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Victoria Pudding
(England.) Boil 1 pint of fresh milk, add a spoonful of vanilla extract, 6 ounces of fine bread-crumbs, 3 tablespoonfuls of sugar, 1 tablespoonful of brandy, 1 ounce of raisins, and 3 beaten eggs. Butter a mould and ornament it with cherries and citron cut like leaves to imitate a wreath, pour in the pudding, steam it, and when done, turn out, serve cold.
A steamed bread-crumb custard, close kin to a cabinet pudding, decorated in the mould so the fruit appears as a wreath on the turned-out surface. The hinge is gentle heat: it is a baked-custard mixture, and hard boiling in the steamer will curdle it and weep liquid.
- Soak the crumbs firstPour the boiled milk over the 6 oz of crumbs and let it stand until cool enough not to scramble the eggs, then beat them in. Six ounces of fine dry crumbs is roughly a cup and a half; fresh crumbs from a soft loaf will weigh less per cup, so the same weight fills a good deal more measure and gives a lighter pudding.
- "A spoonful of vanilla extract"Genuinely ambiguous, and a full tablespoon of modern commercial extract would dominate the dish. Period vanilla essences varied wildly in strength; 1 to 2 teaspoons matches current practice.
- Citron and cherriesCandied citron peel, sliced thin and cut into leaf shapes, and candied or glace cherries rather than fresh. Press them onto the buttered mould and chill it for a few minutes so the design holds when the batter goes in.
- The mouldA 1.5-quart pudding basin or plain charlotte mould, buttered and filled no more than two-thirds, covered with buttered paper or foil and tied or clipped down so condensation cannot drip in.
- SteamingSet on a rack in a covered pan with simmering water reaching halfway up the mould. Allow about 1 to 1.5 hours, keeping the water at a bare simmer; the pudding is done when the centre is just set and a skewer comes out clean.
- Turning out coldThe recipe says to turn out when done and serve cold. A warm custard pudding of this kind can slump and break the wreath, so it is safer to let it cool in the mould before unmoulding; a brief dip of the mould in hot water helps it release.
- YieldServes six as written, with a pouring cream, thin custard or a fruit sauce.
The bones here are those of a cabinet or chancellor's pudding: stale bread reworked with milk, eggs, sugar and a spoonful of spirits, steamed in a covered basin over water rather than baked. The decoration is what distinguishes it -- candied citron and cherries laid into the buttered mould so that an economical crumb pudding emerges wearing a wreath. Dishes named for Victoria are common in nineteenth-century British and American cookbooks, though in this case nothing connects the name to the Queen beyond the compliment. The recipe is labelled '(England.)', placing it in a collection arranged country by country.