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Cereals To Use Left-Over Cereals
Peaches, apples or pears Cold cooked cereal Chop the cold cooked cereal quite fine. Butter a deep pudding dish. Spread a layer of cereal on the bottom. Cover with sliced fruit. Sprinkle with sugar. Continue in this manner until dish is filled. Cover top with cracker crumbs, buttered. Bake until well browned. Serve with sweetened cream. ollim olttils i lodn liar edt die bas sribe batusblicanisierenade to b AИTЯAT • •
A thrift pudding built from yesterday's porridge, layered with fruit and baked. The original assumes a cook who knows her own oven, so the numbers below are the ones it leaves out.
- What "cold cooked cereal" meansLeftover oatmeal, farina, cream of wheat, cornmeal mush or hominy grits, cooked thick and chilled overnight so it sets firm. Chopping it fine, as directed, breaks up the slab so it packs into an even layer rather than a rubbery sheet.
- Oven and timeNo temperature is given. Bake at 350F for 40 to 50 minutes, until the fruit is tender through and the crumb top is well browned. Cereal layers are already cooked, so the baking is only there to soften the fruit and set the whole into a sliceable pudding.
- QuantitiesNone are specified. For a 2-quart dish, figure roughly 3 cups chopped cereal, 4 to 5 cups sliced fruit, and 1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar depending on the fruit. Serves six.
- The fruitPeel pears and peaches; apples may be left unpeeled if thinly sliced. Apples need the longest bake, peaches the shortest. Mixing firm and soft fruit in one dish gives uneven results, so pick one.
- Buttered cracker crumbsCoarse crumbs from a plain soda or water cracker, tossed with melted butter until each crumb is coated. Allow about 1 cup crumbs to 3 tablespoons butter. Dry crumbs will scorch before they brown properly.
- Sweetened creamCold heavy or light cream with sugar stirred in, poured over rather than whipped. A tablespoon of sugar per cup of cream is about right, and a little vanilla is no betrayal of the original.
- Texture warningCereal that was cooked thin will not layer; it will slump into paste under the fruit. If your leftovers are loose, spread them on a tray, chill hard, then cut into small dice.
Cookbooks of the early twentieth century gave a great deal of space to the disposal of leftovers, cereals above all. Boiled breakfast grains were often made in quantity and not always finished, and cookery writers of the period built out a whole small repertoire from the cold remainder: fried mush, cereal croquettes, cereal griddle cakes, and puddings like this one. The layered construction resembles the English fruit charlotte and the American brown betty, with cooked grain standing in for the bread or crumbs those dishes use, though the line of descent is not established. Sweetened cream poured over baked fruit puddings is often said to have been a common sauce in American households before whipped toppings and ice cream became everyday.