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Cream of Rice, with Prunes
Cook one-quarter of a cupful of rice in a cupful and a half of milk. Make a boiled custard with three yolks of eggs, half cupful of sugar and half cupful of milk. Add onethird of a package of gelatine softened in cold water and strained over the rice. Let cool. Fold in a pint of whipped cream, twelve sifted prunes and lemon juice.
This is a moulded rice Bavarian cream: rice cooked in milk, bound with custard and gelatine, lightened with whipped cream and flavoured with prune purée. The hinge is temperature control — the custard must thicken without curdling, and the cream must go in when the base is cold but not yet set.
- Gelatine quantityA turn-of-the-century package of granulated gelatine held roughly an ounce, so one-third is on the order of a tablespoon — rather more than one modern 1/4-oz envelope. The original is genuinely imprecise; one envelope sets about 2 cups of liquid, and the milk, custard and cream here come to well over that, so a generous tablespoon is the safer reading.
- Softening and dissolvingSprinkle the gelatine over 2 tablespoons cold water and let it stand five minutes, then strain the hot custard over it and stir until no grains remain. Undissolved gelatine gives a rubbery streak at the bottom of the mould.
- "Sifted prunes"This means stewed, pitted prunes pressed through a sieve — a smooth purée, not chopped fruit. Twelve prunes yields something under a cup; modern pitted prunes are softer than the dried fruit of 1900 and may need only a brief soak in hot water.
- The custardCook the yolks, sugar and milk over simmering water, stirring, to 170–175F, until it coats a spoon. It will curdle above about 185F. Strain it in any case; the original's 'strained over the rice' may refer to the gelatine, the custard, or both.
- The riceA quarter cup of raw short-grain rice in 1 1/2 cups milk, covered and barely simmering, takes 25–30 minutes and should be soft to the point of collapse. Milk scorches, so use a heavy pan and low heat, or a double boiler.
- Folding order"Let cool" means cool to room temperature and just beginning to thicken at the edges. Fold in the cream, prune purée and lemon juice then; too warm and the cream deflates, too cold and it sets in lumps.
- Lemon juiceNo quantity is given. One to two teaspoons is enough to cut the sweetness of prunes and sugar without thinning the set.
- Moulding and yieldTurn into a rinsed mould of about 1 1/2 to 2 quarts, or individual cups, and chill at least four hours. Serves six to eight; a soft custard sauce or more sweetened cream suits it.
Dishes of this shape are generally traced to the French riz à l'impératrice — rice cooked in milk, folded into a gelatine-set custard cream and moulded — which nineteenth-century American cookbooks are often said to have absorbed and simplified. Its appearance in a general household book owes a good deal to commercial granulated gelatine, which by the 1890s came pre-packaged and eliminated the day-long business of boiling calves' feet for stock. Prunes, cheap, keepable and much promoted for their supposed healthfulness, were the standard workhorse fruit of the American winter pantry, and pressing them through a sieve was the ordinary way to get fruit flavour into a pale moulded cream when fresh fruit was out of the question.