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American Pudding
Two eggs, one ounce granulated sugar, one ounce ground almonds, one ounce remnants of cakes or bread crumbs, one tablespoon cream, one ounce candied cherries, one gill preserved strawberries and half ounce melted butter . Place the strawberries in a lightly buttered china souffl dish. Separate the yolks from the white of the two eggs, place the yolks in a basin and the whites in an egg bowl on the ice. Stir the sugar into the yolks and briskly beat up to a cream; add the almonds and cakes or bread crumbs very gradually, briskly beating meanwhile. Rapidly whisk up the white of the two eggs and then gradually add it to the other preparation, add the cream and butter, mixing well while doing so. Place the preparation into the souffl dish containing the strawberries. Nicely arrange the cherries on top. Place the dish in a moderate oven to bake for twenty minutes. Remove and send to the table.
A small baked pudding, closer to a light almond sponge over fruit than to anything set or steamed. The quantities are tiny by modern standards and the whole thing serves two.
- A gillHalf a cup in American measure, five fluid ounces in British. Which convention is intended here is not clear from the page; the strawberries are simply a layer on the bottom and the exact volume is not critical.
- Ounces are weight, not volumeOne ounce of granulated sugar is about 2 tablespoons, one ounce of ground almonds roughly 1/4 cup, one ounce of dry cake or bread crumbs about 1/3 to 1/2 cup loosely packed. Half an ounce of butter is one tablespoon.
- Moderate ovenConventionally taken as somewhere around 350F, though the book gives no temperature. Twenty minutes at that heat will set a shallow pudding in a small dish; a deeper dish will need longer, and the centre should be just firm to a light touch.
- "Gradually add" the whites means foldThis is the hinge. There is no flour and no chemical leavening — the only lift comes from the beaten whites, so they go in in thirds with a spatula, not a whisk. Beat them in and the pudding bakes flat and rubbery.
- Remnants of cakesStale plain sponge or pound cake, dried and crumbed. Dry breadcrumbs work but give a plainer result.
- The cherries on topCandied cherries sitting on the surface for twenty minutes will darken and toughen at the edges. Press them lightly into the batter, or add them for the last ten minutes.
- Preserved strawberriesMost likely strawberries in heavy syrup. Modern jam is sweeter and stiffer; if using it, thin it slightly and use less, or the base will be cloying and may catch against the dish.
- Yield and servingThe quantities suggest about two portions from a small dish. Like a souffle it will deflate as it cools; the original simply directs you to remove it and send it to the table. Serve straight from the dish with cream.
The label "American" here says more about the book's organising scheme than about the dish. International cookbooks of this general period often assembled national chapters by attaching a country's name to whatever ingredient seemed to stand for it, and strawberries, along with maple, corn and cranberry, were among those associated with America. The method itself is continental hotel practice: yolks beaten to a ribbon with sugar, ground almonds and cake crumbs standing in for flour, whipped whites folded in at the end. Almond-and-crumb puddings of this type appear in nineteenth-century French and Austrian repertoires. The dish is best understood as a small baked souffle pudding wearing a national name it did not earn.