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Apricots with Rice
Simmer very gently a small tea-cupful of rice with a quart of milk. When the milk is absorbed and the rice thoroughly cooked, put it into a bowl and beat it, for five or ten minutes, with two table-spoonfuls of sugar and six drops of almond flavouring. Press it into a mould which has been previously soaked in water, and when it is quite cold turn it into a glass dish, and pour round it apricots stewed in halves in a syrup made of a pound of sugar, the juice of three lemons, and three or four spoonfuls of water. A few drops of prepared cochineal put into the syrup will improve the appearance of the dish. Apples or pears may be used instead of apricots. Time to boil the rice, three-quarters of an hour. Probable cost, 2s. Sufficient for six persons.
A moulded rice cream with stewed fruit around it — straightforward, but two details decide whether it works: how far you cook down the rice, and how you handle a syrup that is almost all sugar.
- The hinge: cook the rice until it is stiffThe mould only holds its shape because the starch has swollen and the milk is fully absorbed. If any free liquid remains after the stated three-quarters of an hour, keep going over very low heat; a loose mixture will slump the moment it is turned out.
- A teacupfulA Victorian teacup is usually reckoned at about 5 to 6 fl oz; since the recipe specifies a small one, err low — roughly 3/4 cup of rice (about 150 g) to a quart of milk, an imperial quart of about 1.1 litres. A short-grain pudding rice is the usual choice; long-grain gives less of the stickiness the mould needs.
- Almond flavouringSix drops means a concentrated essence. Modern almond extract is stronger than some period preparations, so start with three or four drops and taste — the point is a background note, not marzipan.
- Beating the riceFive to ten minutes of beating while still hot breaks the grains down and gives the smooth, close texture the dish depends on. A wooden spoon and some effort, or the paddle of a stand mixer on low.
- Wetting the mouldSoaking the mould in cold water and not drying it leaves a film that stops the rice gripping the metal. Do not grease it; oil would sit visibly on the surface of a white pudding.
- The syrupA pound of sugar with only the juice of three lemons and three or four spoonfuls of water is barely enough liquid to dissolve it. Warm it slowly and stir until clear before the fruit goes in, or it will catch and colour. Fresh apricot halves need only a few minutes' poaching; tinned ones need none, only to be warmed through.
- CochinealStill sold as carmine or E120, made from insects — not vegetarian, and a known allergen for a small number of people. It is purely cosmetic here and can be left out.
- Chilling and servingAllow at least four hours in the refrigerator, or overnight, before turning out. Serves six, as stated; the 2s. cost belongs to the period and means nothing now.
Cassell's belongs to the great age of the moulded pudding, when a well-run household was often said to judge a cook partly on whether her shapes came out of the tin clean. Rice boiled to a paste in milk gave a cheap, white, firm base that behaved much like the more expensive blancmanges set with isinglass or gelatine, and it turns up under many names across nineteenth-century English cookbooks. The apricots are the luxury: fresh ones had a short English season and were often wall-grown or imported, while tinned and bottled fruit was becoming widely available by the later decades of the century, which is why the recipe can shrug and offer apples or pears instead. The drop of cochineal is very much of its time, thought to make a plain nursery ingredient fit for the dinner table.