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Red Rice Pudding
Take a pint of the expressed juice of red currants or raspberries, a glassful of wine, and a little sugar. Let the liquor boil, then add gradually about three ounces of ground rice mixed smoothly with a little cold water, and stir the preparation until it thickens and leaves the sides of the saucepan. Pour it into a damp mould, and put it aside until cold. Turn it upon a glass dish, and serve with cream or custard. If preferred, groats may be used instead of ground rice. Time to boil the preparation, about ten minutes. Probable cost, 1s. Sufficient for five or six persons.
A moulded fruit-starch pudding of the plainest kind: fruit juice thickened with rice flour and left to set without gelatine or eggs. The result depends almost entirely on getting the starch fully cooked and the juice sweet enough to carry the acidity.
- Ground rice is rice flourGround rice is a coarse-ground rice meal, slightly coarser than modern fine rice flour, which is the nearest substitute — not rice grains or pudding rice. Three ounces is about 85 g, a proportion that should give a pint of liquid a fairly firm set; drop it to 2 1/2 oz if you want a softer spoonable one.
- A pint and a glassfulCassell's pint is the imperial one, 20 fl oz or 2 1/2 US cups. A "glassful of wine" means a wineglass, roughly 2 fl oz (1/4 cup) in this period — a sweet red or a port suits the fruit.
- Expressed juiceCrush the fruit and strain it rather than boiling it to a pulp; you want clear juice, since pulp and seeds spoil the smooth set. Roughly 1 1/2 to 2 lb of red currants or raspberries yields a pint of juice.
- Sugar is left to you"A little sugar" is no guide with red currants, which are very sharp. Start at 4 oz (about 1/2 cup) per pint and taste the hot liquid before the rice goes in — the pudding tastes flatter cold than hot.
- The hinge: cook the starch outSlake the rice flour in cold water first or it will lump, then stir constantly over moderate heat. Ten minutes at a bare boil is the minimum; underdone rice flour tastes chalky and the pudding weeps in the mould.
- Acid and long boilingFruit acid gradually breaks starch down, so do not hold it at a hard boil beyond the ten minutes hoping for a firmer set — you will get a thinner one.
- Damp mouldRinse the mould with cold water and do not dry it. The film of water is what lets the pudding drop out clean; oil or butter leaves streaks on a fruit pudding.
- GroatsThe alternative is hulled, coarsely ground oat groats — closer to modern pinhead or steel-cut oatmeal. They need longer cooking than rice flour and give a nubbly, porridge-textured pudding rather than a smooth one.
- Setting and yieldFour hours in the refrigerator, or overnight, before turning out. Five or six small portions; serve with cream, thin custard or plain milk.
Puddings of red fruit juice set with a cereal starch are common across northern Europe — the Danish rødgrød and the German rote Grütze are the best-known versions, and the German name literally means "red groats," which may be why groats appear alongside ground rice as a thickener. It makes an economical summer sweet: it uses the glut of currants and raspberries, needs no eggs, no gelatine and no oven, and the whole thing came in at a shilling, which the book notes as feeding five or six. Ground rice was a staple of the Victorian store cupboard, sold cheaply as a thickener for milk puddings and moulds, and its neutral flavour let the fruit dominate.