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Cocoanut and Peach Cream Pudding
Sliced fresh or canned peaches 2 cups milk 1/2 cup sugar 4 tablespoons cornstarch ¼ cup cream 1 cup Dromedary Cocoanut 3 eggs, separated 1/2 teaspoon almond or lemon extract Line a greased pudding mold with peaches. Pour milk into upper pan of double boiler, add sugar and heat; then add cornstarch dissolved in cream, stirring constantly, add cocoanut and fold in whites of eggs stiffly beaten. Pour into prepared tin and set away to chill. Turn out and serve with custard sauce made with yolks of eggs, three tablespoons of sugar, two cups of milk and extract.
A cornstarch blancmange lightened with beaten whites, molded over peaches and served with a stirred custard made from the leftover yolks. Nothing is baked; the whole thing sets in the refrigerator.
- The cream measureThe quantity of cream given for dissolving the cornstarch has lost its fraction in printing. A quarter cup is the sensible reading: it is only there to make a smooth slurry, and any more thins the mixture past the point where it will unmold.
- Cook the starch outFour tablespoons of cornstarch to two cups of milk is the right ratio for a pudding firm enough to turn out, but it must be held at a bare simmer for two to three minutes after it thickens or it will taste chalky and may weep in the mold. A double boiler makes this slow; a heavy saucepan over low heat, stirred constantly, is quicker and works as well.
- Beaten whites and food safetyThe whites are folded into the hot starch base and never cooked again. Fold them in while the pudding is still near boiling, off the heat, and use pasteurized whites if you are serving anyone pregnant, elderly, very young or immune-compromised.
- The custard sauceThree yolks, three tablespoons sugar and two cups milk, stirred over low heat until it coats a spoon at about 175F. It must not boil or it will curdle into scrambled egg. Strain it and chill it before serving.
- Dromedary CocoanutA canned moist shredded coconut sold in the period. Sweetened flaked coconut from a bag is the closest substitute; if you use unsweetened desiccated coconut, soak it in a little of the warm milk first and consider adding a tablespoon of sugar.
- Almond extractOrdinary bottled almond extract is what is meant. The extract is listed with the pudding ingredients, but the only direction to add it comes in the custard sauce; half a teaspoon is a modest amount for the quantity of liquid either way. Bitter almond oil, sometimes called for in older books, is not the same product.
- The moldA plain mold, charlotte tin or loaf pan; the recipe does not give a size, and the mixture with beaten whites and peaches will fill more than a quart. Grease it lightly, arrange the drained peach slices against the sides and bottom, and press them in place so they do not float when the pudding goes in. Canned peaches must be drained well or the released syrup will loosen the set.
- Chilling and unmolding"Set away to chill" means at least four hours, and overnight is better. Dip the mold briefly in hot water and invert onto a cold plate.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield; six servings is a reasonable estimate, with the custard sauce poured around rather than over.
Dromedary was the grocery brand of Hills Brothers Company of New York, which built its business on packaged dates and also sold canned shredded coconut and other packaged fruit products; recipe booklets of this kind existed to move the cans, which is why the coconut is named by brand while the peaches are not. The pudding itself belongs to the long line of cornstarch blancmanges common on American dessert tables in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, once cheap boxed cornstarch made a molded milk pudding possible without isinglass or calf's-foot jelly. The recipe's thrift is characteristic: whites go into the pudding, yolks into the sauce, and nothing is wasted.