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Plain Rice Pudding (Wash and pick some Carolina)
841. Wash and pick some Carolina rice; throw among it some pimento finely pounded, but not much; tie the rice in a cloth, and leave plenty of room for it to swell. Boil it in a quantity of water for an hour or two. When done, eat it with butter and sugar, or milk. Put lemon-peel, if approved. Many people prefer it without spice, and eat it with salt and butter alone. An egg is an improvement. Another plain but good boiled Rice Pudding. -Two ounces of Carolina rice boiled in one pint of milk, a few bread crumbs and currants, two eggs, and a little nutmeg and brown sugar well mixed together. Boil it in a basin three quarters of an hour. Serve with wine sauce.
Two versions of the same idea: rice boiled to a solid mass, either tied loose in a floured cloth or set in a basin and steamed. The hinge is slack — rice triples in bulk, and a tightly tied cloth or a filled basin will burst or set into a raw core.
- Carolina riceA long-grain white rice, historically from the South Carolina lowcountry; any plain long-grain white rice stands in. Do not use parboiled or quick-cook rice, which will not bind into a sliceable pudding.
- PimentoIn British books of this date pimento means allspice, not sweet pepper or paprika. "Not much" is sound advice — a quarter teaspoon of freshly ground berries for a half-pound of rice is plenty.
- The pudding clothScald the cloth, wring it, and flour the inside so the rice does not stick. Tie it with the rice occupying no more than a third of the bag; the instruction to leave plenty of room is the whole technique. Keep the pot at a steady rolling boil and topped up, so the cloth never rests dry against the pan base.
- Boiling timeThe recipe allows 'an hour or two'; an hour is generally enough for rice tied in a cloth, and the longer end may reflect a larger quantity or a slower fire, though the book does not say. Overlong boiling tends to make the outside gluey.
- "An egg is an improvement"The recipe does not say at what point the egg goes in; it appears among the serving notes. Beaten into the rice before tying it will help bind the mass, which is the likely intention.
- Boiling in a basinThe second version is cooked in a basin in water; the text says boil, and period practice ranged from immersing the basin to standing it in shallower water. Butter the basin, fill it no more than three-quarters, cover with pleated parchment and foil (a cloth tied under the rim is the period covering), and keep the water topped up with boiling water for the full three-quarters of an hour.
- Wine sauceThe expected accompaniment is a sweet sauce of sherry or madeira with sugar and butter, thickened lightly or simply beaten warm. The recipe calls for it directly, though the pudding itself already carries brown sugar and currants.
- YieldThe basin version, at two ounces of rice to a pint of milk with two eggs, serves three or four. The cloth-boiled rice is closer to a plain accompaniment than a dessert and is scaled to whatever quantity you tie up.