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Sponge
1 quart scalded milk 1/2 cup cornstarch 1 cup cold milk 1 tablespoon butter 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 pound dates 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 teaspoon lemon extract To the scalded milk add the cornstarch, mixed smooth with the cold milk, and stir until smooth. Add butter, salt and sugar; cover and let cook over boiling water for twenty minutes. Then add the dates, stoned and chopped, and the flavoring. Cook for ten minutes longer, stirring all the time; pour into a glass dish and when cool decorate with whole stoned dates.
A cornstarch blancmange in all but name, cooked in a double boiler and set by starch alone rather than eggs or gelatin. The technique is forgiving; the only real risk is scorching or lumps.
- Slurry first, alwaysThe half cup of cornstarch must be whisked completely smooth into the cup of cold milk before it meets the hot milk. Dumping dry starch into scalded milk gives lumps no amount of stirring will fix.
- "Scalded milk"Heat to about 180F, until it steams and a ring of small bubbles forms at the edge, not a rolling boil. A quart is 4 cups; total dairy here is 5 cups.
- Cook over boiling waterThe 20 minutes assumes a double boiler, which is why no stirring is specified for that stage. In a heavy saucepan over direct heat it will thicken in 5 to 8 minutes and needs constant attention to avoid catching on the bottom.
- Half a cup of starch is a lotThat ratio to 5 cups of milk gives a fairly firm pudding rather than a loose spoonable cream, though note the recipe serves it in the glass dish it sets in rather than turning it out. Reduce to 6 tablespoons if you want something softer.
- DatesA quarter pound, weighed with the stones as here, gives roughly 2/3 to 3/4 cup once pitted and chopped. Medjools are moister and sweeter than drier varieties; either works, but taste before adding more sugar.
- Lemon extractA full teaspoon of modern lemon extract alongside the vanilla is assertive. Half a teaspoon, or the grated zest of one lemon added with the dates, reads better to current palates.
- Cooling and skinPour into the serving dish while hot so it sets in place, and press a round of parchment or plastic directly onto the surface if you dislike the skin that forms. Chill at least 3 hours.
- YieldServes 6 to 8. Best eaten the day it is made; cornstarch puddings weep after a day or two in the refrigerator.
The title is a puzzle: 'sponge' in this period more usually meant a light dessert whipped up with gelatin and egg white, and its use for a plain starch-thickened pudding like this one looks loose rather than standard - the term was applied elastically across a family of moulded sweets. Cornstarch itself was a comparatively new convenience, milled commercially in the United States from the 1840s onward and promoted to housekeepers as a cheap, reliable stand-in for the arrowroot and eggs that older blancmanges demanded. Dates hint at the era as well: by the time loose-leaf books like this one were circulating, boxed dates - mostly imported, with California plantings still young - were a staple of the winter grocery, and cookbooks of the 1900s and 1910s put them into everything from bread to candy. A pudding of milk, starch, sugar and dates was the sort of dessert a cook could assemble from the pantry on a weekday, dress up with whole dates on top, and send to the table in the glass dish it set in.