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Neapolitan Pudding
Put three and a half ounces of crushed loaf sugar into a basin, mix it up with twelve ounces of sifted breadcrumbs, and beat in one wineglassful of rum, the rind of a lemon very finely chopped, and finally four well-beaten eggs. Put six tablespoonfuls of cream into a basin, add three more well-beaten eggs, and continue to whisk until they are well incorporated. Put a layer of ratafias mixed with a few breadcrumbs at the bottom of a well-buttered plain mould, then a layer of the mixture, then the slices of sponge cake thickly spread with any kind of jam desired, and continue in this way until the mould is quite full, finishing up with the mixture. Place the mould in a moderate oven, and bake for an hour. Turn the pudding out onto a dish, pour over two tablespoonfuls of red currant jelly warmed and mixed with a small quantity of white wine, and serve.
Orange Pudding (Baked.) Put one quart of milk over the fire in a saucepan. Beat very light the yolks of five eggs and the whites of two, together with four ounces of sugar. When the milk gets very hot but before it boils, pour it over the beaten eggs and stir well together, adding the grated yellow rind of an orange; then pour it into a buttered pudding-dish, put it in a pan of boiling water in the oven, and bake. Beat the whites of three eggs and two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar to a stiff broth, and when the pudding is done, remove from the oven, spread this froth over, and return it to the oven for two or three minutes to harden the froth.
Two separate puddings have run together in the setting of this page: a rum-and-breadcrumb charlotte baked in a mould, and a baked orange custard finished with meringue. Read them as two recipes and cook them separately.
- Loaf sugarSold as hard cones or blocks and crushed at home; ordinary granulated sugar is the direct replacement. Three and a half ounces is a scant half cup.
- WineglassfulIn American books of this period a wineglass is about 2 fluid ounces, or a quarter cup. Twelve ounces of breadcrumbs is roughly six cups of fresh crumbs, less if dried.
- RatafiasSmall crisp almond macaroons, about the size of a coin, once a standard trifle ingredient. Amaretti are the closest thing on a shop shelf; broken-up almond macaroons work as well.
- Moderate ovenReckoned at roughly 350F, though the term covers a range of about 325-375F in books of this date. The Neapolitan pudding wants an hour at that heat, covered loosely with foil if the top colours before the centre sets.
- The hinge on the orange puddingEgg custard sets between 175F and 180F and curdles not far above it. The pan of boiling water is not a formality — it is what keeps the dish below scalding heat. Pour the hot milk onto the eggs in a slow stream while whisking, or the yolks scramble before they reach the oven.
- An unstated bake timeThe original gives none. At 350F in a water bath, a quart-sized custard takes about 45 to 60 minutes and is done when the edges are set and the centre still trembles as a single mass.
- The meringue"A stiff broth" is a printer's slip for "a stiff froth." Two or three minutes at 350F will set it but barely colour it; a minute under a broiler gives the browning most cooks now expect.
- Turning outButter the mould heavily and line the base with a disc of parchment. Let the baked pudding stand ten minutes before inverting, or the crumb layers shear apart.
- YieldEach pudding serves six to eight. The currant jelly loosened with white wine is a pouring sauce, not a glaze — warm it only until it runs.
Oscar Tschirky's 1896 book was assembled from the working repertoire of a hotel that fed New York society at a moment when its kitchens still looked to English and French practice, and both of these puddings show it. The moulded breadcrumb pudding layered with ratafias, sponge and jam belongs to the family of charlottes and cabinet puddings that filled the sweet course of Victorian dinners, built to use up stale cake and biscuit in a form grand enough for the table; "Neapolitan" in nineteenth-century menus often signalled contrasting layers, as with Neapolitan ice cream, though that name is itself usually traced to Naples-trained confectioners. The orange pudding is the older and plainer thing -- a baked custard flavoured with zest, capped with a meringue of leftover whites. That a hotel of this kind printed both puddings on the same page says a good deal about how much English cookery still sat inside American fine dining in the 1890s.