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Orange and Macaroon Pudding
Soak one-third of a pound of almond macaroons in a pint of milk until soft. Beat four eggs without separating and add to them one-half cup sugar and the grated rind of one orange. Do not grate in any of the white pith, as it spoils the flavor. Stir this mixture carefully into the macaroons and add the juice of two oranges. Pour into a buttered mold and set on a stand or ring in a kettle of boiling water. Boil steadily for an hour. Serve hot with orange sauce.
A steamed bread-pudding of sorts, using almond macaroons in place of bread. The technique is straightforward; the two things that decide the outcome are the type of macaroon and keeping the water at a steady, moderate boil.
- What "almond macaroons" meansNot the coconut macaroon of later American baking, and not the French macaron. These were almond-paste biscuits made with sugar and egg white; the closest thing on sale today is amaretti. One-third of a pound is about 150 g.
- MeasuresA pint of milk is 2 cups; the book is American, so use US measures throughout. Half a cup of sugar plus the sweetness already in the macaroons makes a mildly sweet pudding, and the recipe finishes it with a sauce.
- The orange juice goes in lastThe recipe adds the juice after the egg-and-macaroon mixture, and it is worth following that order: citrus juice can cause milk to separate if it sits. Stir it in at the end and get the mold into the water promptly rather than letting the mixture stand.
- Zest onlyThe instruction about the pith is the right one. Use a microplane and take only the coloured layer; the white pith is bitter.
- Setting up the steamerA "stand or ring in a kettle of boiling water" is a trivet in a deep pot. Water should come halfway up the mold, the pot should be lidded, and the water should be kept at a bare rolling boil, topped up with boiling water as it evaporates. Butter the mold well and cover the top with buttered foil or a cloth so condensation does not fall into the custard.
- DonenessAn hour is what the recipe gives; judge it by feel, since the mold size is not specified. The pudding should be set at the edges with only a slight wobble at the centre, in the region of 170-175F internally. Overcooked it weeps and turns grainy.
- Yield and servingA pint of milk and four eggs will make enough for roughly four to six. Let it stand a few minutes before unmolding or it will slump. The orange sauce is not given here; a sauce of sugar, orange juice and rind, thickened or worked into butter, would suit.
Steamed and boiled puddings dominate this section of Butterick's book, and the reason usually given is the practical one: a kitchen with an unreliable oven could count on a pot on the range and a mold on a trivet where a baked custard might disappoint. Using macaroons as the starch is a genteel variation on the older bread-and-butter or cabinet pudding, and it may well reflect the convenience of bought bakery goods in a household of the period. Almond macaroons had been a commercial confectioner's item since well before 1900, which is why a household cookbook could assume the reader would buy rather than bake them. The orange, likewise, marks the period: Florida and California fruit reached northern markets more readily by the 1890s, though grated rind and fresh juice were probably still something of a treat rather than an everyday flavouring.