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Raspberry Pudding, Baked
Put a pint of fresh raspberries into a pie-dish, and sprinkle a little sugar over them. Beat the yolks of three eggs and the whites of two with a quarter of a pint of milk, add a little sugar, whisk the custard till it froths, and pour it over the fruit. Put it into the oven immediately, and bake till the custard is set. Let it get cold, sift powdered sugar over, and serve. This pudding should not be eaten hot. Time to bake, half an hour. Probable cost, 8d. to 1s. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A shallow baked custard poured over fresh berries, and the instruction that matters is the oven: custard sets by coagulation, not browning, so keep the heat low and pull it while it still trembles.
- Oven temperatureThe book gives no temperature, only "bake till the custard is set." A moderate oven of about 325F, or 300F if yours runs hot, suits a baked custard; much above 350F and the eggs are liable to curdle and weep liquid around the fruit.
- Imperial measuresCassell's pint is 20 fl oz, so a pint of raspberries is roughly 10 oz by weight, about 2 1/2 US cups. A quarter of a pint of milk is 5 fl oz, a generous half US cup.
- Custard proportionsThree yolks and two whites to only 5 fl oz milk is a very rich, firm custard, closer to a set cream than to a pouring one. Whole milk gives the intended texture; skimmed will taste thin.
- Whisk to a froth, then bake at onceThe recipe's "immediately" suggests the froth is meant to reach the oven before it subsides, which happens quickly. Have the oven at heat and the dish of fruit ready before you touch the eggs.
- Judging when it is setHalf an hour suits a shallow pie-dish holding the mixture no more than an inch deep. It is done when the edges are firm and a coin-sized centre still wobbles; an instant-read thermometer should show about 170F.
- Dish and depthA Victorian pie-dish is generally an oval earthenware baking dish; the recipe gives no size. A deeper dish will need noticeably longer, and a water bath helps keep the custard from curdling.
- Serving coldThe instruction not to eat it hot is practical rather than fussy: warm, the custard is loose and the raspberry juice runs. Chill it at least two hours, then dust with icing sugar just before it goes to the table so the sugar does not dissolve.
- YieldFour or five small portions as written, which is modest by modern standards. The quantities double cleanly if you keep the depth shallow and use two dishes.
Cassell's belongs to the great age of the English pudding dictionary, when a single volume might list several hundred of them, and its raspberry pudding sits in the lighter, later tradition of baked custards rather than the suet-and-cloth boiled puddings of earlier generations. Raspberries were a natural fit for such a book: hardy in cool British gardens, abundant for a few weeks in high summer, and too soft to travel far, so they were eaten close to where they grew. The costing of 8d. to 1s. is characteristic of Victorian household manuals, which quoted prices so a mistress could check the cook's accounts, and it reflects a season when berries came from the kitchen garden or a local market rather than from anywhere in the world at any time of year. The insistence that the pudding be eaten cold is a small piece of technical honesty.