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Snow Pudding (Mrs J Arch Hay)
— Mrs. J. Arch. Hay
Pour one pint of boiling water upon three tablespoons of cornstarch dissolved in a little cold water. Add the whites of four eggs beaten to a stiff froth, one tablespoon of sugar and a pinch of salt. Pour into pudding dish and steam fifteen minutes. Sauce-Beat yolks of the eggs, add one cup of sugar, one cup of milk, a small piece of butter, and boil until it thickens. When cool, flavor to taste.
— Miss Cora White
Main St., Catskill N. Y.
A steamed cornstarch-and-meringue pudding with a boiled custard sauce, of a type once common when a cook wanted a light dessert from pantry staples. The sauce is where the recipe can go wrong.
- Do not actually boil the sauce"Boil until it thickens" is period shorthand for cooking a custard over heat; yolks set at about 180F and scramble above that. Cook it in a double boiler or over low heat, stirring constantly, until it coats a spoon at roughly 170-175F, then pull it off. If it does break, a quick blitz with a stick blender will smooth it partly.
- Cornstarch slurryDissolve the three tablespoons in about a quarter cup of cold water before the boiling water goes in, or it will lump. Pour the boiling water in a thin stream while whisking, then return the mixture to the heat briefly until it is thick and no longer chalky-tasting.
- Fold, do not stirLet the cornstarch base cool for a few minutes before the stiff whites go in, and fold rather than beat. Very hot starch will deflate some of the meringue on contact, which can leave a denser layer at the bottom of the dish.
- How to steam itButter a heatproof dish, cover it loosely with foil or a plate, and set it on a rack in a wide pan with an inch or two of simmering water. Fifteen minutes is enough for a shallow dish; a deep one may want twenty-five. It should be just set and still wobble slightly.
- One tablespoon of sugar is correctThe pudding itself is nearly unsweetened on purpose. All the sweetness comes from the cup of sugar in the sauce, so do not serve it plain and do not be tempted to sweeten both.
- "Flavor to taste"Most likely vanilla extract; lemon or a grating of nutmeg would also suit. A teaspoon of vanilla, or the zest of half a lemon, added once the sauce is cool, as the recipe directs.
- YieldFour to six small servings. The pudding is best the day it is made; steamed cornstarch weeps and toughens overnight.
Snow pudding in American cookbooks of this era commonly means gelatin whipped with egg whites until white and foamy, served with a soft custard; this version reaches a similar effect with cornstarch, which was cheap, kept well on the shelf, and needed no soaking. Cornstarch desserts became widespread as commercial corn starch turned into a grocery staple over the second half of the nineteenth century, and the pattern here — a starch-thickened white pudding paired with a yolk-based "sauce" so that no part of the egg is wasted — fits thrifty household cooking rather than restaurant confectionery. The two names on the page are worth noticing: community cookbooks were assembled from cards passed between neighbours, and a receipt could carry both the submitter's name and that of the woman she had it from — though on a printed page a trailing name and address may equally belong to the item that follows.