Rice and Almond Molds

This entry is a bare ingredient list in the older style, where the method was assumed known: rice simmered in milk with sugar until thick, flavoured with pounded almonds, then set in a wetted mould and turned out cold. The problem is the flavouring.

• Bitter almonds are the reason to stopBitter almonds contain amygdalin, which releases hydrogen cyanide when the nut is crushed and moistened — exactly what pounding them into milk does. Raw bitter almonds are not sold as food in the United States and are restricted in many other countries.
• The quantity is not a reassuranceTwo nuts in a quart of milk is a small dose, but the amygdalin content of bitter almonds varies widely and the mould is served cold to whoever is at the table, including children, whose tolerance is lowest. There is no way to measure the yield from two unspecified nuts in a home kitchen.
• "Sweet almonds" is simply the ordinary almondThe distinction mattered when both kinds were sold. What a grocer called sweet almonds is what a supermarket now sells unlabelled; the bitter kind has largely left the retail trade.
• No method, no timing, no yieldThe original gives none of the three. A quart of milk to four ounces of rice points to a slow-simmered pudding, though whether it would set firm enough to unmould is not something the ingredient list settles; the book expects the cook to already know.
• If you want the dishUse a current recipe for a rice mould or riz à l'impératrice. The almond note that the bitter nuts supplied is a flavouring question with modern answers, and a present-day recipe will handle both the setting and the seasoning.