“She spent the whole morning juggling with six eggs and a pint of milk, the result being an exceedingly wobbly-looking baked custard which appeared to supplement the meagre midday repast. At the sight of it Bran nearly lost his appetite for the potatoes baked in their jackets which his soul loved, and when pudding-time came he began to squirm and declare he was not hungry. With the name of Bran he appeared to have also inherited that great king's primitive tastes in food, for he cared for nothing except milk, oatmeal porridge, and potatoes with butter.”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
Take a pound of almonds, blanch and beat them with rose-water into a fine paste, then put the spawn or row of a Carp or Pike to it, and beat them well together, with some cloves, mace, and salt, the spices being first beaten, and some ginger, strain them with some fair spring water, and put into the strained stuff half a pound of double refined sugar and a little saffron; when the paste is dried and ready to fill, put into the bottom of the coffin some slic't dates, raisins of the sun stoned, and some boiled currans, fill them and bake them; being baked, scrape sugar on them. Be sure always to prick your custards or forms before you set them in the oven. If you have no row or spawn, put rice flour instead hereof.
Sources: The passage is from Cynthia Stockley, Wanderfoot, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from May, The accomplisht cook of 1660, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — oxblood cloth, pudding stamp.