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Raisin Rice Pudding
Allow one tablespoon of rice to a quart of milk, salted. Boil together half an hour, then place in baking-dish with one cup of washed raisins and bake an hour, stirring frequently (a little sugar may be added if liked). The last half hour the crust should be allowed to form before stirring in; the last time let brown lightly and remove from oven.
A long, slow milk pudding of the plainest kind: almost no rice, no eggs, and all its body from starch released over an hour and a half. The technique that matters is the repeated stirring-in of the browned skin.
- The proportion is not a typoOne tablespoon of rice to a quart of milk is correct for this style of pudding. The grains swell and the milk reduces, giving a loose, creamy pudding rather than a firm one; adding much more rice will push it towards baked rice instead.
- Oven temperatureNone is given, and the hour-long bake with frequent stirring points to a slow oven: 300-325F. Higher than that and the milk will boil over the sides and the bottom will scorch before the rice is tender.
- The stovetop half hourA quart of milk held at a boil for thirty minutes will catch on the bottom of a thin pan. Use a heavy saucepan over low heat at a bare simmer, and stir down to the corners. A double boiler is safer still if you have one.
- Stirring in the skinThis is the hinge of the recipe. Each time a brown skin forms, it is folded back into the pudding, which is what supplies the caramel colour and flavour. Only the last skin is left on top and lightly browned.
- Washing the raisinsNineteenth-century raisins arrived dusty, sometimes still on the stem, and needed rinsing and picking over. Modern seedless raisins do not, though a brief soak in warm water keeps them from drawing moisture out of the pudding.
- Sugar and seasoningThe recipe treats sugar as optional and calls for only 'a little', so start with a tablespoon or two alongside a cup of raisins and taste. Salt is called for and should not be skipped, and a grating of nutmeg is period-appropriate.
- Time and yieldBudget two hours from start to finish. A quart of milk makes roughly four to six servings; it will be soupy hot and set considerably as it cools.
This appears under "The Grape" because a raisin is a dried grape, and in a fruit cookery book the raisin belongs with its parent rather than in a chapter of puddings. Slow-baked milk-and-rice puddings of exactly this kind were among the cheapest sweet dishes in the Anglo-American household repertoire: no eggs, no butter, a spoonful of grain, and a long stay in a cooling oven. The habit of stirring the browned skin back in, repeated over the last half hour, is what gives this version a caramelised flavour that a quick bake cannot reproduce.