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Dandy Pudding
Four eggs well beaten, separately; five tablespoons of sugar added to whites after beaten to stand alone; four heaping tablespoons of sugar beaten into yolks with two tablespoons of cornstarch; one quart of boiling milk poured over yolks; the whites put up on top and browned. Any flavor.
— Mrs. Herbert Dederick
A cornstarch custard under a browned meringue, written in the compressed shorthand of a community cookbook. The method as printed leaves out the step that makes or breaks it.
- The hinge: cornstarch has to boilThe hinge: cornstarch has to get to a boil -- Pouring boiling milk over the yolk-and-cornstarch mixture is unlikely to set it reliably; cornstarch thickens fully only at or near boiling, and underdone starch tastes chalky. Combine off the heat, then return everything to the pan or a double boiler and cook, stirring, until it bubbles and coats a spoon thickly.
- Temper the yolksAdd the hot milk to the sweetened yolks in a thin stream while whisking, rather than dumping the quart in at once, or you will end up with threads of cooked egg through the pudding.
- MeasuresOne quart of milk is 4 cups. Five tablespoons of sugar for the whites is a scant 1/3 cup; four heaping tablespoons for the yolks is closer to 1/3 cup than 1/4. Two tablespoons of cornstarch for a quart of milk gives a soft, spoonable pudding, not a sliceable one.
- "Beaten to stand alone"Stiff peaks. Beat the whites to soft peaks first, then add the sugar a spoonful at a time and continue until the meringue is glossy and holds its shape when the beater is lifted.
- Browning temperatureThe original gives none. Spread the meringue over the hot pudding so it seals to the edges of the dish, and bake at 350F for 12 to 15 minutes until set and lightly colored; a hotter oven browns the peaks before the interior of the meringue sets.
- VesselCook the custard in a heavy saucepan, then transfer it to a buttered oven-safe baking dish of about two quarts for the meringue. A shallow dish gives more surface to brown.
- "Any flavor"Period flavorings for this kind of pudding were vanilla, lemon rind or extract, nutmeg, or a spoonful of sherry. Stir extracts in after the custard comes off the heat so they do not cook off.
- Yield and servingSix to eight servings. Best barely warm or at room temperature the day it is made; meringue weeps and slumps in the refrigerator overnight.
"Dandy pudding" is one of a family of American cornstarch puddings that go by cheerful, unhelpful names, and the recipe here is close to the dish printed elsewhere as cornstarch pudding with a meringue lid. A recipe credited by name to a local contributor is typical of church and community cookbooks of the period, in which contributors commonly recorded proportions and little else. Cornstarch was a relatively new convenience, manufactured in quantity in the United States from around the middle of the nineteenth century and promoted to home cooks as a cheap and reliable thickener -- which is what it is doing here, stretching four eggs across a full quart of milk.