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RICE SNOWBALLS (another way)
Boil six ounces of rice in a quart of milk which has been sweetened and flavoured with lemon, almond, vanilla, or cinnamon, according to taste. When the rice is quite tender and has absorbed the milk, turn it out, and beat it well for a few minutes, then press it into small cups, which have been allowed to lie in cold water for some time. Let it remain until cold and stiff, and make a pint of custard flavoured in the same way as the rice. Before serving, turn the rice out of the small moulds upon a glass dish, pour the custard round the balls, and place upon the top of each a spoonful of bright-coloured jam-apricot and red currant jam are very suitable. Time, about one hour to boil the rice. Probable cost, exclusive of the custard, 10d. Sufficient for five or six persons.
A cold moulded rice pudding, unmoulded into a pool of custard — a Victorian dessert that depends entirely on the rice being cooked until it is starchy enough to set. Measurements are imperial, so a quart here is 40 fl oz (5 US cups) and a pint is 20 fl oz (2 1/2 cups).
- The hinge: cook the rice down completelyThe rice must absorb virtually all the milk and break down into a thick, sticky mass; it is that released starch, not gelatine or egg, that holds the balls together. If there is loose milk left in the pan the moulds will slump when turned out.
- Use short-grain rice"Rice" in a Victorian pudding context means pudding rice — short or round grain. Long-grain or basmati will not give up enough starch and the snowballs will crumble.
- Heat and timeAn hour is realistic only over very low heat, covered, with regular stirring; a quart of milk at a rolling boil will catch on the bottom long before the rice is tender. A heavy pan or a double boiler is worth the trouble.
- Sugar is not quantifiedThe original assumes the cook sweetens to taste. About 2 to 3 oz (1/4 to 1/3 cup) sugar in the quart of milk suits modern palates, with more in the custard if you like.
- FlavouringsLemon means a pared strip of zest infused in the milk and lifted out; cinnamon a stick, likewise. For almond use a modern almond extract, a few drops only — period "essence of almonds" was often bitter-almond based and much harsher.
- The custardA pint of pouring custard means a stirred egg custard, roughly 4 egg yolks and 1 to 2 oz sugar to 20 fl oz milk, cooked to about 175F until it coats a spoon. It should be cold, or at least cool, so it does not soften the moulded rice.
- MouldsSmall teacups, dariole moulds or ramekins all work. Soaking them in cold water (rather than oiling) leaves a clean film that releases the rice without greasing it; fill them while the rice is still hot and pack it down firmly.
- Chilling and yieldTwo to three hours in the refrigerator sets them properly, and they can be made a day ahead. Serves five or six, as stated; apricot or redcurrant jam is chosen for colour against the white rice.
Rice snowballs belong to a large family of Victorian moulded milk puddings, cheap enough for the nursery and presentable enough for a dinner table when dressed with custard and jam — the "probable cost, 10d." is the kind of note Cassell's attached to almost everything, aimed at a household cook working to a weekly budget. Rice had become genuinely affordable in British kitchens by the later nineteenth century, and imported rice plus milk plus a few eggs gave a dessert that went a long way. The name simply describes the look: small white domes, sometimes formed in cups as here and sometimes wrapped in a cloth around an apple and boiled, the latter often said to be the older sense of a rice snowball. Cassell's New Dictionary of Cookery, variously placed from the 1890s into the early 1900s, characteristically gives several routes to the same dish, hence the "another way" in the title.