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Farina Pudding
4 ozs. (4 heaping tablespoonfuls) farina I quart (4 cups) milk Pinch of salt 3 eggs 3 ozs. (3 heaping tablespoon-- fuls) sugar 1/4 teaspoonful grated nutmeg 1 cupful Sultana raisins Boil the milk in a fireproof dish, add the salt, and stirring all the time, remove from the fire, and add the eggs well beaten.
Pour the hot mixture over the stewed fruit, then brown in a moderate oven. This makes a delicious covering.
The text as printed has dropped a step or two: the farina, sugar, nutmeg and raisins are all listed but never explicitly stirred in. The method below is what the ingredient list plainly intends.
- The missing stepsRain the farina into the boiling milk in a slow stream, stirring constantly, and cook 8-10 minutes until it thickens to a loose porridge. Off the heat, beat in the sugar, nutmeg and raisins, then the eggs.
- FarinaFine semolina, sold today as cream of wheat. Four ounces is roughly two-thirds of a cup by weight; the "4 heaping tablespoonfuls" of the original works out nearer 2 to 2 1/2 ounces, so the book's two measures do not agree - trust the weight.
- Eggs off the heatThe one instruction that matters. Add the beaten eggs only after the pan leaves the fire, and add them gradually while whisking, or the milk will curdle and the pudding will be grainy.
- Fireproof dishIn casserole cookery of this period this means a flameproof vessel that goes directly on the burner - enamelled cast iron or heavy earthenware rated for stovetop use. Ordinary stoneware or a modern glass baker will crack; use a heavy saucepan and transfer to the baking dish.
- Moderate oven350F. Twenty-five to thirty minutes is enough to set the custard and colour the top; longer and it weeps.
- Stewed fruitThe recipe is written as a topping for a dish of already-cooked fruit - stewed apples, plums, rhubarb or apricots, drained of most of their syrup. Made without the fruit it bakes perfectly well as a plain farina pudding.
- SultanasGolden raisins. Soaking them ten minutes in warm water or a little of the fruit syrup keeps them from scorching on the surface during browning.
- YieldA quart of milk gives six to eight servings. Serve warm rather than hot; farina puddings set firmer as they cool.
Farina, semolina and ground rice puddings were the backbone of the English and American nursery table through the nineteenth century - cheap, filling, and gentle enough to be prescribed for invalids and children. The casserole form was then new to home kitchens: fireproof earthenware and, after the mid-1910s, heat-resistant glass let a cook boil a milk pudding and brown it in the same vessel. The habit of pouring a thick custard or cereal pudding over stewed fruit and browning the top is much older than the casserole, and is the same idea that produces a queen of puddings or a fruit-bottomed baked custard.