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RATAFIA PUDDING, BOILED (another way)
Butter a plain round mould thickly, and ornament the inside with even rows of dried cherries. Pour a pint of cream or milk over four penny sponge biscuits and eight ounces of crushed ratafias. Beat the mixture well, add the yolks of six eggs, two table-spoonfuls of sugar, and a glassful of brandy. Lay a round of buttered paper on the top of the mould, tie it up, and boil or steam the pudding. Serve with arrowroot or wine sauce. Time to steam, one hour. Probable cost, if made with milk, 2s. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A Victorian steamed custard pudding built on crushed almond macaroons rather than flour. The whole thing stands or falls on gentle, steady heat: six yolks in a pint of dairy will curdle if the water under the mould is allowed to gallop.
- Steam, do not boil hardKeep the water at a bare shiver, well below a rolling boil, and top it up with boiling water so the temperature never drops. A hard boil will scramble the yolks and weep liquid into the mould.
- RatafiasSmall, hard almond macaroons, once flavoured with bitter almond or apricot kernel. Italian amaretti are the closest thing on a modern shelf; 8 oz is about 225 g, crushed to coarse crumbs.
- Penny sponge biscuitsPlain finger-shaped sponge biscuits, close to what are now sold as savoiardi or ladyfingers. The size of a 'penny' biscuit is not fixed, so four is only a rough guide -- a couple of ounces or so of sponge fingers.
- Dried cherriesVictorian receipts may mean either genuinely dried cherries or candied/glace ones, and it is not always clear which. Either works for the lining; glace cherries hold their shape and colour better through the steaming.
- A glassful of brandyThe recipe does not say what glass; where Victorian receipts specify a wine glass it is usually reckoned at roughly 2 to 2.5 fl oz / 60-70 ml. That is a firm hand for a pint of custard; half will not spoil the pudding.
- Mould and coveringA pudding basin or plain charlotte mould of about 1.5 pints, since the mixture comes to more than the pint of dairy alone; butter it heavily so the cherries release. Buttered paper tied with string still works; buttered foil crimped round the rim is easier and keeps condensation out.
- Timing and testingOne hour is right for a 1.5-pint mould. The pudding is done when a skewer in the centre comes out clean and the custard has just set; let it stand five minutes before turning out or it will slump.
- Arrowroot sauceA thin sweet sauce thickened with about a teaspoon of arrowroot per half pint of liquid, flavoured with wine or brandy. Arrowroot goes clear and must not be boiled hard once thickened or it thins again.
- CostThe 2s. is the price in the book's own currency and has no useful modern equivalent; it is there to help a housekeeper compare dishes, not to price the ingredients today.
Ratafia was originally a cordial flavoured with almond or fruit kernels, and the name passed to the small hard macaroons made with the same bitter-almond note. Cassell's gives more than one ratafia pudding, and crushed macaroons served the turn that breadcrumbs or flour would, carrying their own sugar and flavour; a boiled or steamed pudding also needed only a mould, a cloth and a pot of water rather than an oven. Lining a buttered mould with cherries is a familiar Victorian way of turning a plain custard into something that can be carried to the table whole. Modern ratafia biscuits are generally flavoured with almond essence rather than bitter almonds, so the flavour is likely to be milder than the original.