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Lemon Snow Pudding
1/4 cup lemon juice 1 cup sugar 1/4 ounce vegetable gelatin 1 cup water in which to dissolve the gelatin 3 egg whites 1/4 teaspoon salt Mix the lemon juice, sugar, and salt. Prepare the gelatin as usual by soaking in hot water and draining. Cook the drained gelatin in the cup boiling water. Strain this dissolved gelatin into the mixed lemon juice, sugar, and salt. Allow the mixture to cool till nearly ready to set, then beat it into the three egg whites which have been beaten stiff. Continue to beat till the mixture is nearly ready to set again, then turn into cups wet with cold water. When cold, unmold and serve with custard sauce in which the yolks of the eggs are used.
A gelatin "snow" built on agar rather than animal gelatin, thickened only by beating and never heated after the egg whites go in. The agar technique is the interesting part; the finish is the problem.
- Why it fails todayThe three egg whites are beaten raw into a mixture that has already cooled to setting point, and the pudding is then chilled and served. Nothing in the process brings the whites to a temperature that would kill Salmonella, which can be present inside intact shell eggs. A dessert eaten cold with raw whites as its bulk is not a risk worth taking; use a current recipe written for pasteurized whites or a cooked meringue.
- Vegetable gelatin is agar"Vegetable gelatin" in books of this period usually means agar-agar, sold as pale dried strands or sheets from red seaweed, though the term was sometimes applied to other seaweed preparations. It is not interchangeable with powdered animal gelatin: agar must actually boil to dissolve, and it sets at room temperature rather than needing refrigeration.
- The soak-and-drain stepStrand agar is rinsed and soaked to soften it, and the soaking water discarded — the likely sense of "soaking in hot water and draining." Only after draining does it go into the cup of boiling water, where it needs a few minutes at a full boil to disperse.
- Quantity of agarA quarter ounce is about 7 grams, dissolved in a single cup of water before being combined with the rest of the mixture; agar has several times the gelling power of animal gelatin by weight, so this is a stiff proportion for a whipped dessert.
- Beating windowAgar sets sharply as it approaches room temperature rather than slowly, so the interval in which it can be whipped is short. This recipe has you beat until "nearly ready to set" twice; once the gel has gone, reheating is the only way back.
- Wetting the moldsCups rinsed in cold water and not dried release the set pudding cleanly. Agar holds its shape and a sharp edge at room temperature.
- The custard sauceThe yolks left over were meant to be made into a stirred custard sauce — that part of the meal was cooked. The pudding itself was not.