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Milk Sago
Boil slowly for half an hour a tea-cupful of sago in a quart of new milk, or, if preferred of less consistency, take rather more milk. This makes a most nutritious and agreeable dish for invalids and children, and may be sweetened and flavoured according to taste. It is well to cleanse the sago in hot water before using. Probable cost, about 6d. a quart.
A plain milk pudding cooked on the stovetop rather than in the oven, and one that depends almost entirely on gentle heat and frequent stirring.
- The hinge: low heat and constant attentionMilk and starch together will catch and scorch on the base of the pan within moments. Use a heavy saucepan over the lowest workable heat, stir often with a flat-ended spoon that reaches the corners, and expect to be at the stove for most of the half hour.
- A teacupfulA Victorian teacup runs roughly 5 to 6 fl oz, so around two-thirds of a US cup. That is a generous ratio of sago to a quart of milk and gives a thick, spoonable pudding; the recipe's own suggestion of more milk is worth taking if you want it pourable.
- A quartCassell's is British, so an imperial quart of 40 fl oz, or about 1.14 litres. A US quart of 32 fl oz will give a noticeably stiffer result unless you slacken it.
- New milkFresh whole milk, straight from the dairy and not skimmed of its cream. Ordinary full-fat milk is the closest equivalent; skimmed milk makes a thin, chalky pudding.
- SagoStarch extracted from the pith of the sago palm, sold as small white pearls. Modern pearl sago is cleaner than the Victorian article, so the hot-water rinse is optional, though a rinse and a short soak still shortens cooking and helps the pearls swell evenly. Tapioca pearls of similar size behave much the same way.
- Knowing when it is doneThe pearls should be translucent all the way through with no white speck at the centre. Undercooked sago stays gritty; the mixture also thickens further as it cools, so stop while it is still a little looser than you want.
- Sweetening and flavouringSugar is best added toward the end, since it slows the pearls' swelling. Period flavourings would be nutmeg, lemon peel, cinnamon, a bay leaf infused in the milk, or vanilla; a pinch of salt sharpens all of them.
- YieldA quart of milk makes four to six servings. It can be eaten warm, or poured into a wetted mould and turned out cold once set.
Sago reached British kitchens through the East Indies trade, milled from the pith of palms grown across island Southeast Asia, and by the nineteenth century it sat on the grocer's shelf beside tapioca, arrowroot and semolina as one of the cheap, bland starches that defined invalid cookery. The logic of the sickroom diet then held that food for the ill and the very young should be soft, white, unspiced and easily swallowed, and a milk pudding met every requirement. The note on cost, about sixpence a quart, is characteristic of the dictionary, which priced its dishes so a household could reckon the week's expense in advance. Milk puddings of this kind stayed in the British domestic repertoire well into the twentieth century, by which point sago and tapioca had acquired their schoolroom nicknames.