Home › The Principles of Cookery › Caramel Pudding
Caramel Pudding
Put into a small saucepan four ounces of castor sugar and sufficient water to moisten it; stir until it turns brown, add a little essence of vanilla, and four table-spoonfuls of water. Have ready a warm basin. Mix a pint of warm milk with three well-beaten eggs, and four ounces of loaf sugar. Brush the inside of the basin with the burnt sugar all over, and pour in the mixture. Put a saucer on top, and a cloth over that, and place in a saucepan of boiling water so that the water does not boil into the pudding. Boil for thirty-five minutes, and then leave till cold. Turn out, and pour the remainder of the syrup over the pudding. Probable cost, 6d.
A steamed caramel custard — essentially crème caramel cooked on the stovetop rather than in the oven. The instructions are sound; most of what needs translating is vocabulary and heat control.
- The hinge: keep the water below a boilThe hinge: don't let the water in -- The original is explicit that the water must not boil into the pudding. It does say to boil, but a gentler bath, held at a bare shiver rather than a rolling boil, reduces the risk of the eggs curdling and the pudding weeping when turned out.
- Castor and loaf sugarCastor sugar is superfine sugar; ordinary granulated will caramelise perfectly well. Loaf sugar meant sugar broken from a refined cone, later sold as cut lump — plain granulated is the substitute for the four ounces in the custard.
- A pint of milkThis is an imperial pint, 20 fl oz, so use 2 1/2 US cups. With three eggs to that quantity the custard is on the soft side; a fourth egg gives a firmer set that turns out more cleanly.
- The basinA pudding basin is a ceramic bowl with sloping sides, made in a range of sizes; something holding around two pints suits this quantity. Any heatproof bowl or metal mould that fits inside a deep saucepan with room for water halfway up will do.
- Adding water to hot caramelThe four tablespoonfuls of water thin the caramel into a syrup so it can be brushed round the basin. It will spit violently — take the pan off the heat first, add the water at arm's length, then return it briefly to dissolve any hardened lumps.
- Brushing versus poolingCoating the whole inside of the basin, rather than just pooling caramel in the base, is deliberate: the pudding is turned out and the syrup glazes the sides. Work fast, as the caramel stiffens as it cools.
- Timing and donenessThirty-five minutes is about right for a 1 1/2-pint basin, but judge by feel: the custard should be set at the edges with a slight wobble at the centre, and a knife inserted an inch from the side should come out clean.
- Cooling and turning outLeaving it until cold is not optional — a warm custard will collapse. Chill several hours, then run a thin knife round the rim and invert onto a rimmed dish to catch the syrup.
- YieldServes four to six. The recipe gives the probable cost as 6d.