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Peach Tapioca Pudding
Soak one cupful of farina tapioca over night in three cupfuls of water; drain and add one cupful of syrup from canned peaches. Arrange the peaches in a dish, pour over the tapioca, sprinkle with one-half of a cupful of sugar and bake in a moderate oven until clear. Serve with cream or a sauce made from the peach syrup.
A simple baked tapioca that leans entirely on canned fruit and its syrup. The variables worth watching are the type of tapioca and the sweetness of the modern canned peach.
- "Farina tapioca"A fine granulated tapioca of the kind sold at the time, nearer to today's granulated or quick-cooking (Minute) tapioca than to large pearls, though the period product was not precooked as Minute tapioca is. Quick-cooking tapioca does not need an overnight soak; 15 to 30 minutes in cold water will do. If you use large pearl tapioca, keep the overnight soak.
- The draining stepDraining after the soak discards starch that has already dissolved, which may be what keeps the finished pudding loose rather than gluey; the recipe itself gives no reason. Drain in a sieve and do not press.
- Moderate ovenThe recipe gives no temperature; "moderate" is usually read as about 350F, with some period sources allowing up to 375F. Bake until the granules have lost their white centres and the whole dish looks translucent, probably 45 minutes to an hour in a shallow baking dish.
- SugarHalf a cup on top of a cup of syrup will read as very sweet with modern peaches in heavy syrup; start with two or three tablespoons and taste the liquid before it goes in the oven. Peaches canned in juice will take closer to the full amount.
- Liquid balanceOne cup of syrup alone will not hydrate a cup of dry tapioca. The soaked and drained granules carry their own water in, which is the point of the overnight step; if the surface looks dry partway through baking, add a few spoonfuls of the reserved soaking water or more peach syrup.
- PeachesRoughly two standard cans of halves or slices, well drained, will fill a medium dish of about nine inches; the recipe specifies neither quantity nor dish size. Lay them cut side down so they do not dry out on top.
- The sauceMost likely nothing more than the remaining peach syrup, reduced a little in a pan until it coats a spoon, then cooled; the recipe does not elaborate. A squeeze of lemon keeps it from being cloying.
- YieldServes six. Best warm or at room temperature; refrigerated tapioca stiffens noticeably and should be left out for half an hour before serving.
Tapioca, the starch extracted from cassava root, reached American kitchens as an imported colonial commodity and was sold in several grades, from large pearls down to the fine "farina" or granulated form called for here. It was prized in the late nineteenth century as a light, digestible thickener, recommended for invalids and children as well as for family desserts, and it stretched a small amount of fruit a long way. That this pudding starts with canned peaches and their syrup rather than fresh fruit is the era speaking: by the turn of the twentieth century commercially canned California peaches were widely available, and cookbooks of the period are full of dishes built on the contents of the can, including the syrup.