Sago Pudding
INGREDIENTS for pudding for 6 persons.-1½ pint of milk, 3 tablespoonfuls of sago, the rind of 1/2 lemon, 3 oz. of sugar, 3 eggs, 1¼ oz. of butter, grated nutmeg. AVERAGE COST, 9d.
Put the milk and lemon-rind into a stewpan, place it by the side of the fire. and let it remain until the milk is well flavoured with the lemon; then strain it, mix with it the sago and sugar, and simmer gently for about 15 minutes. Let the mixture cool a little, and stir to it the eggs, which should be well beaten, and the butter. Pour the pudding into a buttered pie-dish, grate a little nutmeg over the top, and bake from 3/4 to 1 hour.
TIME.- to 1 hour, or longer if the oven is very slow.
SEASONABLE at any time.
Note. The above pudding may be boiled instead of baked; but then allow 2 extra tablespoonfuls of sago, and boil the pudding in a buttered basin from 1 to 1¾ hour.
A plain Victorian milk pudding thickened with sago rather than rice, enriched with eggs and baked as a custard. It is straightforward, but two details in the original need translating.
- The hinge: cool before the eggs go inAdding beaten eggs to hot sago mixture will scramble them and the pudding will bake grainy. Let the mixture drop to about hand temperature, then beat the eggs in.
- Sago itselfPearl sago is starch from the sago palm, sold in small hard pearls in Asian and South Asian groceries. Small pearl tapioca behaves almost identically and can stand in measure for measure; the large boba pearls cannot.
- Oven temperatureBeeton gives no temperature; the only oven reference in the text is the warning that a very slow oven will need longer. For a modern oven, bake at 325F (165C), and set the dish in a shallow tray of hot water if you want the edges to stay tender. It is done when the centre is just set with a slight wobble.
- Measurements1½ pint is Imperial, so roughly 30 fl oz or 850 ml, not the 24 fl oz an American pint measure would give. 3 oz sugar is about 85 g, 1 oz butter about 30 g.
- Infusing the milk"By the side of the fire" means gentle heat well short of a boil. Bring the milk and lemon rind to just below simmering, cover, and leave off the heat 15 to 20 minutes before straining. Pare the rind thinly with no white pith.
- Simmering the sagoFifteen minutes over low heat with frequent stirring; sago sinks and catches easily. The pearls should turn from opaque white to translucent, and the milk should visibly thicken.
- The boiled versionThe original says to boil the pudding in a buttered basin for 1 to 1½ hours; covering the basin with pleated foil or a cloth and steaming it is the easier modern equivalent, and gives a firmer, more sliceable pudding. The extra sago is what makes it hold its shape when turned out.
- Yield and servingSix modest servings. Cream, stewed fruit or a spoonful of jam are the usual accompaniments; the nutmeg crust is meant to be part of the eating.
Sago reached British kitchens through the East India trade and by the mid-nineteenth century was a familiar item of the invalid tray and the nursery, sold alongside arrowroot and tapioca as a light, easily digested starch. Beeton's household books are full of such puddings because they were cheap — the ninepence noted here covers six people — and because milk-and-starch dishes were thought suitable for children and convalescents in a way that pastry was not. Lemon rind and nutmeg are a common Victorian flavouring pair for a milk pudding, doing the work that vanilla would do in a later recipe; vanilla was still comparatively expensive at the time. The alternative boiled version would have suited a household where oven space was contested and a pot of water on the range was always available.