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German Pudding
3 ounces rice 2 ounces butter 3 ounces ground almonds 2 ounces stoned raisins 1 pint milk Speck of powdered cinnamon Cook the rice and milk in a double saucepan for half an hour, then add the ground almonds, butter, raisins and cinnamon. Mix well, and cook for ten minutes longer. Grease a mold, pour the mixture in, cover with a grease paper, tie a cloth over, and steam for two hours.
A steamed rice pudding held together by starch and almond rather than egg, and meant to be served cold. Nothing here is difficult, but the proportions are given by weight and the milk quantity needs a decision before you start.
- The weights in cups3 oz rice is a scant 1/2 cup of raw short- or medium-grain rice; 2 oz butter is 4 tablespoons; 3 oz ground almonds is roughly 3/4 to 1 cup of almond flour or meal, depending how finely it is ground and how it is packed; 2 oz raisins is a generous 1/3 cup.
- Which pintA US pint is 16 fl oz, an imperial pint 20 fl oz. This style of pudding comes out of British practice, and 20 oz of milk to 3 oz of rice gives a softer, more reliable result. If you use 16 oz, watch that the rice does not go dry before the half hour is up.
- Double saucepanA double boiler. Milk and rice scorch readily over direct heat, and the gentle cooking is what draws the starch out. A heavy pot over the lowest flame with frequent stirring will do if you have no insert.
- Stoned raisinsRaisins with the seeds removed by hand. Modern seedless raisins need no preparation; chop them if you want them evenly distributed rather than sinking.
- Ground almondsAlmond meal or almond flour, not almond paste and not marzipan. Blanched meal gives a paler pudding, natural meal a speckled one with more flavour.
- Covering the moldGreased paper laid directly on the surface, then a cloth tied over the rim, keeps condensation out. Buttered parchment under a sheet of foil crimped round the edge does the same job and is easier to secure.
- The steamSet the mold on a rack in a pot with water reaching a third to halfway up the sides, lid on, water at a bare simmer. Top up with boiling water as it drops; two hours will take more than you expect.
- Serving coldServing -- The recipe does not say how it is to be served. Steamed puddings are usually turned out hot, though this one can equally be cooled in the mold and chilled before unmolding, which firms it. It serves about four, and wants a fruit compote, stewed cherries or a thin cream alongside, since the pudding itself is barely sweet.
- SweeteningNo sugar is listed; the raisins are the only sweetness. Two to three tablespoons stirred in with the almonds would bring it closer to what a modern cook expects of a dessert.
Meatless cookery books were common in the English-speaking world around the First World War, when meat conservation was promoted as a civic duty as much as a dietary choice, and such books leaned on eggs, cheese, pulses and nuts to carry the protein; whether this particular book belongs to that moment is not something the recipe itself establishes. Ground almonds do that work here, in a pudding otherwise built on the old European base of rice slowly swelled in milk — a preparation found from Bavaria to Denmark, often as a festive dish and frequently enriched with almonds and dried fruit. What "German" is meant to signal here is not stated in the book. Steaming in a tied and papered mold, rather than baking, was usual for puddings meant to be turned out whole.