One Egg Pudding

An ingredient list rather than a method, which was normal for a contributed recipe in 1879 — the writer assumed her reader knew what to do with a pudding batter. Here is what the list implies.

• The missing methodCream the butter and sugar, beat in the egg, then add the flour (sifted with the soda and cream of tartar) alternately with the milk. It is a thick batter, closer to a plain cake than a custard, and should be baked or steamed at once before the leavening spends itself.
• Bake or steamEither works, though the recipe itself specifies neither. Baked in a buttered quart dish at around 350F it needs about 35 to 45 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean; steamed in a covered buttered mould, about an hour and a half.
• Soda and cream of tartarThis is baking powder assembled at the table: cream of tartar the acid, soda the base, in the usual 2:1 ratio. Substituting about 4 teaspoons of double-acting baking powder gives a comparable rise and is more forgiving, since the original combination begins reacting the moment the milk goes in.
• CupfulUsually taken as a half-pint, so 8 fluid ounces — near enough the modern cup, though period cup measures varied. Two cupfuls of flour is about 250 g, and the tablespoonful of butter is about half an ounce, roughly 14 g.
• The flourVirginia cooks were using soft winter wheat, lower in protein than most modern all-purpose flour. Replacing a quarter of the flour with cake flour brings the crumb closer to what Mrs. A.C. would have turned out.
• "Eat with sauce"Not optional — the pudding is deliberately plain and dry-ish, built to carry a sauce. The period defaults are a hard sauce of creamed butter and sugar with brandy or nutmeg, or a hot lemon or wine sauce thickened with a little cornstarch.
• YieldSix modest servings from a quart dish. It is best warm; the crumb tightens considerably once cold.