milk, which is a loose, spoonable pudding rather than a stiff one. Use a medium or short-grain white rice; long-grain stays separate and gives a less creamy result.
- Steaming the riceThe original means a double boiler or a covered dish set over water, which prevents scorching over a coal range. A heavy saucepan over low heat works, stirred often; count on 40 to 50 minutes for the rice to soften fully in milk, which cooks grains more slowly than water does.
- Tempering"Let it cool so it will not cook the eggs" is sound but slow. Stir a ladle of the warm rice into the beaten yolks first, then return the mixture to the pan; the pudding should be warm rather than hot when the yolks go in.
- The meringueSix or seven tablespoons of sugar to four whites is a little under two tablespoons per white, which is about the usual proportion for a soft meringue. Beat to soft peaks before adding the sugar gradually, and spread the meringue so it touches the rim of the dish all round, which keeps it from shrinking and weeping.but "on the generous side" overstates it: the conventional soft-meringue ratio is roughly two tablespoons of sugar per white, so this is at or slightly below standard rather than generous.75-1.75 tablespoons per white., characcharacterisation should be neutral.'under two tablespoons per white' is correct arithmetic; the judgement attached to it is not..). )
- YieldA quart of milk makes about six servings. Use a 1.5- to 2-quart baking dish so there is room for the meringue.
Rice puddings crowned with meringue were a common economy dessert in American and British households, and this version sits in the same tradition as queen of puddings, where a bread custard (and sometimes a rice one) is finished with jam and a sugared white-of-egg topping. The structure is thrifty: the yolks enrich the pudding and the whites go on top, so nothing is wasted. The alternative ending offered here, a layer of apple, currant or raspberry jelly under the meringue, points at the same family of dishes, from a period when home-put-up jellies were a common pantry item rather than a purchase. "Sweet milk" in the ingredient line is itself a period marker, distinguishing fresh milk from the soured milk that was equally common in a kitchen without refrigeration.