No. 160

Rice for Croustades and Rice with Cream

Riz Pour Croustades et riz a la Creme

Pick well four pounds of Carolina rice, put it into a newly tinned saucepan without washing it, adding a half pound piece of fresh pork, moisten it to three times its height with some water; heat the liquid on a moderate fire, and at the first boil, remove it to a slower one; twenty minutes after when the liquid is nearly all absorbed, cover the rice with a heavy buttered paper, close the saucepan, and set it at the opening of a slack oven, finish cooking the rice, drying it thoroughly, then remove the saucepan from the oven, take out the piece of pork, and work the rice while still in the saucepan, using a spatula for the purpose, then pound it again in a mortar so as to reduce it to a smooth paste. Lay this rice on a dampened marble slab, or a thick baking sheet, knead it with the hands so that it becomes smooth, mold it round shaped, and set it in a saucepan, buttered over with a brush, or else a mold proportionate to the size needed for the croustade. Press the rice down well, cover the top with a round sheet of buttered paper, and set it in the ice box for seven or eight hours, but not allowing the saucepan or mold to touch the ice. Unmold the rice after dipping the saucepan in hot water, cutting it out with a knife.

Rice with Cream.—Blanch for a few moments half a pound of fine, picked and washed rice; drain and refresh, then put it back into the saucepan and moisten it with one quart of boiled milk in which a stick of vanilla has been infused. Let the liquid come again to a boil, cover the saucepan, and finish cooking the whole very slowly for forty minutes. When the rice is tender and has absorbed all the liquid, add to it a pinch of salt, three ounces of sugar, two ounces of fresh butter and a few spoonfuls of whipped cream. Sometimes a few egg-yolks are added to this rice, if so, they must be put in before any other of the ingredients, while the rice has all its heat, so that the eggs can cook while in the act of stirring them.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Two preparations sit under one number: a stiff rice paste used to build the bases and cases of a garnished platter, and a sweet vanilla rice that is simply a rice pudding finished with butter and whipped cream. Ranhofer's quantities are restaurant quantities; both scale down cleanly.

Scale firstFour pounds of raw rice yields enough paste for a banquet centerpiece. A quarter of the recipe — 1 lb rice, 2 oz pork, water to three times the depth of the rice — is enough for two or three croustade cases and behaves the same way.
"Newly tinned saucepan"Professional kitchens of the period worked in copper lined with tin, which wore through and had to be re-tinned; a freshly tinned pan meant no exposed copper to discolor the white rice. Any heavy stainless or enameled pan does the job now.
The rice itselfCarolina rice here means a long-grain white rice, but the paste depends on starch release, so do not rinse it — the instruction "without washing" is deliberate and is the hinge of the whole method. Rinsed rice will give a looser, less cohesive paste.
The piece of porkFresh (unsalted, uncured) pork; the recipe does not name the cut, though a fatty piece is implied, since the fat renders into the grains. It is lifted out before pounding. Unsmoked pork belly is the closest supermarket equivalent; salt pork will make the paste too salty.
"Slack oven"The coolest working oven, roughly 250-275F, and the pan sits at the door opening rather than inside. The object is drying, not further boiling — the rice should end up dry to the touch and slightly chalky before it is worked.
PoundingThe mortar was the period tool for this, after an initial working with a spatula; a stand mixer with the paddle, or short pulses in a food processor, will reduce hot cooked rice to the same smooth paste. Work it while it is still warm, since it stiffens quickly.
"Set it in the ice box"Refrigerate, seven or eight hours or overnight. The recipe does not say why the saucepan or mold must not touch the ice; presumably to avoid chilling one spot too hard. A modern refrigerator shelf raises no such problem. The paste must be fully cold and firm or it will not unmold or carve.
Croustade rice is structural, not a dishThese molded rice forms were carved and used as bases and cases for cold garnishes. Plan them as presentation rather than as a course.
Rice with creamHalf a pound of rice, blanched and refreshed, then half a pound to a quart of milk infused with a stick of vanilla, forty minutes covered and very slow, then salt, 3 oz sugar, 2 oz butter and whipped cream folded in. The recipe adds the sugar and salt only at the end. This serves six to eight.
The optional yolksThey are stirred into the rice at full heat and cook only from residual warmth, which may not carry them to a safe temperature. Use pasteurized yolks, or leave them out — the butter and whipped cream already give the richness.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry belongs to its long opening run of "Elementary Methods" — the components a brigade made in quantity before service rather than dishes in themselves. The entry is headed croustades, though molded rice paste had a place too alongside molded flour-and-lard paste, tallow and stearin in the repertoire of the socle, the carved pedestal on which cold galantines, aspics and fish were raised above the platter for the buffet table; the taller and whiter the base, the more impressive the piece. Rice was favored for its color and because it took a knife cleanly. The second half of the entry, rice cooked in vanilla milk and enriched with butter and whipped cream, is the standard French riz au lait that underlies dishes like riz à l'impératrice. The pairing tells you how the book is organized: by technique, for a cook who already knew what he was building.