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Danish Pudding
Eight eggs beaten into three tablespoons of sugar; stir this into one quart of boiling cream, or milk if you can do no better. Melt in an ordinary spider one-third of a pound of brown sugar till it is a syrup, stirring all the time. Pour this into a pudding dish, which should be placed in a dripping pan of hot water, then pour the custard on top of syrup, and bake in the oven until the custard is firm. Turn out on dish just before serving, and a fine addition is to cover with whipped cream, though this is not necessary.- Irene W. Chittenden, Detroit.
This is a caramel-lined baked custard — what most kitchens now call crème caramel or flan. The original gives no oven temperature and no timing, so the two things worth getting right are the heat and the test for doneness.
- Oven and water bathBake at 325F. The "dripping pan of hot water" is a roasting pan; fill it with hot water to come halfway up the custard dish so the eggs set gently rather than curdling at the edges.
- Doneness, not clock timeA quart of custard in one dish will take roughly 60 to 75 minutes. It is done when the outer two inches are set and the centre still trembles as a mass — about 170F on an instant thermometer. Carryover heat finishes it; baked until uniformly firm it will weep.
- A spiderA cast-iron frying pan, originally one with legs for standing over coals. Any heavy skillet or small saucepan works for melting the sugar.
- One-third pound brown sugarAbout three-quarters of a cup, packed. Brown sugar melts unevenly and scorches faster than white, so keep the heat moderate and stir as instructed until it is a smooth syrup, then pour at once — it sets hard in the pan within a minute.
- Temper the eggsThe recipe says to stir the egg-and-sugar mixture into boiling cream, which invites scrambled egg. Pour the hot cream into the eggs in a slow stream while whisking, then strain the custard before it goes into the dish.
- Cream or milkA quart of heavy cream makes something very rich by modern taste. Half cream and half whole milk gives a custard that still unmoulds cleanly.
- UnmouldingRun a knife around the edge, set the dish in an inch of hot water for a minute to loosen the hardened caramel, then invert onto a rimmed platter so the syrup does not run off. The recipe directs that it be turned out just before serving.
- YieldEight eggs and a quart of liquid serve ten to twelve.
Caramel-lined baked custard turned out of its mould is one of the oldest and most widely travelled of egg desserts, appearing across Europe as creme renversee and flan, and in Denmark as karamelrand, a caramel ring. A dish this generic rarely has a single traceable origin, and the 'Danish' label here cannot be traced. What is more telling is the signature: Irene W. Chittenden of Detroit — a contributed recipe printed with the sender's name and city, which is why the instructions assume a cook who already knows how her own oven behaves and needs no temperature given. The aside "or milk if you can do no better" is the period's honest acknowledgement that a quart of cream was a luxury in many households.