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Meringue of Rice
Take six ounces of rice, put it in a quart of milk, and set it over a slow fire to simmer till the rice swells. Add half a pint of good cream, and let it simmer till it gets thick. Then take it off the fire. Have ready six ratafia biscuits dried and crumbled small, a quarter of a pound of castor sugar, and the grated peel of a lemon. Mix all well together with the rice, and let it stand by the fire. Whip the whites of three eggs to a froth, stir it quickly into the rice, turn it into the dish it will be served in, and put into the oven to brown. Sprinkle sugar over, and serve. Probable cost, 1s. 8d.
A baked rice pudding lightened with whisked egg white rather than a separate meringue cap. The proportions work, but the Victorian measures and the near-boiling rice need attention.
- The measuresSix ounces of rice is a scant cup of short-grain pudding rice. The quart of milk is an imperial quart, 40 imperial fl oz, and the half pint of cream is 10 imperial fl oz, so allow roughly a fifth more liquid than a US quart and US half pint if you are working from American measures.
- The hinge: let the rice cool"Let it stand by the fire" is the weak point. Whisked whites folded into rice that is still steaming will collapse and weep. Let the mixture drop to warm but not hot, then fold the whites in with a light hand rather than stirring them.
- Ratafia biscuitsSmall crisp almond macaroons, sold in Britain as ratafias and still available; Italian amaretti, crushed, are the closest common substitute. Six of them is a flavouring, not a bulk ingredient, so do not overdo it.
- Castor sugarCaster or superfine sugar. Ordinary granulated works in the rice, but use caster for the sprinkling on top so it dissolves rather than sitting in grains.
- Simmering the riceExpect 30 to 40 minutes over low heat for the rice to swell in the milk, then another 10 to 15 once the cream goes in. Stir often near the end; rice and cream catch on the base easily.
- Oven temperatureThe dish only needs colour, so 400F for 10 to 15 minutes, or a couple of minutes under a hot grill with the dish watched. Longer at a lower heat will dry the pudding out before it browns.
- A visible meringueAs written the whites go through the whole pudding. If you want the browned peak the name suggests, hold back one white with a spoonful of sugar and spread that over the surface before baking.
- YieldServes six as a dessert. Best warm; it firms considerably as it cools.
Cassell's places this among the plainer sweet puddings that carried a Victorian family dinner to its close, where rice, milk and sugar did most of the work and a few shillings' worth of cream and eggs raised it above nursery food. The costing of 1s 8d is characteristic of the dictionary, which priced nearly every dish so a mistress of the house could weigh it against the week's budget. The trick of folding whisked whites into a hot cereal or fruit base and browning the top is much older than the book and shows up across the nineteenth century under names like snow, soufflé and meringue used loosely. Ratafia biscuits take their name from the almond-flavoured cordial ratafia, and the almond note here is doing the same job as the grated lemon peel: covering the flatness of boiled milk and rice.