Snow Pudding
1 pint milk 1/4 cup sugar 3 tablespoons cornstarch 1/4 teaspoon vanilla 2 egg whites A few grains salt Save out a little of the milk with which to stir the cornstarch smooth. Heat the rest of the milk, with the sugar and salt, in a double boiler; when boiling hot stir into it the cornstarch, which has been stirred smooth with the milk saved out for that purpose. Cook fifteen minutes. Beat the egg whites stiff. Add the vanilla to the cornstarch-and-milk mixture, then beat it into the beaten egg whites. Turn into cups wet with cold water. When cold, remove from the molds, and serve with custard sauce made with the yolks of the eggs.
A cornstarch blancmange lightened with beaten whites, set in wetted cups and turned out cold. It is simple, but two steps decide whether it slices cleanly or weeps.
- The hinge: beat hot into cold, not the reverseThe instruction is to beat the hot cornstarch mixture into the stiff whites, a spoonful or two at a time at first. Dumping the whites into the hot pan collapses them and leaves streaks of cooked albumen.
- Cornstarch slurryReserve about 1/4 cup of the pint of milk and stir the cornstarch into it until there are no lumps. Cold liquid only; cornstarch dropped into hot milk seizes instantly.
- The fifteen minutes is realCornstarch thickens within a minute or two, but the full quarter hour in the double boiler is what cooks out the raw starch taste and stabilises the set. Stir often and keep the water below a rolling boil.
- Egg whites and heatThe whites are only partly cooked by the residual heat of the pudding. If serving anyone elderly, pregnant, very young or immunocompromised, use pasteurised whites.
- "Cups wet with cold water"Rinse the molds and leave them wet rather than greasing them; the film of water lets the pudding slide free. Individual custard cups or ramekins of about 1/2 cup each work well.
- Chilling and unmoldingRefrigerate at least three hours until firm. Loosen with a thin knife blade, or dip the cup briefly in warm water, and invert onto the serving dish.
- FlavouringA quarter teaspoon of vanilla is restrained by current taste for a full pint of milk; a teaspoon suits modern palates better. The sugar, at 1/4 cup, is likewise modest, and the custard sauce served with it would add further sweetness.
- The sauceNo proportions are given for the custard sauce. A soft custard of the two reserved yolks, about 1 cup milk and 2 tablespoons sugar, stirred over low heat until it thickens (roughly 170-180F), is one workable version.
- YieldAbout 4 to 6 small servings.