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HIDE-AND-SEEK PUDDING (to be eaten co'd)
Make a rich batter with two table-spoonfuls of cream, mixed with three well-beaten eggs, and a table-spoonful of sugar. Melt a little butter in a small omelet-pan, pour in the mixture, and fry it like an ordinary pancake, but it must be four times the thickness. Turn it on a dish, and, when cold, cover it with rich jam, and garnish with candied fruit cut into slices, and a few dark green leaves. Time, a few minutes to fry the omelet. Sufficient for one person. Probable cost, 7d.
Despite the name, there is no flour and no pudding batter here: this is a thick sweet omelette, cooked slowly, cooled, and hidden under jam. The hinge is heat control.
- Low heat, and a lidThree eggs poured into a small pan will sit deep, and a pan hot enough to brown the base in the usual pancake way will leave the centre raw. Keep the heat low and cover the pan for the last minute or two so the top sets by trapped steam.
- The "batter"Two tablespoons of cream, three eggs, one tablespoon of sugar - no flour, despite the word batter. Beat the eggs well but not to a foam, or the omelette will puff and then collapse into wrinkles as it cools.
- Pan sizeA 6-7 inch (15-18 cm) non-stick or well-seasoned omelette pan gives the depth the recipe wants. In a 10-inch skillet the mixture spreads thin and the whole point is lost.
- "Four times the thickness"A Victorian pancake was thin and crepe-like, so this means roughly half an inch to three-quarters of an inch (1-2 cm) - a set custardy slab rather than a fluffy souffle omelette.
- Turning it outSlide it onto a plate rather than flipping it in the pan; at this thickness it will break. If the top is still tacky, finish it for a minute under a low grill instead of turning it.
- The garnish leavesThe "dark green leaves" are decoration, not food; bay or myrtle would serve. Do not reach for anything unidentified from the garden, and remove them before eating.
- Jam and coolingCool the omelette completely before spreading, or the jam slackens and runs off the edge. A thick preserve - apricot, damson, raspberry - holds better than a loose jelly.
- YieldOne serving, as stated, and a substantial one. It scales, but cook each in its own small pan rather than making one large omelette; the depth is the dish.
The name looks like nursery humour of the kind Cassell's dictionary is full of - one might read it as the omelette playing hide-and-seek beneath its blanket of jam, with the finder whoever cuts into it. It belongs to the late-Victorian family of cold sweet omelettes and "omelette souffle" variations, dishes that let a cook produce a small individual pudding in minutes from what was always in the house: eggs, cream, sugar, and a jar of preserve from the store cupboard. The costing, sevenpence for one person, is typical of the book's habit of pricing every entry for the mistress budgeting a household, and it puts this firmly among the modest domestic sweets rather than the dinner-party entremets. That it is specified "to be eaten cold" means it could be made ahead and set aside - a cold sweet needed no last-minute attention from a kitchen already occupied with the meat course.