Cheese Pudding (Melted with three eggs leaving)

The interest here is less in the batter than in the assembly: three graduated oval layers, stacked smallest on top, served under a hot wine sauce. A few of the quantities and vessels need translating.

• Half a pint of creamAn imperial half-pint is 10 fluid ounces, so about 1 1/4 US cups. A lighter cream may be nearer the Victorian article than modern heavy cream, though the strength of nineteenth-century cream varied a good deal.
• The withheld whiteLeaving out one white reduces the setting power of the egg and should give a softer, more custardy crumb. It may also help keep the pudding from puffing and cracking, which matters when the layers must sit level on one another.
• Oven heatNo oven heat is specified in this passage at all. Half an hour for a shallow, cream-rich baked pudding suggests a moderate oven, perhaps 325-350F; hotter and the egg curdles at the edges before the middle sets.
• The tinsThe largest is 8 1/4 by 5 1/4 inches and one inch deep; the recipe says each of the others is 'rather more than the eighth of an inch' smaller than the last, without specifying in which dimension. Ordinary oval pie or gratin tins in three sizes will do; the one-inch depth is the point, since the whole effect depends on thin layers.
• Turning outButter and line the tins, and let the puddings stand a few minutes before unmoulding. An inch-deep baked custard is fragile hot and firms up considerably as it cools toward warm.
• Hot wine sauceWine sauces of the period were generally sweet: sugar, butter and wine (sherry or madeira), lightly thickened, sometimes with an egg yolk and sometimes with flour or arrowroot. If a yolk is used, whisk it over hot water rather than boiling, or it will curdle.
• YieldNo yield is given, and the opening of the recipe is missing, so the full quantity is unknown; the three tiers together would make a modest dish for a small number, cut down through the layers so each portion shows all three.