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Creamed Rice
Boil one teacupful of washed rice in one and one-half pints of milk until quite soft and thick; when it is about half-cooked put in some thinly-pared lemon peel chopped very small, a small quantity of grated nutmeg or a laurel leaf, and sugar to taste. When the rice is quite done, pick out the laurel leaf, pour the rice into a mould, and let it stand until the following day. Turn it out, serve with a jam round it, or a thick custard poured over it. Rice, French Style Wash well and blanch in boiling water for ten minutes one-fourth pound of rice. Boil it in a saucepan with one ounce of butter, adding three tablespoonfuls of sugar, one pint of milk, two bitter almond macaroons, one-half teaspoonful of orange-flower water, one-half ounce of orange-peel cut into shreds, about a dozen candied cherries cut into halves, and a dozen large, stoned, Muscatel raisins, also one-fourth ounce of thinly-sliced candied angelica. Pour into the mould, and when cold turn it out, and serve it with a sauce thickened with one gill of sherry, kirsch or rum.
Two molded rice puddings that set on starch alone, with no gelatin or eggs — which means the rice choice and the reduction matter more than anything else.
- Use short-grain riceThe pudding holds its shape only because the grains release enough starch to bind. Use a short- or medium-grain pudding rice (Arborio or Spanish bomba); long-grain or converted rice will give a much looser set and the mold is likely to slump.
- Teacupful and gillA gill is a quarter-pint, half a cup, so the sherry sauce takes 1/2 cup of spirit. "One teacupful" is less certain o to 3/4 cup, i.e. roughly 4 to 6 fl oz of dry rice to 1 1/2 pints (3 cups) of milk, and expect to add a little more milk if it tightens before the grains are soft.
- Laurel leafLaurel here means culinary bay (Laurus nobilis), one leaf, removed before molding. Do not substitute the ornamental cherry laurel or mountain laurel sold by nurseries, which are not food plants.
- Bitter almond macaroonsThese were ratafia biscuits, small hard almond cookies traditionally flavored with bitter almond. Modern amaretti or almond macaroons crushed fine give the same effect; use those rather than sourcing raw bitter almonds, which are restricted for sale in the US and should not be eaten uncooked.
- Angelica and orange-flower waterCandied angelica is the green stem of Angelica archangelica, still sold by baking suppliers and easily replaced by candied citron or a little chopped candied lemon peel. Orange-flower water is stocked by Middle Eastern grocers; half a teaspoon is already assertive, so measure it rather than pouring.
- The overnight restThe instruction to let the mold stand until the following day assumes a cold larder. A sweetened milk pudding left at room temperature overnight is a poor idea — cover it and refrigerate, and unmold within two or three days.
- UnmoldingRinse the mold and film it with a neutral oil before filling. To turn out, dip the base in hot water for fifteen seconds, run a thin knife around the rim, and invert onto a chilled plate.
- YieldNeither version says. The first is the larger of the two, using half again as much milk as the second; each will fill a mold of roughly a quart or a little under and serve four to six with the jam or custard around it.
Molded rice puddings were a fixture of the late-nineteenth-century restaurant repertoire, the plain English "creamed rice" sitting one shelf below the elaborate French versions built on the same principle — rice simmered in sweetened milk until it will stand on its own, then dressed with fruit, liqueur or custard. The second recipe here, with its candied cherries, Muscatel raisins, angelica, orange-flower water and spirit sauce, shares its principle with riz à l'impératrice, the grand molded rice entremets often traced to French kitchens of the Second Empire, though this version leaves out the whipped cream and gelatin that later became standard. Oscar Tschirky, maître d'hôtel of the Waldorf, compiled his 1896 book largely as a working reference drawn from hotel practice and existing sources, which explains why the two recipes run together on the page with a single line of separation: they were kitchen notes first and reading matter second. A New York hotel still called bay leaf "laurel" and specified bitter-almond ratafias.