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Individual Lemon Puddings
Make the mixture for the lemon pudding of the preceding receipt. Instead of baking stir it over the fire in a bright saucepan till it becomes thick and pasty. Beat 4 or 6 more yolks quite light and stir them in; then beat all the whites left over to a stiff froth and mix them in likewise. Bake in cups or paper cases. If wished to ornament these small puddings make some meringue and drop a tablespoonful on top while baking, when done fawn color drop some spots of bright red currant jelly on top of that. Send straight from the oven to the table, as they soon fall.
Already there are two or three ways indicated of "topping off" with meringue--plain; with a crusting of sugar on top; and with spots of red jelly on the white; ways that are equally applicable to florentines, fruit compotes and other dishes. The next specimen gives another variation.
This is a soufflé in all but name: a cooked lemon custard base lightened with extra yolks and stiff whites, baked in cups and eaten before it collapses. The instructions assume you have the preceding lemon pudding recipe in front of you and that you already know how to run a pastry station.
- It depends on the previous recipeThe base is the lemon pudding mixture from the receipt immediately before this one in the book. The page gives no quantities of its own, so the two must be read together.
- A bright saucepanA well-scoured pan with a clean, light-coloured surface, so scorching could be seen and avoided. A heavy-bottomed stainless or enamelled pan does the same job; the point is even heat and constant stirring.
- Thick and pasty, not boiledThis is the hinge. The base is being cooked to the consistency of pastry cream over gentle heat; push it too hard and the yolks scramble and the finished puddings are grainy. Take it off as soon as it holds the trace of the spoon.
- "4 or 6 more yolks" is genuinely vagueThe number depends on the size of the original batch, which the book does not restate here. Judge by consistency: the enriched base should be thick but still pourable before the whites go in.
- Fold, do not stirThe text says mix the whites in, but they are the only leavening. Fold in a third to loosen, then the rest, keeping as much air as possible.
- Cups or paper casesRamekins or soufflé cups, buttered and sugared, or stiff paper cases of the kind still sold for canelés and panettone. Fill about three-quarters full and set them on a tray for handling.
- Oven heatThe book gives none, and gives no term such as "moderate" to translate. A moderate oven in the region of 350F suits a set custard-based soufflé; time will depend entirely on the size of the cup or case, so judge by rise and colour. "Fawn color" on the meringue means a light tan, not brown.
- Meringue on top while bakingThe tablespoon of meringue goes on partway through, once the pudding has risen and set enough to bear it, or it sinks into the batter. The currant jelly spots go on at the end, when the meringue has taken colour.
- They soon fallTaken literally. These have no starch scaffolding beyond whatever thickener is in the base, so plate and serve within a minute or two of leaving the oven.
- YieldNone given, and none can be worked out from this page, since the size of the base batch is carried over from the preceding receipt.
The American Pastry Cook reads as a trade manual of the kind written for hotel and restaurant pastry departments rather than for households, which is why the recipe assumes the previous page, names no quantities, and spends its last three sentences on garnish theory that applies across a whole repertoire. The dish is a pudding-soufflé: a cooked, thickened, egg-enriched base lightened with whites. That the author bothers to catalogue three meringue finishes and cross-reference them to florentines and fruit compotes suggests the book was meant to be used as a system rather than a collection of separate dishes.