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Nesselrode Pudding
2 cups milk 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 5 egg yolks, beaten 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/4 pound macaroons 3/4 cup raisins 28 almonds 2 tablespoons gelatine 1/4 cup cold water 1/4 cup boiling water 5 egg whites, beaten stiff Scald milk, add sugar and salt. Pour slowly, stirring continually, on the beaten egg yolks. Beat until cool, add vanilla and finely chopped macaroons, raisins and almonds. Soak gelatine in cold water, dissolve in 1/4 cup boiling water and strain. Mix all together and fold in whites of eggs. Place in mold and put in electrical refrigerator for 3 hours. Serves ten.
This is a gelatine-set icebox pudding from the era when the "electrical refrigerator" was itself the selling point. As written the eggs are never brought to a safe temperature, so the notes below are for reading rather than cooking.
- The eggs are the problemThe yolks are only tempered with scalded milk off the heat, then beaten until cool — the mixture is never held at a temperature that would pasteurise them. The five whites are folded in entirely raw. Neither the gelatine nor the three hours in the refrigerator does anything to reduce Salmonella risk, and chilling only slows bacterial growth rather than stopping it.
- Why a stirred custard is normally cookedA proper boiled custard is held over gentle heat until it thickens and coats a spoon, which is also what makes it safe. This version skips the cooking stage so the pudding will set on gelatine alone, which is precisely where it goes wrong. If you want a Nesselrode, use a current recipe with a cooked custard base or pasteurised eggs.
- Serving ten cold, for hoursServing ten cold -- A large moulded dessert made from uncooked egg, served to ten people, carries real risk. The risk is highest for children, older guests, pregnant women and anyone immune-compromised.
- "Macaroons" hereIn a book of this period the word most likely means crisp almond macaroons rather than French macaron sandwiches, though coconut macaroons were also common in American kitchens by this date. The recipe calls for them finely chopped.
- 2 tablespoons gelatineThat is roughly two and a half to three envelopes of modern powdered gelatine, about two-thirds of an ounce, which is a firm set intended to hold a turned-out mould. Older gelatine was less consistently standardised than today's product.
- "Electrical refrigerator"The instruction distinguishes a mechanical refrigerator from an ice chest, which held a higher and more variable temperature. It signals the book's audience rather than any special technique.