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Ratafia Pudding, Boiled
Boil the thin rind of a lemon and an inch of stick cinnamon in three-quarters of a pint of milk till it is pleasantly flavoured. Sweeten it, pour it over a quarter of a pound of grated bread-crumbs, and let it cool. Add the yolks of four eggs, the whites of two, and, if it is at hand, a table-spoonful of ratafia, or two or three drops of the flavouring, and beat the mixture well. Butter a plain mould thickly, lay round it even rows of ratafias or of sweet almonds blanched and sliced, pour the pudding in gently, cover with a round of buttered writing-paper, tie it up, and steam over boiling water. Turn the pudding out gently, and send arrowroot sauce, flavoured with ratafia, to table with it. Time to steam, rather less than one hour. Probable cost, 1s. Sufficient for three or four persons.
A steamed bread-and-custard pudding lined with tiny almond macaroons. The whole thing hinges on gentle heat: the mixture is a custard, and a hard rolling boil under the mould will curdle it and blow it into a sponge that collapses on turning out.
- Heat controlKeep the water at a bare simmer with the mould standing clear of the bottom, and top up with boiling water as it goes. Rather less than one hour means checking at 45 minutes: the centre should be just set and barely wobbling.
- Three-quarters of a pintAn imperial pint is 20 fl oz, so this is 15 fl oz, about 1¾ US cups or 425 ml. A quarter pound of grated crumbs is 4 oz, roughly 2 loosely packed cups of fresh crumbs from a day-old white loaf.
- RatafiasThese are the small hard almond macaroons still sold in Britain as ratafia biscuits; Italian amaretti di Saronno, the crisp kind, are the closest supermarket equivalent. The sliced blanched almonds given as the alternative work perfectly well and are easier to arrange.
- Ratafia the liquidThe tablespoonful is of ratafia liqueur, an almond- or fruit-kernel cordial. Amaretto or crème de noyaux stands in. The "two or three drops of the flavouring" is a bitter-almond essence; modern almond extract, usually benzaldehyde-based rather than true bitter almond oil, serves the purpose — use the extract, not undiluted bitter almond oil.
- Egg proportionFour yolks to two whites is deliberate, and worth keeping: it gives a rich, close set rather than a springy one. Freeze the two spare whites.
- Buttered writing-paperUse a round of parchment, buttered on the underside, then a layer of foil, and tie both down with string round the rim of the mould so no condensation drips in. A 1-quart plain charlotte mould or pudding basin is the right size.
- Turning outLet it stand five to ten minutes off the heat before inverting, or the almonds tear away with the butter. Butter the mould thickly, as instructed, so the pattern holds.
- Arrowroot sauceSlake 2 teaspoons arrowroot in a little cold milk or water, whisk into a cup of sweetened hot milk, bring just to the boil until clear, then take it off before flavouring. Arrowroot thins if held boiling.
- YieldThree or four as written, which is a modest 1-quart mould. Probable cost of 1s. reflects Victorian prices and is of no use as a guide now.
Ratafia named two related things in a Victorian kitchen: a sweetened cordial flavoured with almonds or fruit kernels, and the little almond macaroons flavoured to match. The word's origin is uncertain, though it is often traced to the old practice of sealing an agreement — a ratification — with a glass of cordial. Both forms carried the note of bitter almond, the marzipan-adjacent flavour that eighteenth- and nineteenth-century confectioners drew from apricot and peach kernels as much as from almonds themselves, and which appears constantly in period puddings, creams and trifles. This recipe belongs to the large Victorian family of boiled and steamed bread puddings, built on the useful principle that stale crumbs soaked in flavoured milk and bound with egg will produce something closer to a baked custard than to bread: cheap in substance, decorated at the mould with a rim of biscuits so that it arrives at table looking like a set piece rather than a thrift dish.