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Cheese Pudding
Mix together in a basin 1/2 pound of grated cheese, 1 teaspoonful of flour, salt and pepper to taste, 1 tablespoonful of bread crumbs; then add 1 cupful of boiling milk, I heaping teaspoonful of butter, the yolks of 2 eggs, and the whites well beaten. Mix gently; pour into a buttered baking dish, and bake for twenty minutes in a moderate oven.
Serve hot.
A soufflé in all but name, from the era when a half-pound of cheese was a cheap way to make supper out of milk and bread. The method is sound; only a few of the terms need translating.
- Moderate ovenBake at 350F. Twenty minutes suits a shallow dish of about a quart; a deeper one will need closer to 30 minutes and will rise less evenly.
- Order of operationsThe hinge is the beaten whites. Combine cheese, flour, seasoning, crumbs, hot milk, butter and yolks first, let that base cool to warm, then fold the whites in last with as few strokes as will incorporate them. "Mix gently" is the whole instruction.
- Boiling milk and the yolksAdding a cup of boiling milk directly to a bowl holding raw yolks will scramble them. Pour the milk onto the cheese and crumbs, stir until the cheese slackens, then beat the yolks in once the mixture is no longer scalding.
- The cheeseThe recipe does not name a cheese; a firm, dry, sharp one (Cheddar, Cheshire, Lancashire or similar) suits the method. Half a pound grated is roughly 2 cups loosely packed. Pre-shredded cheese carries anti-caking starch and gives a grainier set.
- A basinSimply a mixing bowl. No special vessel is meant.
- Heaping teaspoonful of butterAbout a half tablespoon, 7g. Nineteenth-century "heaping" spoon measures are approximate by nature; err on the generous side.
- Yield and servingServes three as a light supper with bread and a salad, two as a main. It will be puffed leaving the oven and will settle within a few minutes, so carry it straight to the table.
Cheese puddings and cheese "toasts" run through British and American cookery from the eighteenth century onward, and this one sits in the tradition of stretching an expensive, strongly flavoured ingredient with cheap ones: a spoonful of breadcrumbs and a cup of milk turn half a pound of cheese into a dish for a family. Cheese kept without refrigeration, delivered a great deal of protein per penny, and could be bought in small pieces or as ends and rinds from the grocer. The technique of separating the eggs and folding in the whipped whites is the soufflé method, and such recipes are common in English-language household books by the later nineteenth century, though they rarely use the word; "pudding" covered nearly anything baked in a dish.