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Rice, Compote Of
Wash a quarter of a pound of rice, and drain it. Put it into a saucepan with a large quantity of boiling water, let it boil very quickly, leave the saucepan uncovered, and boil until the grains are soft when pressed between the thumb and finger, but quite distinct. Drain the rice, and steam it in a clean saucepan near the fire till it is dry. Spread it on a dish, sprinkle powdered sugar and cinnamon plentifully over it, and set it by for an hour. Just before serving squeeze the juice of a lemon over it, and pour upon it equal parts of light wine and water sweetened. Time to boil the rice, about twenty minutes. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A cold rice dish dressed with sweet wine rather than a stewed-fruit compote in the modern sense. Nothing here is difficult, but two of the instructions belong to a coal-range kitchen and need translating.
- QuantitiesA quarter of a pound of rice is about 1/2 cup plus a tablespoon by volume, yielding roughly 1 3/4 to 2 cups cooked. For the dressing, figure on around 1/2 cup wine to 1/2 cup water, sweetened to taste; the recipe specifies only equal parts of wine and water, with no quantity given.
- The hinge: distinct grainsThe whole point is separate grains that hold their shape under the liquid. Use a long-grain rice, boil it uncovered in a large volume of water as though it were pasta, and drain the moment the grains give under pressure but are not creamy. Short-grain or risotto rice will collapse into pudding.
- Twenty minutes is longModern milled long-grain rice is usually done in 12 to 15 minutes at a hard boil. Start testing at 10 minutes.
- "Steam it near the fire"This means drying the drained rice in its own residual heat beside the range. Return it to the dry pan over the lowest heat with a folded cloth under the lid for 5 minutes, or spread it on a tray in a 250F oven, until the surface looks dry and floury.
- Powdered sugarIn Victorian usage this is simply finely ground sugar, not the modern confectioners' sugar cut with cornstarch. Caster sugar is the right substitute and dissolves cleanly in the lemon and wine.
- Light wine'Light wine' most likely means a light dry white table wine, or a very light red. Something dry and low in alcohol suits it; fortified wine or anything oaky will swamp the cinnamon.
- The resting hourGive the sugared and cinnamoned rice its full hour before dressing it, and do not add the lemon or wine until service: the recipe is explicit that they go on just before serving.
- ServingServe cool, not chilled, in a shallow dish so the liquid pools rather than drowning the rice. Enough for four or five as written, as a light sweet after a substantial dinner.
"Compote" in nineteenth-century English cookery books usually meant fruit gently stewed in syrup, and its use here for a grain suggests the looser sense of something served cold under a sweetened liquid. Sweetened rice dressed with wine, sugar and cinnamon belongs to a long European family of cold rice sweets, and the combination of cinnamon and lemon with rice is one that runs through Spanish, Italian and southern French cooking as well as English. Rice was cheap and keeping well in a Victorian store cupboard, and dishes like this let a household turn a pantry staple into something that could be sent to table without eggs, cream or an oven.