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Lemon Pudding, Baked
Beat two ounces of fresh butter to a cream, mix with it three ounces of powdered sugar, the beaten yolks of three eggs, the well-whisked white of one egg, and the grated rind of a small fresh lemon. When these are thoroughly mixed, add the strained juice of the lemon, pour it in gently, and stir briskly all the time. Line the edges of a small pie-dish with good puff paste, pour in the mixture, and bake in a slow oven for twenty-five minutes. Probable cost, 6d. Sufficient for two or three persons.
A small Victorian lemon curd baked in a pastry-edged dish — essentially a lemon cheesecake filling without the cheese. It is quick, but the ratios are tight and the oven is the thing to watch.
- Add the juice last, and slowlyThe hinge of the recipe: acid poured into creamed butter and yolks in a rush will split the mixture. Trickle it in while stirring hard. A slight grainy look is normal and disappears in the oven.
- Oven temperatureA "slow oven" is conventionally read today as somewhere around 300-325F (150-160C), though the book gives no figures. At that sort of heat the egg sets gently rather than scrambling; twenty-five minutes suits a small dish, and the centre should still have a faint wobble.
- Puff paste at the edges onlyOnly the rim of the pie-dish is lined, so the pastry acts as a decorative collar rather than a crust. Ready-rolled all-butter puff works, but at a low heat it browns poorly; brush it with beaten egg or accept a pale finish.
- Weights, not cupsTwo ounces of butter is 55g (half a stick), three ounces of powdered sugar is 85g. "Powdered sugar" here means finely milled caster sugar, not modern American confectioners' sugar with its cornflour.
- The egg ratioThree yolks to one white gives a dense, curd-like set with only a little lift from the single white. Substituting three whole eggs would give a looser, more custardy pudding.
- LemonGrate the rind before juicing, and take only the yellow zest — the white pith below turns the filling bitter. One small lemon gives about 2 tablespoons of juice; unwaxed fruit is worth seeking for the rind.
- Dish and yieldThe recipe specifies only a "small pie-dish", and states it is sufficient for two or three persons.
- The priceSixpence was the estimated cost of ingredients for the whole pudding, not a per-portion charge.
Baked lemon puddings of this type sit close to two older English traditions: the rich lemon cheesecakes of the eighteenth century, which used curd or ground almonds, and potted lemon cheese or curd. The method here -- creaming butter with sugar, beating in yolks, then acidulating with juice -- is much the same as that used for potted lemon cheese, simply baked in a dish instead of jarred. Cassell's recipes routinely carry a "probable cost" and a note on how many they feed, and sixpence for a pudding serving three was a modest outlay. The pastry collar rather than a full lined case uses a fraction of the butter and flour while still dressing the dish for the table.