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Citron Pudding
Yolks of 8 eggs. 3/4 pound sugar. 1/4 pound butter (melted). Two tablespoonfuls of cracker soaked in a teacup of new milk, and made into a paste with a spoon. A glass of wine, a little nutmeg, all well beaten together and poured over sliced citron, laid on a rich paste. After baking it, pour over it the whites beaten to a stiff froth, sweetened with four tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, and flavored to the taste. Put it in the stove again, and bake a light brown.--Mrs. S. T.
Citron Pudding.
Yolks of 12 eggs. 1/2 pound butter. 1 pound sugar.
Stir in the butter while warming the eggs. Cut the citron in pieces and drop in the mixture. Have a rich paste, and bake in a quick oven.--Mrs. H.
Two versions of the same thing from two contributors: a rich, buttery egg custard baked in a pastry shell over candied citron, the first finished with meringue. Neither gives a temperature or a time, and the second gives no liquid at all.
- Citron is candied peelThis is Citrus medica peel candied in syrup, the same green-yellow stuff sold for fruitcake, not the melon called citron and not fresh lemon. Sliced thin or cut in small pieces, about 4-6 oz for a nine-inch shell. Rinse and pat it dry if it is heavily sugared, since the custard is already sweet.
- Cracker means crumbsTwo tablespoons of pounded plain soda or water cracker, soaked in a teacup of milk until it can be mashed smooth. A teacup is roughly 3/4 cup. Unsalted cracker crumbs or fine dry breadcrumbs do the same job of binding a custard that is otherwise mostly yolk and butter.
- New milkFresh whole milk, unskimmed and not soured. Whole milk is the direct substitute.
- A glass of wineIn Virginia receipts of this period a wine glass is about 1/4 cup, though "a glass" may mean up to 1/2 cup. Madeira or sherry would be the likely choice, though the receipt says only wine; start at 1/4 cup, as too much thins the custard and slows the set.
- Rich paste and the ovenA short or puff pastry lining a deep pie plate. Blind-bake the shell first. "Quick oven" -- the term the second receipt uses, not the first -- is usually reckoned at about 400-425F, which suits pastry but not a yolk custard; drop to 325-350F once the filling goes in, and pull it when the centre still trembles. Overheated egg-and-butter fillings curdle and weep.
- The meringueEight whites with four tablespoons of powdered sugar is a lean meringue by modern standards; six tablespoons holds better. Spread it so it touches the pastry rim all round and return to a moderate oven, 350F, only until it colours.
- The second versionMrs. H.'s has twelve yolks, a pound of sugar and half a pound of butter with no milk or thickener, and no bake time. It is essentially a transparent or chess filling and will be very sweet and very rich; treat the first receipt as the fuller and more workable of the two.
- YieldEither quantity fills one deep nine- or ten-inch shell generously, or two shallow ones. Cut small: eight to ten servings. Serve at room temperature or cold, never warm, or the custard slumps.
Citron pudding belongs to the family of English transparent puddings that came to the American South and settled there as pie: yolks, sugar, butter, a spoonful of something starchy, baked in a pastry shell. The line is usually traced on through chess pie and Southern transparent pie, which use much the same ratio and method. Candied citron was a store-cupboard luxury in nineteenth-century Virginia households, used for fruitcake, mincemeat and puddings like this one. Housekeeping in Old Virginia, published in 1878 and edited by Marion Cabell Tyree, was assembled from contributions by named and initialled housewives, which is why the same dish appears twice with different proportions and neither cook gives more by way of heat than "a quick oven." Both would have judged the heat by hand and by experience.