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Bread Pudding (Tablespoons butter Yolks)
2 tablespoons butter Yolks of 4 eggs 5 tablespoons bread crumbs Pinch of salt Nutmeg if desired Whites of 4 eggs 1 teaspoon baking powder Cream the butter; add the yolks of the eggs and stir well; add the bread crumbs, salt and nutmeg; fold in the whipped whites of eggs; add the baking powder and pour into a pudding dish. Boil in a kettle of boiling water on the stove for fifteen minutes; then place in the cooker for one hour. Use two radiators.
This is a fireless-cooker recipe, so the method assumes equipment almost nobody has now. The pudding itself is closer to a steamed egg sponge than to what we call bread pudding.
- What a "radiator" isFireless cookers were insulated boxes; the heat came from soapstone or cast-iron discs heated on the range until very hot and set above and below the food. "Use two radiators" calls for two such heated discs rather than one, and the hour in the box is a retained-heat finish, not idle resting.
- Doing it without the cookerSet the covered pudding dish in a water bath and bake at 350F until the center is set and reads 160F, roughly 40 to 50 minutes for this quantity. Steaming it covered in a lidded pot with an inch of simmering water works equally well.
- No milk, and that is not an errorUnlike a classic bread pudding there is no liquid at all. The eggs are the entire binder, which is why the whites are whipped and folded; treat it as a soufflé pudding and expect it to fall a little as it cools.
- The hinge: fold, do not stirEverything depends on keeping air in the whites. Fold them in with a light hand and get the dish into the heat promptly.
- Baking powder lastAdding baking powder after the whites is unusual and inefficient, since sifting it with the crumbs distributes it far better. If you follow the original order, scatter it over the surface and fold no more than a few strokes.
- Bread crumbsThe recipe does not specify, but soft fresh crumbs from a day-old loaf are the likelier reading; five tablespoons of dry commercial crumbs will give a dense, sandy pudding.
- SweeteningThere is no sugar in the list, so this is a plain pudding that will want something sweet alongside: a sauce, stewed fruit or jam. A hard sauce or a thin custard suits it.
- YieldFour eggs and a few spoons of crumbs make a small pudding: two to three servings, or four as part of a larger meal. Use a dish of about a pint and a half so it has room to rise.
Fireless cookery was a genuine enthusiasm of the years around 1900 to 1920, when insulated cookers were sold as a way to cut fuel bills and free the cook from tending a coal or wood range in a hot kitchen. Food was brought to a boil on the stove, then sealed into a well-packed box with preheated soapstone or iron "radiators" to finish on stored heat, which is why so many cookbooks of the period carry a separate fireless section with its own timings. The technique favored moist, forgiving dishes, and egg puddings like this one suited it well: they need steady gentle heat rather than a fierce oven, and they will set slowly without curdling. The recipe's name is a period convention more than a description. The decline of the insulated box is usually attributed to electric ranges and the later slow cooker, though the underlying principle of retained heat survives in the modern thermal cooker.