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Lemon Sago
Boil half a pint of sago in a quart of water till it is nearly transparent. Add a breakfast-cupful of sugar and three table-spoonfuls of treacle, and the grated rind and strained juice of two lemons. Boil all well together for a few minutes. Have ready a sufficiently large mould (or moulds) rinsed out in cold water. Fill with the sago, and put away in a cool place until cold and set. Turn out into a glass dish, and serve with cream and sugar.
A Victorian moulded starch pudding that sets on the sago alone, with no gelatine. The whole thing depends on cooking the grains until they lose their opaque centres.
- Sago itselfPearl sago is starch extracted from the pith of tropical palms, sold in small hard beads. Tapioca pearls of similar size behave almost identically and are far easier to buy; use the small pearls, not the large boba type.
- Measuring by volumeHalf an imperial pint of dry sago is about 10 fl oz by volume, roughly 8 oz / 230 g. A quart is 40 fl oz, about 1.1 litres. That is a heavier grain-to-liquid ratio than most modern sago puddings, which is presumably what allows it to set firm enough to unmould.
- The breakfast-cupfulA breakfast cup is usually reckoned at around 8-10 fl oz, so read this as roughly 8 1/2 oz / 240 g of sugar. With the treacle as well the result is very sweet by current taste; since the set comes from the starch rather than the sugar, cutting it to two-thirds should not affect it.
- TreacleBritish treacle here means dark cane syrup, not golden syrup. Blackstrap is too bitter; use ordinary black treacle or unsulphured molasses.
- Nearly transparentThis is the hinge. Simmer gently, stirring often, until each bead is clear through with at most a pinpoint of white at the centre, usually 20-30 minutes. Undercooked grains stay chalky and the pudding will slump when turned out.
- Stirring and scorchingThe starch thickens as it goes and catches easily once the sugar and treacle are in. Keep the heat low and stir from the bottom, and add the lemon at the end so the juice gets only a brief boil.
- The mouldRinsing with cold water and leaving the mould wet is the usual practice and helps the pudding release; the recipe does not call for oiling. Give it several hours in a cool place, or overnight, before turning out.
- YieldAbout 1.5 litres of pudding, serving six to eight. It firms further on a second day and is best eaten within three, kept covered in the refrigerator.
Sago reached British kitchens through the East Indies trade and by the nineteenth century was a fixture of the invalid tray and the nursery, praised as light, cheap and easily digested. Moulded starch puddings of this kind thicken and set a liquid without eggs or gelatine, and use little more than water, sugar and a couple of lemons.