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RICE, GATEAU OF (rice cake)
Prepare the rice as directed in the recipe, RICE, CASSEROLE OF, then take some good cream, which first boil to ascertain that it will not curdle; the quantity must be proportionate to the size of the mould you intend to use. For a quarter of a pound of rice take a quart of cream, which, however, is not always sufficient; this depends on the rice swelling more or less; if necessary, add a little milk to it. When the cream has boiled, take the peel of a lemon, infuse it in the cream for a quarter of an hour; take the peel out before you pour in the rice, which cook over a very slow fire till it bursts or swells; when well swollen, add a little salt and some sugar, according to your own palate; the sugar, however, must predominate, the salt being only intended to remedy the insipid taste that is inseparable from sweet entremets. Sugar must entirely predominate in articles for a dessert, but in entremets it is to be used moderately. When the rice is done enough, and properly seasoned, break eight eggs, and mix the yolks with the rice; next beat the whites, which pour gently into the preparation; put also a good bit of butter; then clarify about a quarter of a pound of butter, and when it is completely melted pour it into the mould; turn the mould round that the butter may be spread equally on all sides, then turn it upside down for a moment; next put crumbs of bread into the mould, spread equally all over it; now dip a small piece of bread into the butter, sprinkle some clarified butter all round the inside of the mould, and add some more crumbs of bread. Pour the rice into the mould, and put it into the oven, but remember it must not be too hot. In an hour the cake will be baked enough. Turn it upside down in the dish, and send to table. Preserved cherries, raisins, currants, etc., may be put with it if desired.
A baked rice pudding turned out as a cake, in the style of a charlotte. The whole thing hinges on the mould being buttered and crumbed properly, since it has to release cleanly onto the dish.
- Rice and cream ratioA quarter pound of rice is about 115 g, and an imperial quart of cream is roughly 1.1 litres. Use a short round grain (pudding rice, arborio, Carolina-style) — long grain will not swell and break down into the creamy mass wanted here.
- Boiling the cream firstThe instruction to boil the cream "to ascertain that it will not curdle" is a freshness test from the days before reliable refrigeration; cream on the turn splits when scalded. Modern pasteurised cream needs no such trial, though scalding it still helps the lemon peel infuse.
- Lemon peelPare the zest only, in wide strips, with no white pith. Fifteen minutes off the heat is enough, and it must come out before the rice goes in or the strips will end up baked through the cake.
- Sugar is not specifiedThe original leaves it to your palate. For this quantity, 100–150 g granulated sugar is a reasonable range, plus a good pinch of salt — the salt is doing exactly what the writer says, cutting the flatness of a sweet entremet.
- The eggsLet the rice cool to warm before beating in the eight yolks, or they will scramble. Whip the whites to soft peaks and fold them in gently, keeping as much air as possible; the original then adds a good bit of butter after them.
- Preparing the mouldClarified butter and fine dry breadcrumbs, twice over, on a 2–2.5 litre charlotte mould or deep cake tin. The double coating is the release mechanism, so be thorough about the base and the join where base meets side.
- Oven temperatureThe original says only that the oven "must not be too hot", which suggests a moderate oven; something in the region of 325–350°F (160–175°C) suits, though no temperature is given. The stated hour is plausible for a mould this size; the cake should be set to the centre and coloured at the edges before turning out.
- Yield and servingThe original gives no yield; the quantities would make a large cake, enough for a table of eight or so. The suggested preserved cherries, raisins or currants could be folded through with the whites, or spooned round the turned-out cake with a little of their syrup.
The gâteau de riz belongs to the French repertoire of entremets — the sweet dishes that came near the end of a service — and the passage reads like a translation from an early nineteenth-century French professional manual, with its aside on how sugar should dominate in a dessert but be used moderately in an entremet. Compilers of English cookery books drew freely on such sources, which is why an English dictionary of cookery carries a lecture on the philosophy of seasoning inside a rice pudding recipe. The technique of lining a mould with clarified butter and breadcrumbs is the same one used for a charlotte, and it does double duty: the crumbs give a thin crust that browns, and they let the set custard slip out whole. Rice cooked slowly in cream, rather than water, marks this as a dish for a household that could afford both the cream and a cook with an hour to spend watching a very slow fire.