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Vermicelli Pudding No. 1
4 ounces of vermicelli 1 pint of milk 1/2 thin rind of a lemon 1 dessertspoon of sugar 1/2 ounce butter A little grated nutmeg Put the milk to simmer with the lemon rind until it is nicely flavored, then take it out, and add the sugar and butter.
Throw the vermicelli into plenty of fast-boiling water, and let it boil quickly for five minutes; then drain it well. Now stir it into the sweetened milk, and let it boil, stirring until it begins to boil. Turn into a pie dish, grate a little nutmeg over it, and bake in a moderate oven for an hour.
A Victorian-style baked milk pudding built on pasta rather than rice or sago. It is simple, but two or three of its instructions need translating.
- Moderate ovenA moderate oven is roughly 350-375F; 350F is the safe choice here. At that temperature an hour should give a set, lightly browned top; if your dish is shallow and wide, check at 40 minutes.
- Vermicelli means wheat pastaThis is the fine Italian-style wheat vermicelli sold in coils or nests, not rice vermicelli. Break it into short lengths before boiling so it distributes through the milk instead of matting.
- Pint and dessertspoonIf the book is following British measure, a pint is 20 fl oz; a US pint is 16. Either works, the larger giving a looser pudding. A dessertspoon is about 2 teaspoons, so the sugar here is deliberately restrained.
- The lemon rindPare it in a thin strip with no white pith. The recipe simmers the milk with the rind until "nicely flavored"; ten to fifteen minutes at a bare simmer is usually enough. Pith and prolonged boiling can both make the flavor bitter.
- Keep the milk below a hard boilThe instruction to "let it boil" is best read as bringing it just to the point of boiling. Sweetened milk scorches on the base of the pan quickly and a rolling boil will also make the pasta shed starch and turn gluey.
- Five minutes is right for the pastaThe vermicelli only needs partial cooking here since it finishes in the oven for an hour. Drain it well and do not rinse; the surface starch helps thicken the pudding.
- Butter the dishHalf an ounce of butter goes into the milk, so rub the pie dish with a little extra. An hour of baking sets a firm edge that otherwise sticks.
- YieldServes three, or four modestly, hot from the dish. Cream or a spoonful of jam alongside suits it, as the pudding is barely sweet by current standards.
Baked milk puddings were the backbone of the English nursery and the plain family table through the nineteenth century, and cooks rang the changes on a single formula: milk, sugar, a flavoring of lemon peel or bay or nutmeg, and a starch to thicken it, whether rice, sago, tapioca, semolina or, as here, vermicelli. Vermicelli reached British kitchens as an Italian import and by the mid-1800s was cheap enough to be used for soups and puddings alike, which is why it turns up in this humble a setting.