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Rice Balls
3 ounces of rice 1/2 pint of milk Rind of 1 lemon A pinch of sugar Pick over the rice, but do not wash it; put it into a saucepan with sufficient water to cover it, with the sugar, and let it swell till the water is absorbed. Add the milk and lemon rind, and stew gently for an hour; put into small molds, and serve with stewed fruit.
A plain starch-set rice mold: no eggs, no gelatin, nothing but rice, milk and lemon peel. Everything depends on cooking it down far enough that the starch alone holds the shape.
- The hinge: cook it thickBecause there is no egg or gelatin, the mold sets only on rice starch. Stop while it still pours easily and it will slump out of the mold. It should be stiff enough to mound on a spoon before you pack it.
- Do not wash the riceThe instruction is deliberate, not careless. Rinsing removes the surface starch that does the setting. Pudding rice or any short-grain white rice works; long-grain basmati or parboiled rice will not thicken enough.
- MeasurementsThree ounces of rice is a scant 1/2 cup. Half a pint of milk is 1 cup in American measure, 10 fl oz if the book is following British practice; either way you will likely need to add more warm milk during the hour to keep it from drying out and catching.
- An hour of stewing needs helpSixty minutes over direct heat will scorch on the bottom of most modern thin-based pans. Use a heavy pan over the lowest flame with a diffuser, stir often, or set the pan in a wider pan of simmering water.
- The sugar"A pinch" reads oddly to modern taste. For a dessert, 1 to 2 tablespoons is closer to what the dish wants; the recipe adds it at the swelling stage, but it can go in with the milk instead.
- Lemon rindPare it in wide strips with no white pith, and lift the strips out before molding. Grated zest cannot be removed and leaves a bitter fleck through the finished mold.
- Molding and chillingRinse the small molds in cold water first so the rice releases cleanly. Pack them while the rice is hot, cover, and chill until firm; the recipe does not say whether it is served warm or cold, but it will unmold more cleanly once cold.
- YieldEnough for three or four small molds, or four modest servings with fruit. The recipe specifies only "stewed fruit"; a compote of plums, rhubarb, gooseberries or dried apricots suits it and supplies the acidity the rice lacks.
Milk-and-rice puddings run through English and American cookery from the seventeenth century onward, and by the late nineteenth century they had branched into two forms: the slow-baked pudding with its skin, and the stirred, molded version related to the French riz au lait or the grander riz à l'impératrice, which adds cream, gelatin and candied fruit. This one is the frugal end of that family, set by starch alone and dressed only with lemon peel.