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Cheese Pudding
Put a breakfast-cupful of milk into a saucepan, with a piece of butter the size of a large egg. Let it remain until the butter is melted, then pour it over three-quarters of a pound of bread crumbs and half a pound of grated cheese; let these soak for twenty minutes, then add a pinch of salt and 4 eggs, well beaten. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered dish, and bake in a quick oven. This is a good way to finish up a rather dry crust of cheese. Time to bake, three-quarters of an hour.
A thrift dish built to use up the hard end of a cheese, and one that hinges on getting the crumb-to-liquid ratio right. The proportions as written assume fresh, soft breadcrumbs rather than the dry commercial kind.
- Breakfast-cupfulA breakfast cup in British usage is about 10 fluid ounces, so figure 1 1/4 cups of milk. It is a generous cup, not a small one.
- Butter the size of a large eggRoughly 2 ounces, or 4 tablespoons.
- BreadcrumbsThree-quarters of a pound of fresh soft crumbs is roughly 6 cups loosely packed, and the liquid given here suggests that is what is meant, though the recipe does not say. Dried or packaged crumbs at the same weight will drink far more liquid than 1 1/4 cups of milk and 4 eggs can supply; if that is all you have, use half the weight or add milk until the mixture is loose and sloppy before it goes in the dish.
- The cheeseHalf a pound of anything hard and dry works: cheddar ends, the rind-adjacent knuckle of Gruyere, dry Lancashire. Grate it fine so it melts through rather than sinking in lumps.
- Quick oven, with a caveatA quick oven is usually reckoned at somewhere around 400-425F, which suits the first fifteen minutes to set and puff the top. Held there for the full three-quarters of an hour the egg is liable to curdle and weep. Start high, then drop to 350F for the remainder.
- Soaking timeThe twenty minutes is not padding. The crumbs must swell fully before the eggs go in, or the pudding bakes coarse and the top separates from a damp layer beneath.
- SaltJudge it after the cheese is stirred in. A well-aged cheddar may need no added salt at all.
- Dish and yieldA 2-quart buttered baking dish suits the quantities; the mixture should come no more than three-quarters up the sides, as it rises. The book gives no yield, but the quantities would suggest something like six as a supper dish with a sharp salad, or four as a main.