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Flour Pudding
Make with the following ingredients:--One quart of new milk, eight yolks and four whites of eggs. Beat the eggs with part of the milk, into which stir four large spoonfuls of flour; add the rest of the milk, and flavour with nutmeg, essence of ratafia, and sugar to taste. Mix well, and boil for one hour in a buttered basin. Probable cost, 1s. 2d. Sufficient for two puddings.
A boiled custard pudding, closer in texture to a set custard than to the dense suet puddings that dominate Victorian pudding chapters. The whole thing hinges on heat control.
- Never let it boil hardDespite the wording, the water around the basin should sit at a bare simmer, 180-190F. A rolling boil curdles an egg-and-milk mixture this rich and you get a weeping, grainy pudding with a watery layer underneath.
- "Boil in a basin" means steam"Boil in a basin" usually means steam -- the basin generally goes into a covered pan with water reaching halfway to two-thirds up its sides rather than being sunk in it, though period instructions vary and some basins were immersed. Butter the basin, cover it tightly with pleated foil or a floured cloth tied under the rim, and top up with boiling water as it evaporates.
- New milkFresh, unskimmed, unhomogenised milk. Whole milk is the modern equivalent; an imperial quart is 40 fl oz, nearer 5 US cups than 4, and swapping some of it for single cream compensates for the lost richness.
- Four large spoonfuls of flourRead as tablespoons, roughly 1 to 1.5 oz total, which makes a very loose batter for a quart of milk. The eggs do most of the setting; the flour thickens slightly and helps hold the custard together.
- Eight yolks and four whitesVictorian eggs are generally reckoned to have run smaller than today's large eggs, so six yolks and three whites should give a comparable set. The yolk-heavy ratio keeps the texture soft rather than rubbery.
- Essence of ratafiaAn almond-and-kernel flavouring, sometimes built on peach or apricot kernels and often on bitter almond. Use a few drops of almond extract, and go carefully: a quarter teaspoon in a quart is plenty.
- Sugar to tasteNo quantity is given. About 3 oz (a scant half cup) to the quart suits a modern palate; more than that and the custard sets softer.
- Yield and timing"Sufficient for two puddings" suggests dividing the mixture between two smaller basins, which will cook faster than the stated hour; a single large basin needs the full hour or a little more. It is set when the centre barely trembles.
- ServingTurn out warm and serve with a fruit compote, a spoonful of jam, or a thin pouring cream. Cold, it will be firmer and slices cleanly.
Cassell's places this among its plainest sweet puddings: milk, eggs, a spoonful of flour and a flavouring, boiled in the same basin that would otherwise hold a jam roll or a spotted dick. Boiling in a buttered basin was a common English method well into the nineteenth century, a legacy of kitchens where a pot hung over the fire all day and oven space was scarce or nonexistent, and it survived long after ranges made baked custards easy. The flavouring is the period detail. Ratafia essence took its name from the sweet almond- and kernel-flavoured cordials of the same name, popular from the seventeenth century onward, and it came to be sold ready-bottled to home cooks alongside vanilla and lemon. The costing of 1s. 2d. is typical of the book's habit of pricing every dish, a feature aimed squarely at the middle-class housekeeper who had to answer for the week's accounts.