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GATEAU DE SEMOULE (French Semolina Pudding)
Put a quart of new milk into a saucepan, with the thin rind of a lemon, and let it stand by the side of the fire until the flavour is thoroughly extracted; then take out the rind, and let the milk boil. Throw in five ounces of semolina, a lump of butter the size of a large egg, a tiny pinch of salt, and four table-spoonfuls of sugar. Simmer gently for a quarter of an hour, stirring all the time, and add gradually the yolks of six eggs well beaten. Prepare a mould as for GATEAU DE RIZ. Just before putting the semolina into the mould, add the whites of four eggs, beaten to a firm froth. Bake in a moderate oven. Both this gateau and the GATEAU DE RIZ may be agreeably varied by flavouring the milk with vanilla, cocoa-nut, or almonds, instead of lemon. Time to bake, one hour and a half. Probable cost, 1s. 2d. Sufficient for a good-sized mould.
A baked semolina mould in the French style — essentially a set custard held together by cooked grain. The two things that decide whether it succeeds are the temperature of the egg yolks going in and the way the mould is lined.
- Quantities in modern termsAn imperial quart is 40 fl oz, so 5 cups of whole milk. Five ounces of semolina is a scant cup; "a lump of butter the size of a large egg" is about 2 oz (4 tablespoons). Use fine semolina, not coarse couscous-grade.
- "New milk"Fresh whole milk, unskimmed and not soured. Standard supermarket whole milk is the right substitute; skim will give a thin, weepy pudding.
- Off the heat before the yolksSix yolks beaten quickly into simmering semolina risk scrambling. The recipe adds them gradually while stirring; drawing the pan off the fire first and beating them in a little at a time is the safer route, and the residual heat should be enough to thicken them.
- The whites go in last, and stay airyFold the four beaten whites in with a light hand immediately before filling the mould, as the recipe says. Stirred in, they do nothing; folded in, they lift the pudding as it bakes.
- Preparing the mouldThe recipe cross-refers to Gateau de Riz, which is not reproduced here, so the exact treatment is unstated; a buttered mould dusted with fine breadcrumbs, or lined with caramel, is the usual Victorian handling. Standing the mould in a tin of hot water is not called for in the recipe, but it helps keep the custard from curdling at the edges.
- Oven and timingA moderate oven is roughly 325-350F (160-180C). An hour and a half suits a large deep mould; start testing at 50-60 minutes, and take it out when a knife inserted at the centre comes out clean and the top is set and lightly coloured.
- The almond variationFlavour with almond extract or blanched sweet almonds steeped in the milk. Historic recipes sometimes meant bitter almonds here; those contain cyanogenic compounds and should not be used.
- Yield and servingA good-sized mould will serve about 8. Cool 10-15 minutes before turning out, and serve warm or at room temperature; a fruit compote or apricot sauce suits it, though the recipe itself suggests no accompaniment.
Gateau de semoule is one of a family of French moulded grain puddings — rice, semolina, tapioca, vermicelli — that Victorian cookery writers took up because they were cheap, filling and looked impressive turned out of a shaped mould. Semolina is the coarse middlings left when durum wheat is milled, and was long associated with Italian and southern French kitchens; in Britain it was widely met with as a plain nursery pudding, so presenting it as a gateau, enriched with six egg yolks and baked in a shaped mould, raises the register. The costing of 1s. 2d. is the useful detail: it points to a book aimed at middle-class kitchens where a dessert had to be accounted for as well as made, and at that price it was a dish a cook could offer at a dinner without apology.