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Cheese-Cake Pudding
Yolks of eight fresh eggs, three-quarters of a pound of good brown sugar, and the same of butter, well creamed together.
Beat the eggs light, mix all the ingredients well; season with nutmeg or extract of lemon; add a tablespoonful of good brandy or rum. Bake in a pastry, in small tins or plates.--Mrs. Dr. P. C.
A rich yolk-and-butter tart filling of the transparent pudding family, closer to what is now called chess pie than to anything with cheese in it. The original assumes you know how to line a tin and judge a set custard, so the useful work here is filling in temperature, yield and doneness.
- There is no cheese in itBy the late eighteenth century an English "cheesecake" often meant any small rich tart baked in a pastry case, curd or no curd. Do not go looking for a missing ingredient.
- Weights in cupsThree-quarters of a pound of brown sugar is about 1 2/3 packed cups; three-quarters of a pound of butter is 3 sticks. The filling is roughly 12 oz sugar, 12 oz butter and 8 yolks, which is a very high fat-to-egg ratio and is meant to be.
- Brown sugar then and nowPeriod brown sugar was less refined and more variable than today's. Light brown sugar gives the closest result; dark brown will dominate the nutmeg and lemon.
- Oven temperatureNo temperature is given. 350F suits a butter-heavy baked custard of this kind; higher and the butter breaks out and the surface cracks before the centre sets.
- Blind-bake the shellA wet, fat-heavy filling in raw pastry gives a soggy base. Line the tins, chill, and blind-bake to pale gold before filling.
- Judging the setThe filling should be puffed at the edges and just barely trembling at the centre, about 175-180F on a thermometer. Small tartlets need roughly 20-25 minutes, a single 9-inch plate 35-45. It firms considerably as it cools.
- Extract of lemonNineteenth-century lemon extract was strong and often alcohol-based. Use about half a teaspoon of modern extract, or the grated zest of one lemon, which is closer in flavour to what was intended.
- Yield and the leftover whitesEnough filling for one deep 9-inch pie or about 18 to 24 small tartlets. The eight whites keep several days refrigerated and go to meringue or a sponge.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia, compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree, was first published in 1878 and reissued in the years immediately following; it gathered recipes from a long list of Southern contributors, which is why so many entries close with initials rather than a name. This one belongs to a family of yolk-butter-sugar tarts that runs from English "transparent puddings" and lemon cheesecakes of the eighteenth century through to the chess pies of the American South; the shared logic is a filling built on eggs, sugar and a great deal of butter, baked in pastry and needing no fresh fruit or dairy beyond that. The brandy or rum is typical of the period's sweet puddings.