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Monica Pudding
3 tablespoonfuls melted Crisco 3 eggs 2 cupfuls milk 1/4 cupful sugar ½ cupful flour 1/4 teaspoonful salt ½ teaspoonful vanilla extract
The book gives the formula but not the method, which was common when a page followed a run of similar batter puddings. The proportions identify it clearly: a sweetened baked batter pudding, close to a thin clafoutis or a Yorkshire pudding batter with sugar and vanilla.
- No method is printedBeat the eggs, whisk in the milk, sugar, salt and vanilla, then the flour, and last the melted shortening; pour into a greased dish and bake. The batter should be thin enough to pour, roughly the consistency of heavy cream.
- OvenThe recipe as printed gives no oven direction. A moderate oven, around 350F, for roughly 40 to 45 minutes in a shallow greased dish would suit a batter of these proportions; bake until set in the centre. It will sink as it cools, which is normal for an egg-and-milk batter.
- CriscoCrisco was and is hydrogenated vegetable shortening. Melted, it behaves here as a neutral fat, so melted butter or a mild oil substitutes directly at the same 3 tablespoons; butter will add a flavour the neutral shortening does not.
- "1½ cupful flour"Read as one and a half cups of plain flour, about 190 g. Measure by spooning and levelling rather than scooping, to avoid a tough pudding.
- Spoon measuresThe book is by Marion Harris Neil. Level measurement was the standard convention in American cookbooks of this period, so the tablespoons and teaspoons here are best read as level rather than heaped.
- Milk1913 milk was whole and unhomogenised. Whole milk is the right choice; skim gives a watery, weakly set pudding.
- Yield and servingNo yield is given; a batter of this size would make about six modest portions. Batter puddings of this type were usually sent to table warm with a sweet sauce, stewed fruit, or simply sugar and cream.
This comes from The Story of Crisco, the promotional cookbook Procter & Gamble commissioned from Marion Harris Neil after Crisco went on sale in 1911 as the first widely marketed hydrogenated vegetable shortening. Its purpose was to prove that a manufactured fat could stand in for butter and lard in every corner of the repertoire, which is why the book runs through hundreds of conventional dishes with the new product slotted in, puddings included. Monica Pudding itself is a plain baked batter pudding; the particular Monica, if there was one, is not identified in the book. The recipe's real interest is what it shows about the period's kitchen economy: eggs, milk and flour in quantity, and a quarter cup of sugar for six people.