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Porcupine Pudding
Wash a quarter of a pound of the best Carolina rice in two or three waters. Drain it, and put it into a stewpan with a pint or more of cold milk, a little sugar, the thin rind of half a lemon, or any other flavouring that may be preferred. Boil very gently until the rice is quite tender and has absorbed all the milk. The time required will depend in a great measure upon the quality of the rice, but fully an hour should be allowed for it. When it is quite dry, turn it out, beat it well with a spoon to a smooth paste, mix with it three well-beaten eggs, and turn it into a well-oiled mould. Cover it, and steam it by placing it on a plate turned upside down in a saucepan containing about three inches of water. Whilst it is steaming, blanch two ounces of sweet almonds, cut them into strips, and throw them into cold water to preserve their colour. Turn the pudding out upon a dish, stick the almonds all over it, and pour round it a pint and a half of nicely-flavoured custard. Time to steam, one hour and a half. Probable cost, 9d., exclusive of the custard. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A steamed rice mould spiked with almond slivers, so the finished pudding bristles. The technique is sound; only the rice timing and the imperial measures need translating.
- Carolina riceA long-grain white rice, once the standard American export. Any good long-grain white rice stands in, though a medium-grain or pudding rice will break down more readily into the smooth paste the recipe wants.
- The hour of boilingModern milled rice will usually be tender and have taken up the milk well before the "fully an hour" allowed here, often in something like 30-45 minutes over very low heat, though it varies with the rice. Judge by the grain, not the clock, and stir often near the end or the bottom will scorch.
- Imperial measuresA quarter pound of rice is about 115 g, a scant 2/3 cup. The pint of milk is an imperial pint, 20 fl oz or 2 1/2 US cups; the pint and a half of custard is about 3 1/2 US cups.
- Cooling before the eggsLet the beaten rice drop below hand-hot before the three eggs go in, or they will scramble in streaks and the pudding will be granular rather than smooth.
- Mould and coverA 1 1/2-pint (900 ml) pudding basin or metal mould, greased with butter or a neutral oil. Cover tightly with foil or pleated baking parchment tied with string so condensation cannot drip in and waterlog the top.
- The steaming rigThe upturned plate in three inches of water is simply a trivet; any steamer insert or ring of foil does the same job. Keep the water at a bare simmer and top it up with boiling water so it never runs dry over the long steam.
- Steaming timeAn hour and a half suits a full-sized mould; smaller moulds are set in 45-60 minutes. It is done when a skewer comes out clean and the pudding pulls slightly from the sides.
- The almondsBlanched almonds cut lengthwise into spikes and held in cold water stay white rather than turning sandy-grey. Dry them before sticking them in, and do it after unmoulding, standing them upright so the porcupine effect reads.
- YieldFour to five as the original states, with the custard poured around the base rather than over the almonds.
The name is purely descriptive: an eighteenth- and nineteenth-century convention of studding a pale moulded pudding with slivered almonds so it stands up in quills, the same conceit that gave English cookery "hedgehog pudding" and the almond-spiked hedgehog of trifle and marchpane work. Cassell's places it among the rice puddings, which by the 1870s arguably ran to two broad types: the loose, oven-baked nursery sort, and the firmer moulded kind bound with egg, turned out whole and sauced, meant for the dinner table. The specified Carolina rice reflects the trade of the period, when long-grain rice from the South Carolina and Georgia lowcountry was the premium grade in British shops and its name functioned as a mark of quality much as "basmati" does now. The costing in pence was a standing feature of Cassell's.