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Snowballs, Rice
No. 1.--Wash half a pound of rice in two or three waters and pick out all imperfect grains. Throw it into a saucepan of fast-boiling water, and boil quickly for ten minutes; drain, and cool it. Pare five or six large baking apples and carefully remove the core without dividing them. Put into the hollow of each a little grated lemon-rind or cinnamon and sugar. Divide the rice into as many portions as there are apples, and spread each portion in a circular form on a separate cloth. Lay the fruit in the centre, and tie the cloth to cover the apple with the rice. Put the puddings into boiling water, and keep them boiling quickly until done enough. Turn the snowballs upon a hot dish, strew powdered sugar thickly over them, and send melted butter to table with them. If liked, oranges, skinned and cleared from the thick white skin, may be substituted for the apples. Time to boil, an hour and a half. Probable cost of snowballs, 1d. each. Sufficient for five or six persons. No. 2.--Wash and pick half a pound of rice; drain it, and put it into a saucepan, with a pinch of salt and about a quart of water. Cover the saucepan closely, and let its contents simmer gently until the water is absorbed. Dip some small moulds or tea-cups into cold water for a moment; press the boiled rice into them, then turn them in shapes upon a dish, sift powdered sugar thickly over them, and send wine sauce or melted butter to table in a tureen. Time to boil, about an hour. Probable cost, 6d., exclusive of wine. Sufficient for four persons.
Two Victorian rice puddings under one name: the first a whole apple wrapped in par-boiled rice and boiled in a cloth, the second a plain moulded rice turned out in small domes. The hinge in No. 1 is the wrapping — the rice must be tied tightly enough to hold together but with a little slack for swelling, or the ball either bursts or cooks into a dense mass.
- "Melted butter" is a sauceIn British cookery books of this period melted butter means a white sauce of butter, flour and water or milk, not simply butter liquefied. Sent to table in a tureen, it is poured over the split pudding.
- The riceUse short-grain pudding rice or Arborio, which swells and clings. Long-grain or basmati will not bind and the ball will collapse when the cloth comes off. Half a pound is about 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons, roughly 225 g.
- Pudding clothsScald squares of unbleached calico or muslin, wring out, and flour the inside surface lightly so the rice releases. Tie with kitchen string, leaving a little room for expansion, and keep the water at a steady boil and topped up so the puddings stay submerged throughout.
- Baking applesA firm cooking apple that holds shape is wanted — Bramley collapses to sauce in ninety minutes. Use something denser such as Granny Smith or Braeburn, and core with an apple corer rather than a knife so the fruit stays whole.
- "Until done enough"The stated hour and a half is for large apples in a full wrap of rice. Test by unwrapping one: the rice should be tender through and the apple soft to a skewer.
- The orange variationPeeled oranges give off a good deal of juice and will loosen the rice. Wrap them more tightly and expect a wetter pudding; they may need less time than apples, though the recipe gives no separate timing.
- No. 2 is a different dishRice simmered covered in a quart of water until absorbed, then pressed into wet teacups and turned out. Dipping the moulds in cold water is what lets them release; do it just before filling, and unmould while the rice is still warm.
- Wine sauceA wine sauce of the period is commonly sweetened sherry or Madeira, sometimes thickened lightly with cornflour or arrowroot and enriched with butter -- served hot, poured at table.
- YieldNo. 1 gives five or six; No. 2 four. The pence quoted are late-Victorian retail prices and carry no useful modern equivalent.
Boiling puddings in a floured cloth was the standard English method long before the basin and steamer took over, and the technique here — a whole fruit sealed inside a starchy jacket and dropped into the pot — is the same idea as an apple dumpling with rice standing in for suet pastry. The name is generally taken to come from the appearance: white, round, and dredged thickly with powdered sugar. Rice was cheap and filling by the second half of the nineteenth century, imported in quantity and promoted in household manuals as an economical bulk for nursery and family puddings, which is why the book can put the cost at a penny each. The second version, pressed into teacups and turned out, belongs to the same family as the moulded rice shapes and blancmanges that filled the plainer end of a Victorian sweet course, dressed up only by whatever sauce the household could afford.