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Transparent Pudding
Whisk eight eggs thoroughly. Put them into a saucepan with half a pound of powdered sugar, half a pound of fresh butter, and any flavouring that may be preferred, either grated lemon-rind, grated nutmeg, or almond flavouring. If fresh lemon-rind is used, a little lemon-juice may be added as well. Stir the mixture over the fire until it thickens, then pour it out to cool. Line the edges of a buttered baking-dish with good pastry, pour in the mixture, and bake the pudding in a moderate oven. It may be served either cold or hot--whichever is the more convenient. A little powdered sugar should be sifted over the pudding before it is sent to table. Time to bake, three-quarters of an hour. Probable cost, 2s. 2d. Sufficient for four or five persons.
This is essentially a lemon-curd-style custard baked in a pastry-edged dish. Everything depends on the stovetop stage: the eggs must thicken without ever reaching a simmer.
- The hinge: do not let it boilStir over low heat, or better in a bowl over barely simmering water, until the mixture coats the spoon and reaches about 170-175F. Above that the eggs curdle and the pudding will never be transparent.
- "Powdered sugar"In this period the term means granulated sugar crushed fine, closest to modern caster sugar. Do not use modern confectioners' sugar, which contains cornstarch and will cloud the set.
- QuantitiesHalf a pound each of sugar and butter is a generous cup of sugar and 2 sticks (225 g) butter, with 8 whole eggs. That is a rich, dense filling by design.
- Moderate ovenConventionally taken as somewhere around 350F (180C), though the book gives no temperatures. Three-quarters of an hour suits a dish of moderate size; the centre should be just set with a faint wobble.
- "Line the edges"The pastry is a rim only, not a full crust, so the filling sits directly on the buttered dish. Use a short paste or puff, and chill the rim before filling to keep it from slumping.
- Almond flavouringVictorian almond flavouring often meant ratafia or bitter almond essence. Use modern almond extract, sparingly, about a quarter teaspoon for this quantity.
- Lemon versionGrate the zest of two lemons into the eggs and add a tablespoon or two of juice. Add the juice with the sugar rather than at the end, so the acid warms gradually with the eggs.
- Serving and costFour to five portions, as stated. The 2s 2d is a late-Victorian retail figure and has no useful modern equivalent; it is there so a housekeeper could cost her week.
Transparent puddings appear in English cookery books from the later eighteenth century onward -- Elizabeth Raffald's 1769 book carries one -- and the name is generally understood to refer to the appearance of the set filling: eggs, butter and sugar cooked gently together turn glossy and translucent rather than opaque like a milk custard. The method is the same one that produces lemon curd, or "lemon cheese", which was made in the same kitchens and sometimes potted for keeping; here it is simply thickened, cooled, and baked behind a rim of pastry. Cassell's places it among a long run of interchangeable baked puddings, each with a costing and a serving count, aimed at households budgeting by the week rather than by the dish. The instruction that it may be served hot or cold, "whichever is the more convenient", is a fair summary of the book's practical temper.