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Queen's Orange Pudding
A mould buttered and papered, is filled three-quarters full of cake crumbs. Cut very fine strips of candied orange peel and put a layer of these over the cake; then add a rich custard, flavored with the juice of two sweet oranges. The mixture should not quite reach the top of the mould. Steam one hour, or bake.
A steamed or baked crumb-and-custard pudding of the kind Victorian and Edwardian kitchens used to finish stale sponge cake. The original assumes you know what "a rich custard" means and how to steam a mould, so those are the gaps worth filling.
- The hinge: gentle, even heatThis is a baked custard in disguise, and it will curdle into a weeping, grainy mess if it boils. Keep the steamer at a bare simmer, or if baking, set the mould in a water bath at 325F rather than putting it on a bare oven shelf.
- Mould, buttered and paperedA 1 to 1.5 quart pudding basin or charlotte mould. "Papered" means a disc of buttered parchment in the bottom (greaseproof or waxed paper in period), plus a pleated cover of paper or foil tied over the top to keep condensation out of the pudding.
- What "a rich custard" meansA workable reading is roughly 4 to 6 egg yolks (or 3 whole eggs plus 2 yolks) to a pint of milk or half milk, half cream, with 2 to 3 tablespoons sugar. The original gives no quantity, so this is an interpretation rather than a conversion.
- Orange juice and curdled custardAcid added to a milk custard can cause it to break. Stir the juice of the two oranges into the finished, slightly cooled custard just before pouring, rather than heating them together, and add a little grated zest for the aroma the juice loses on cooking.
- Cake crumbsDry plain sponge, pound cake or stale Madeira, torn or rubbed into coarse crumbs, not ground to dust. Fine crumbs pack and turn pasty. Around 4 to 5 ounces fills a quart mould three-quarters full.
- Candied orange peelSupermarket mixed peel is usually harsh and over-syruped; whole candied peel cut into fine julienne yourself is closer to what was meant. Two ounces is plenty for a mould this size.
- Timing and donenessOne hour steaming suits a 1 quart mould; baked in a water bath, allow 50 to 60 minutes at 325F. It is done when the centre is set but still trembles slightly. Cooked until firm all through, it will be rubbery.
- Turning out and yieldRest 10 minutes before unmoulding so the custard firms enough to hold. Serves six. A thin orange or wine sauce is the period companion.
Puddings built on cake or bread crumbs bound with custard were the standard Anglo-American answer to the problem of leftovers in a household that baked constantly and threw away little; cabinet pudding, queen of puddings and diplomat pudding all work on the same principle. The "Queen's" and "Queen of" names attached to a great many nineteenth-century dishes, and appear to function as a marker of richness rather than indicating any documented royal connection. What sets this version apart is the candied orange peel, an expensive imported sweetmeat that a home cook of the period would have bought by the ounce from a grocer and used sparingly, layering it where the slices would show. The instruction to butter and paper the mould, and the choice offered between steaming and baking, both belong to an era when a range might be reliable on the hob and unpredictable in the oven, and cooks could pick whichever their stove did better.