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Rusk Pudding
Take three ounces of thin rusks. Spread a little jam between every two, and press them closely together. Arrange them neatly in a buttered mould, and pour over them a custard made with a pint of milk (or half milk and half cream), the yolks of four eggs, and a little sugar and flavouring. Let the rusks soak for an hour, then steam the pudding, and when done enough serve on a hot dish with wine or arrowroot sauce poured round it. Time to steam the pudding, about two hours. Probable cost, if made with milk, 1s. 2d. Sufficient for five or six persons.
A steamed custard pudding built on rusks rather than bread, from a British book, so the measures are imperial. The whole thing turns on gentle heat: the custard is yolks only and will curdle if the water under it boils hard.
- Keep the steam gentleWater at a bare simmer, never a rolling boil, and topped up with hot water as it goes. A yolk-only custard sets around 175-180F; aggressive steam drives it past that and you get a grainy, weeping pudding.
- What a rusk isA twice-baked, dried slice of light bread or enriched dough, crisp all through. Dutch beschuit or German-style zwieback are the closest things on a modern shelf; failing that, dry thin slices of brioche or plain white bread in a 300F oven until hard and pale gold.
- Weights and volumesThree ounces of rusks is about 85 g, which is only a handful of thin rusks, though the count will depend on their size. The pint is an imperial pint, 20 fl oz or about 570 ml, not the American 16 oz; use the larger amount or the rusks will not be properly covered.
- "A little flavouring"Most likely vanilla, grated lemon rind, or a scrape of nutmeg, infused into the hot milk and strained out. Period recipes also used bitter-almond flavouring, which is best left alone.
- Soaking is not optionalThe full hour lets the dried rusks swell and soften right through. Rushed, they stay chalky in the middle and the pudding will not hold together when turned out.
- Mould and coverA buttered basin or charlotte mould of about two pints, covered with buttered paper or foil so condensation does not fall onto the custard. Two hours suits a deep mould of that size; a wider, shallower dish sets faster, so check earlier for a set edge and a faint wobble at the centre.
- Arrowroot sauceAbout 2 teaspoons arrowroot slaked in cold water, stirred into half a pint of sweetened liquid (fruit juice, or water and a little wine) and brought just to the boil until clear. Arrowroot thins if held boiling, so pour it out at once.
- ServingFive or six as written. Let it stand five to ten minutes off the heat before turning out, or the sides slump.
Rusk is bread taken a second time through the oven until it is dry and keeps a long time -- the same idea as ship's biscuit, zwieback and Dutch beschuit, and the reason rusks were a nursery and invalid staple in Victorian households long before they were a baby-teething food. The dish belongs among the family of soaked-bread puddings that runs from plain bread-and-butter pudding up to cabinet and diplomat puddings: stale or dried bread, a sweetened custard, and steam. Rusks were made at home throughout the period as well as bought, and the jam sandwiched between pairs is the same economy that put jam in the middle of a roly-poly. The costing of 1s. 2d. is typical of the book's habit of pricing every dish for a housekeeper working to a weekly figure.