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Caramel Pudding
For the Caramel :- Ingredients.
Two ounces of Loaf Sugar.
Half a gill of Cold Water.
For the Pudding :- Four Yolks and two Whites of Eggs. 3 whole One tablespoonful of Castor Sugar.
Half a pint of Milk. eggs.
Put two ounces of loaf sugar and a half gill of cold water into a stewpan, and boil quickly until light coffee colour, stir well and pour it quickly into a thoroughly dry, plain soufflé or timbale mould, and let it coat the mould all over. Make a custard of the four yolks, two whites of egg, the castor sugar and the milk, thus: break the eggs into a basin, add the sugar, boil the milk, and when a little cool pour it on to the eggs and sugar, then strain it into the mould you have lined with caramel; steam it very slowly for half an hour. Turn it out on to a dish, and some of the caramel will run off and form a sauce. Can be served hot or cold.
This is a crème caramel in all but name, steamed rather than baked in a water bath. The measurements are imperial and the sugars go by their Victorian names.
- Half a gill of waterA gill is 5 imperial fluid ounces, so half a gill is about 2½ fl oz — roughly 5 tablespoons. That is a generous amount for 2 oz of sugar; it simply means a longer boil before the syrup colours.
- Loaf and castor sugarLoaf sugar was refined sugar broken from a cone; ordinary granulated sugar behaves the same in a caramel. Castor sugar is superfine (caster) sugar, and a tablespoonful is about 15 g — a restrained sweetness by modern standards.
- Half a pint of milkAn imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz, or 1¼ US cups. With four yolks and two whites this gives a rich, tender set rather than a firm one.
- The stray "3 whole eggs"The figures "3 whole ... eggs" appear interleaved with the ingredient list and read as an alternative to the four yolks and two whites. Three whole eggs would work, though the extra white would be likely to set firmer and taste less of yolk.
- The hinge: steam it slowly"Very slowly" is the whole instruction. Keep the water at a bare simmer and never let it reach a rolling boil — hard boiling curdles an egg custard into a weeping, pitted mass. Cover the mould with foil or a lid so condensation does not fall onto the surface.
- A thoroughly dry mouldAny moisture in the mould will seize the caramel and make it grainy. Warm the mould first, and pour the caramel the instant it reaches a light coffee colour; it goes from amber to bitter in seconds off the heat.
- Handling the caramelSugar syrup at this stage is well above the temperature of boiling water and clings to skin. Tilt the mould with a cloth rather than bare hands.
- Doneness and turning outHalf an hour is right for a mould of this size; the centre should still wobble as a single mass when nudged. Cool for ten minutes before inverting, or let it go cold in the mould, which gives a cleaner turn-out and more of the caramel dissolved into sauce.
- YieldEnough for four modest servings, or six as part of a longer menu.
Steamed and baked custards turned out of a caramel-lined mould were standard drawing-room puddings in late Victorian and Edwardian Britain, owing much to the French crème renversée au caramel — "reversed cream", so called because it is served upside down and the caramel becomes the sauce. The vocabulary here gives away the kitchen it came from: soufflé and timbale moulds, castor sugar, a stewpan for the sugar. Books of this stamp taught the French repertoire in English measures, and the caramel custard was a favourite because it needed no gelatine, no ice and no last-minute assembly — only a steady, gentle heat, which is precisely the skill the instruction "steam it very slowly" is testing.