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Compote of Rice with Peaches
Wash two-thirds cup rice, add one cup boiling water, and steam until rice has absorbed water; then add one and one-third cups hot milk, one teaspoon salt, and one-fourth cup sugar. Cook until rice is soft. Turn into a slightly buttered round shallow mould. When shaped, remove from mould to serving dish, and arrange on top sections of cooked peaches drained from their syrup and dipped in macaroon dust. Garnish between sections with candied cherries and angelica cut in leaf-shapes. Angelica may be softened by dipping in hot water. Color peach syrup with fruit red, and pour around mould.
A molded milk-rice pudding dressed as a composed dessert. Nothing here is difficult; the fussy parts are the garnishes, several of which have fallen out of general use.
- Rice and liquidTwo-thirds cup rice with one cup boiling water, then 1 1/3 cups hot milk, is a fairly tight ratio. Use a medium- or long-grain white rice and keep the heat very low once the milk goes in, stirring now and then; the finished mass should be thick enough to hold a shape but not dry. Expect something in the region of 35-45 minutes of cooking in all.
- "Steam until rice has absorbed water"This most likely means a covered pan over low heat, or a double boiler, rather than a steamer basket; gentle indirect heat prevents the scorching that ruins milk-and-rice mixtures.
- UnmoldingButter the mold lightly, as directed, and turn it out while the rice is still warm; fully chilled it tends to release in a lump, too hot and it slumps. The recipe specifies a round shallow mold, and something around 3 cups suits the quantity.
- Macaroon dustDried macaroons crushed to crumbs. The macaroons meant are the almond-and-egg-white kind, not coconut and not the French macaron. Amaretti or any crisp almond biscuit, dried in a low oven and rolled fine, gives the same effect.
- AngelicaCandied stems of Angelica archangelica, sold in bright green lengths and used for leaves and stalks in garnishing. It is now hard to find outside specialist confectioners; candied citron peel or thin strips of candied lime peel stand in, or leave it out. The dip in hot water is only to make it pliable enough to cut cleanly.
- "Fruit red"A commercial food coloring of the period. Any modern red food coloring does the same job, a drop at a time — the point is to deepen the pale syrup, not to dye it.
- Cooked peachesHome-canned or poached peach halves, cut in sections and drained well. Commercial canned peaches in light syrup work directly; if using fresh, poach in a light sugar syrup and reserve that syrup for the sauce.
- Yield and servingServes four to six. Serve cool but not refrigerator-cold, and assemble shortly before it goes to the table — the macaroon dust softens quickly against wet fruit.
The dish belongs to the large family of molded milk-rice desserts that runs from French riz à l'impératrice through English rice moulds, all built on the same principle: rice cooked slowly in sweetened milk until it will hold a turned shape. The garnishing is pure period vocabulary. Candied angelica and candied cherries were staples of the American garnish box in the decades around 1900, cut into leaves and buds to build a small flower on top of anything pale. Bottled "fruit red" reflects a moment when synthetic coal-tar dyes had reached the domestic kitchen.