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Cold Pudding
953. Take a pint of cream, the rind of one lemon, a blade or two of mace, and sugar to your taste, boil them together, take out the lemon peel and beat it in a mortar, put it through a sieve and then put the cream to it. Let it stand till nearly cold, then pour the cream gently over the yolks of eight or six eggs beaten up. Mix all well together, and put it into a mould with a lid upon it, then put it over a slow fire, and let it boil gently for half an hour. Turn it out of the mould while warm; let it stand till cold, and then pour some melted currant jelly over it.
A boiled egg custard set in a covered mould and glazed with currant jelly — closer to a crème renversée than to anything modern English cooks call pudding. Everything depends on keeping the heat low.
- Never let it boilDespite the wording, a yolk custard curdles well below boiling. Set the covered mould in a pan of water kept at a bare shiver, around 180F, and count the half hour from there; the centre should reach roughly 170-175F and wobble as a set.
- A pint of creamA pint here is most likely the English pint of 20 fl oz, about 2 1/2 US cups, though the text does not specify. Single or whipping cream both work; double cream gives a very rich set that unmoulds cleanly.
- EggsThe original allows "eight or six" yolks — the range is in the text, not an error of quantity. Six yolks to a pint gives a softer set, eight a firmer one that turns out more reliably.
- A blade of maceMace is the lacy covering of the nutmeg seed, sold in whole blades or ground. One or two blades infused in the cream, then strained out, is roughly 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground, though equivalences vary; add ground mace to the hot cream and strain through muslin.
- Pounding the peelThe lemon rind is boiled in the cream, lifted out, pounded in a mortar, sieved and returned. A food processor or a fine microplane on the raw zest achieves the same thing; the point is lemon oil dispersed through the cream rather than a few strips of infused peel.
- The mould and its lidA pudding basin with a tight lid, or foil and string, keeps condensation off the surface. Butter it well and stand it on a folded cloth or trivet so the base is not in direct contact with the pan.
- Turning outLoosen the edge while warm as instructed, but invert onto the serving dish and leave it to finish cooling there — a warm custard tipped out and moved again will crack.
- The glazeRedcurrant jelly warmed just to pouring consistency, then cooled slightly before it goes over the pudding. Poured hot it will run off and melt the surface.
- YieldA pint of cream and six to eight yolks fills a 1 1/2 pint mould and serves six.