No. 3500

Waddington Pudding

Pouding a la Waddington

Have half a pound of Smyrna raisins, a quarter of a pound of apricot paste and a quarter of a pound of orange peel; macerate these in two gills of kirsch. Have also some hazel-nut maccaroons (No. 3386) garnished with orange jelly (No. 3668) and some nougat ice cream (No. 3452). Coat a two and a half quart pudding mold with strawberry ice cream (No. 3451); on the bottom lay a bed of the nougat ice cream, over this the fruits macerated in maraschino and the marchpane, then more nougat cream and more fruits and marchpane, and nougat ice cream to finish. Close the mold, freeze and unmold two hours later. Prepare a whipped cream sauce, adding kirsch, maraschino and vanilla ice cream (No. 3458).

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For the Modern Kitchen

This is a composed frozen pudding in the grand style: a mold lined with one ice cream and packed in layers with another, plus liqueur-soaked fruit. Ranhofer assumes you have his other numbered recipes to hand, so the main work is assembling components rather than following a single method.

The hinge: chill everythingA lined mold succeeds or fails on temperature. The mold, the ice creams and the fruit mixture should all be as cold as they can be while still workable, and the lining should be spread quickly with a cold spoon or offset spatula and refrozen firm before any filling goes in. If the strawberry layer softens, it will blend into the nougat cream and the cut surface will be muddy.
Two gills of kirschA gill is half a cup, so this is a full cup of kirsch for a pound of fruit. That is a considerable quantity of spirit, and alcohol depresses the freezing point: drain the fruit well before layering it in, or the pudding will never set hard enough to unmold cleanly.
Kirsch or maraschinoThe fruits are macerated in kirsch at the start and described as "macerated in maraschino" a line later. Ranhofer's text is inconsistent here; either liqueur works. Similarly, marchpane (marzipan) appears in the layering but never in the ingredient list hly sliced or crumbled -- allow a few ounces, thinly sliced or crumbled.
Ingredients by their old namesMarchpane is marzipan. Smyrna raisins are the large pale sultana-type raisins exported from Izmir; ordinary golden raisins stand in. Apricot paste is a stiff dried-apricot fruit paste, closer to a firm fruit leather or pâte de fruit than to jam — cut it into small dice.
The mold and the freezing timeTwo and a half quarts is a large mold, and Ranhofer's "unmold two hours later" assumes a bombe mold buried in a cask of ice and rock salt, which pulls heat out far faster than a domestic freezer. In a home freezer at 0°F, allow six hours at minimum and overnight for a mold this size.
UnmoldingDip the sealed mold in warm water for a few seconds only, wipe it, then invert onto a chilled platter. Return the unmolded pudding to the freezer to firm up while you finish the sauce.
The sauceWhipped cream loosened with kirsch, maraschino and a little softened vanilla ice cream — folded together, not beaten, and served immediately, since the ice cream will slacken it as it melts.
YieldA two-and-a-half-quart pudding serves sixteen to twenty at the sort of dinner Ranhofer was writing for. Half the quantity in a smaller mold behaves the same way and is easier to freeze through.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its ices section shows how an American luxury restaurant built frozen desserts before mechanical refrigeration: molds packed in crushed ice and rock salt, lined by hand, and held until service. Puddings like this one are effectively bombes, distinguished by a lining of one ice cream around a differently flavored interior, and Ranhofer names them after people and places in the manner of the period — the book is full of dishes à la Rothschild, à la Metternich, à la Bordelaise. Waddington is generally taken to be a compliment to a diner or dignitary rather than a place, though Ranhofer records no explanation. What the recipe does document reliably is the cross-referenced kitchen: five other numbered recipes are required before this one can begin, which is how a brigade of specialized cooks actually worked.