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Canadian Pudding
Mix six table-spoonfuls of Indian corn-flour, one quart of milk, and the thin rind of half a lemon, in a saucepan, and let it boil, stirring all the time. Let it cool; then mix with it four eggs well beaten, and a little sugar, and pour it into a well-buttered mould which has been garnished with raisins placed in rows. Steam it for two hours, and serve with wine sauce. Probable cost, 1s. 3d. Sufficient for six persons.
A steamed cornmeal custard pudding of the sort that turned up under a dozen national names in Victorian cookery books. It is simple, but two points decide whether it sets properly: the temperature of the mush when the eggs go in, and a steady, gentle steam.
- Cool the mush before the eggsThis is the hinge. Beaten eggs stirred into hot cornmeal porridge curdle instantly and the pudding turns grainy. Let the mixture drop to a little above blood heat — warm but comfortable on the back of a finger — then beat the eggs in fast.
- "Indian corn-flour"In British books of this period the phrase generally means finely ground maize meal rather than the white cornstarch sold today as cornflour. Fine yellow cornmeal is the closest match; cornstarch would give a much stiffer, more translucent set from the same six spoonfuls.
- Measure and proportionSix tablespoons to a quart (an imperial quart of the period is about 1.14 litres, not the US 950 ml) is a loose ratio, and period tablespoons were not standardised and may have run larger than the modern 15 ml. Expect a soft, spoonable custard rather than a sliceable pudding; add a spoonful or two more meal if you want it firmer.
- The lemon rind"Thin rind" means pared with a knife or peeler, no white pith, in strips you can fish out before the eggs go in. Left in, the pith turns the pudding bitter over two hours of steaming.
- Garnishing the mouldRaisins pressed in rows against a well-buttered mould only stay put if the butter is firm — chill the buttered mould before setting them, then pour the batter down the side rather than onto the fruit.
- SteamingCover the mould with buttered paper or foil tied down, stand it in a pan with water reaching halfway up, and keep the water at a bare simmer. Two hours is right for a quart-and-a-half mould; test with a skewer, which should come out clean. A vigorous boil will make the custard puff and then weep.
- Wine sauceA common period version is butter, sugar and sherry or Madeira warmed together, sometimes thickened with an egg yolk. Do not let it boil once the wine is in.
- YieldSix as the original states, served hot and turned out onto a warmed dish. It sits badly overnight; the cornmeal stiffens.
Steamed cornmeal puddings were a standing feature of nineteenth-century English cookery under a shifting set of names — Indian pudding, American pudding, Canadian pudding — all of them signalling the same thing to a British reader: maize, a grain associated with North America and cheaper than wheat flour or rice. Cassell's assigns names of this kind fairly loosely, and there is no particular evidence tying this version to Canada beyond the transatlantic association of the meal itself. What it does show is how maize entered the British sweet course: not as cornbread or johnnycake, but folded into the existing framework of the boiled and steamed pudding, moulded, decorated with raisins and sent to table with a fortified-wine sauce. The costing of 1s. 3d. places it firmly among the economical puddings — a full sweet for six from a quart of milk, four eggs and a few spoonfuls of meal.